Delaware Valley Orienteering Association

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Quail Hill Scout Reservation – Sunday, March 12th, 2023 Hosted by Delaware Valley Orienteering Association Start times from 10am to 1pm

Register here at https://eventreg.orienteeringusa.org/eventregister/a40/register/start/dvoa-quail-hill---march-12-2

Registration Closes on Thursday, March 9th at 11:59 pm.

The Delaware Valley Orienteering Association will return to the Quail Hill Scout Reservation to host an orienteering event for Scouts, Scouters, and the General Public. Scout units can reserve campsites with the local council to stay over the entire weekend. 

Quail Hill Reservation is perfect for orienteering with a wide variety of terrain. The reservation offers intricate trail systems, wide open fields, rolling hills with valleys carved into their sides, and stream beds flowing down into marshes and a lake. There are plenty of features to make for interesting and challenging courses.

The DVOA volunteers will be offering training for novices on Sunday before participants run their courses. Registered Merit Badge counselors will be on hand at the event to assist in signing off on Orienteering Merit Badge requirements and First Class Land Navigation requirements.

Scouts that are interested in helping assist at the event (Requirement 9) can coordinate with the Event Director John Gillette, gillettejw@gmail.com , to schedule a time and activity.

We hope that you will join us on Sunday, March 12th for the most adventurous orienteering in New Jersey Scouting. We promise it will be a fun-packed day for all Scouts and Leaders, experts and novices alike.

Courses Information:

This instructional event has been canceled by the park due to weather. We'll reschedule at a later date. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Welcome to the new extensively revised Fort Washington map of the area north of Park Road along both north and south slopes of the ridge – all of it covering the best advanced orienteering terrain in the park. Only thing, you might not recognize large portions of that terrain. A high-wind storm (including some tornado damage) ripped through the woods in Fall of 2021, leaving lots of new rootstocks, some snapped off tree stumps, and plenty of resulting rough open with scattered trees. 

There are still easy ways to navigate through the damage, but careful map reading and route choice will definitely be rewarded. Revisions also incorporated LiDAR data, so we enthusiastically invite you to explore what may feel like a brand new map.

We will have two Joshua Rd crossings – integrated into White and Yellow courses, optional on all other courses if you find them convenient enough to use or wish the safety. Simply punch the first and wait till traffic is clear, then punch the second on the other side of the road. That elapsed time (no more than 2 minutes allowed) will be deleted on your results at Download.

We are seriously crossing our fingers that Spring greening will arrive only gradually, since the woods are in great condition for ideal runs, jogs, and walks.  Especially Green and Red may feel like they’re on an advanced Sprint Course in the woods – lots of short quick-decision legs with some nice longer legs in between. But all cross-terrain courses will have lots of open woods to enjoy.

So put Fort Washington on your calendar and enjoy this new map right in the heart of DVOA land. As always, we happily welcome anyone who can offer and hour or two early before your course, or an hour or two after your course.

See Course Stats below…..

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Public Event & 2023 Delaware Valley JROTC Championships

In addition to a regular event for the general public, we will have a special event with JRTOC units.  More information for JROTC units available here.

Starts any time from 10AM to 1PM.  Control pickup will begin at 3PM.

Full course notes available here.

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Download the event announcement and registration now.

>> Event Announcement

>> Event Details

>> Registration Form

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Courses Information:

Register here.  See who is registered here.

Hickory Run Score-O Double

Saturday, June 10:  3-hour score-O on the Shades of Death and Sand Spring Lake maps starting at 3pm

Sunday, June 11: 3-hour score-O on the Gould Run and Sand Spring Lake maps starting at 10am

On each day there will be 30 unique controls scattered across the two maps.  Visit as many as you can (or want) in the 3-hour time limit.  Each is worth 1 point.  Highest point total wins: ties are broken by shortest time.  For each minute or part of a minute over the time limit, 1 point will be deducted.  There will be a mass start each day (at 3pm on Saturday and 10am on Sunday).  There will be no pre-start planning period; maps will be distributed just before the start. 

Do just Saturday or just Sunday or go for a combined total for both days.  We’ll report the results for each day separately and for the 2-day total.

