Upper Marlboro

Swanson Rd is such a great area this time of year. There is so much variety of terrain; this area has some of almost everything (and doesn't really have too much of anything.) There is some green but not a lot, and very little thorny. There are big fields and clearings of very different runnability - watch for mowed bush-stumps in some areas. There are areas of strong contouring and areas of subtle contouring and flat areas. Tree foliage is pretty full; where trees are tall and foliage is high visibility is great and the woods will be pretty fast for the most part. Some areas the foliage is lower and visibility is reduced, but white areas will still be very runnable.

The Prince George's Radio Control Club has an airstrip in the southern portion of the map. The airfield is awesome and may or may not have planes flying (that typically can be heard from all over the area.) Most courses will get a run-by of this cool facility, however:

The Airfield is strictly out-of-bounds; do not cross the airfield; it is not an advantage to any course AND it's out-of-bounds (Green: I've run it both ways and it is not an advantage but don't do it because it's out-of-bounds).

Expecting a couple likely showers later this week, there may be some wet &or muddy spots. Is it too obvious to say that mapped seasonal water probably will have water and marshes will be marshy? Still, there's typically a feet-dry route option. There is a lot of deadfall in some of the green-marked lowlands and of course waterways are usually in fairly steep gullies, but vegetation is generally well mapped and any fight is avoidable. There's almost always a variety of route choices, the easiest path is typically not the fastest (but sometimes neither is the hardest or straightest.)

The course stats reflect the variety of terrain. While there will be some steepness to your route, it's usually over quickly and these courses don't accumulate a lot of total climb unless you choose to (especially good for those recouping Billygoat-ers.) If you like distance more than climb it may be a good week to run up, but don't underestimate the steep spots in routes you might select.

Feedback is always welcome and sought after.

Update as of Saturday May 14:

Advanced maps are 1:10,000
Orange and Yellow are 1:7500
and White is 1:5000

In the north, the cultivated fields have crops coming in and are out-of-bounds. For Blue, Red, and Green courses, there is a Mandatory Crossing Point mapped and flagged on the ground and there is a control at the crossing point to eliminate any advantage to crossing the cultivated field.

In the south there is what appears to be some kind of bootleg motorcross track with yellow caution streamers between trees (I think marking turns, and path hard to see.) Trees have been cut for this and it is quite sad & illegal…but it is also unmapped. Yellow caution tape should not interfere with routes and can be ignored.

Blue X prominent features used for control locations (and marked as well/water prominent feature on clue sheets) are 4 inch white plastic pipe sample wells about 1.5m tall.

The Black X prominent feature used as a control location is what I first thought looked like a refrigerator in the woods but is an abandoned outhouse.