Swanson Road

Swanson Road provides a mix of mid-Atlantic spur and reentrant terrain, combined with Patuxent River low lands and marshes. Unlike Patuxent River Park, there are many steep areas at Swanson Road. Calculated climbs for each course may be low, depending upon the route choice. Since this year's event will probably occur before the first frost, visibility should be expected to be lower than the map might indicate; and every shade of green on the map will likely be a bit greener ... and white, open forest areas are likely to have some understory. Rootstocks are not shown and none are used for controls. Environmental sample wells are four inch white plastic pipes scattered throughout the park and are shown on the map as blue Xs. Other man-made special features include trail markers, decorative farm equipment, and the occasional old vehicle or other debris, all shown with black Xs. Some dump sites are not mapped, especially along Swanson Road Spur.

This is the third time I’ve set the courses at Swanson Road and the third map I’ve used. This year’s map reflects updates based on the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (MNCPPC) 2018 LIDAR data. The extracted contours agree really well with those Diana Todd derived from the National Map that we used in 2017. The vegetation on this map was automatically generated from the LIDAR data, and except for the current crop reflecting a season’s growth, the LIDAR vegetation and what I’ve experienced on the ground matches pretty closely.

Rides aren’t so free. The terrain shows several rides which would seem at first to present high speed options – however, most have some amount of deadfall across them, or the surface may be obscured by ankle high vegetation. Dead falls are partially mapped, and should be an improvement over 2017, but remain inconsistent. Mapped dead fall areas can be trusted, but there are others I have missed.

I’ve copied in all the terrain features from the excellent work by prior mappers Dave Linthicum and Peggy Dickison, but there may be some omissions.

In particular, advanced runners should keep an eye open for steep areas. Yes, close contours are nature’s way of reminding us the other silent competitor – Gravity – is waiting for us to make a mistake. I’m confident I brought in all the earth banks / dirt cliffs that were mapped and added and confirmed several others. But while course setting, I found others, that are only revealed by close contours – especially in the northern area of the park along District Branch. Watch your step. Leg options which avoid the steeper areas should be feasible. I have used the top of one earth bank as a control, but none of its approaches should require antigravity boots or rappelling skills.

Except for the fence around the garden of the RC Clubhouse, all fences inside the park are ruined fences – often with barbed wire at ankle height. One small area of only ankle high barbed wire is near one of the advanced course legs that runs roughly parallel to District Branch and is marked by a small purple out of bounds symbol. This is one subtle hazard I found while field checking – there are probably others like it.

This is the first time I’ve included a Blue course at Swanson Road. In prior years it seemed the park wasn’t big enough to support a Blue course, but after finding an interesting control site north of District Branch and comparing climbs, it seems appropriate to offer a Blue option this time around.

The model aircraft airfield remains out of bounds, except around the edges, and is reflected on all appropriate maps.

Open fields in the northern part of the park are Rough Open and in this context, it means they may be hay fields, but they’ve not been cut this year. Expect chest-high growth in some areas.

For the Beginners, the Green Trail which is used for much of the course may have only been partially mowed, so some portions are likely to be as rough as the open field.

In general, except for runners looking to try leveling up from Yellow to Orange this is probably not a venue to run up a course difficulty level.

Start and Finish will be co-located for all courses.

Beginner Course Notes:
White (1:5,000): Intended to provide an interesting tour of the Park's north end.
Yellow (1:5,000): Most controls can be reached by staying on or near the designated paths, but for some legs, a willingness to go cross country may yield faster times. Attention to detail will also be important, though, since some White controls will probably be encountered along the way. For Yellow runners looking to move up, Orange may be a good opportunity to try leveling up.

Intermediate Course Notes:
Orange (1:5,000): Orange is limited to the northern end of the park with options to avoid the thicker vegetation, and has a mix of trail options, hand rails, and some solid catching features. I’ve included two groups of fairly short legs with tight direction changes to help keep map contact and direction focus. Most legs provide distinctive collecting features to ensure map contact is maintained or to serve as handrails. The larger scale should also help the Intermediate runners clearly see the control features.

Advanced Course Notes:
Brown (1:7,500) remains in the northern part of the park.
Green, Red, and Blue (1:10,000) take runners to the southern part of the park.
Brown, Green, and Red will cross South Fork twice with at least one bridge option.
Blue will cross both South Fork and District Branch.