Note that the Sunday controls will be out in the woods during the Saturday event and similarly many of the Saturday controls will probably still be out in the woods during the Sunday event.  So be aware that, depending on your route choices, you may see controls that are not on your course and if you punch any of them, they will not count.  And in case you have an older SI card, note that it will only hold times for 30 punches, so you don’t want to just punch anything you see without checking codes.

Each participant will receive 3 maps each day: a 1:10,000 map of either Shades of Death (Saturday) or Gould Run (Sunday), a 1:10,000 map of Sand Spring Lake and a map showing the allowed crossings between the two maps.  Sand Spring Lake is on the north side of Rt. 534 while Shades of Death and Gould Run are on the south.  There is a section of Rt. 534 between the Gould Run and Sand Spring Lake maps that is very dangerous to walk along and it will be marked as out of bounds.  There is also a section between those two maps that is only covered by the original 1:15,000 Hickory Run map.  There are no controls on this section of the map, but the third map will show this area and you are allowed to cross through the part that is not marked out of bounds to get from one map to the other if you want.  (See the 2021 Shades of Death Rogaine on the DVOA’s RouteGadget site for a preview of the maps.) 

There are several areas marked out of bounds.  These include all the campground areas, the park maintenance area, the Youth Forestry Camp, the ranger’s house, and a section of Shades of Death that has been deemed environmentally sensitive.  Please stay out of all places marked as out-of-bounds; our ability to continue using these maps depends on it.

Pricing: $15 per participant per day for members of DVOA or other OUSA, COF or IOF affiliated clubs; $20 per participant per day for non-members.  If doing both days, there is a $5 discount; the total is $25 per participant for members and $35 per participant for non-members. You can go out as a team if you want, but pricing is per individual and each participant must be registered.

Registration: Registration will be done through EventReg and pre-registration is required.  You must register by midnight Tuesday, May 30 to guarantee getting maps.  UPDATE 6/1:  Registration is still open.  However, if you register between now and the event you will receive laser printed, overlapping maps of each section of the course as opposed to the offset printed maps.   Each participant should register separately even if you intend to do the course as a group.  There will be a place to let us know you are part of a team during the registration process, or you can just let us know when you finish.

Epunch:  There will be SI e-punching; the units will be in beacon mode.  If you do not have your own SI card, you may either borrow a non-SI Air e-punch for no charge or you may rent an SI Air e-punch for $5 (per day).  SI Air allows for contactless e-punching, so you just need to hold the SI Air e-punch in the vicinity of the control and not insert it into the control.  There are only a small number of SI Air e-punches for rent; first come, first served.

Water and Food:  There will be no water stops on the course.  Please carry water, especially if it is a hot day.  There are several streams scattered across the maps, but I would strongly recommend bringing and using a water treatment method if you suspect you will want to use these.  There will be water and some snacks at the finish.  The Hickory Run concession stands will be open on Sunday afternoon and possibly Saturday evening.

Course Setter Notes:  The maps are still very good, but they are getting old and although there have been updates over the years, some of the vegetation mapping is showing its age.  However, for the most part (except for rootstocks), the vegetation hasn’t changed too much.  There are a few places where the mountain laurel has grown in a bit and places where it has died off.  There are places where some thorny bushes have expanded and taken over.  And there is at least one place where several trees have come down making it tough to traverse.  I’ve tried to update the map in the few places where I noticed large changes that might impact route choices.

Both the Sand Spring Lake and Shades of Death maps have large sections of dense mountain laurel mapped as medium green.  Pushing through short sections (less than 5m say) is generally not a problem, especially where a corridor of light green exists on the map or where you can see white woods ahead, but trying to traverse longer sections will not be pleasant and is not recommended. 

There was very little snow in NE PA this winter and so many water features are dry or very low.  That said, the controls were selected so that using the various bridges over the larger streams makes sense (at least to me).

Sandy

Courses Information:

Register here.  See who is registered here.

See the information for Saturday, June 10 for more details.

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Courses Information:

We will have four courses available:

White:  Beginner on-trail. 
Yellow:  Beginner with some off-trail.
Sprint 1:  More of a short course than a true sprint - mostly off-trail through some of the most open woods of the park.
Sprint 2:  Mostly on trails with lots of route choices.

Full course notes available here.

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