Delaware Valley Orienteering Association

The Hickory Run experience is a massive effort put on by volunteers. There is no way we could do such a thing in the spring without pushing our rescourses into burn out teritory. 

That said, there are always members that will offer hints and suggestions at every meet. After your run, stand near the results and ask people how they would have run a particular leg. Tell them what you tried, and why you never saw the ..., or went up the wrong reentrant, etc. We have all done it, so do not feel embarassed or shy.

Thanks for the QOC suggestion, I did a couple of their events last winter.

I realize & appreciate the effort put into the Hickory Run weekend. I was hoping for a spring event on the scale of the beginner events that DVOA does each spring, but aimed as a reminder for members coming back from a couple of months off.

(I am getting better, but sometimes I have some trouble on Brown courses; I can usually do Orange pretty easily.)

As Julie said, QOC does a training weekend (seems to be in March 2024 on their calendar currently), which isn't too far away from the Delaware Valley area. 

There were several interesting and fun training events incorporated into several of the regular events by some members this past fall that were both a fun twist and incorporated learning and using your brain for orienteering differently than usual - hopefully some of those will return soon with upcoming events... But also there was talk about having after-event meetups at local restaurants (or during the week). Both of these things should be brought up at the upcoming winter meeting to encourage more training, which is always helpful! 

Speaking as the course setter for Fort Washington, one of our early events this year:

Another possibilitily might be taking some time before going out on the course to meet with the course setter, take a look at the map, and discuss techniques and approaches for various legs of the course.  This would be a way to get a reminder about key skills and then practice them right away.  I would be happy to do this at Fort Washington for anybody who is interested.  We might have to mark your result on the course as "non-competitive" so that it doesn't go into the rankings, but so long as that does not bother you it could be a useful training.

Also, because Fort Washington is a pretty compact park, it is a good place to go back out into the woods after your course to try a leg a second (or third) time to work on skills or explore a different route choice, though that requires a fair bit more energy!

Sam

Sam,

This would be great, especially because I have a conflict with the winter meeting.

Ed

(I am also planning to do a couple of QOC events this winter, like I did last year. I'm 70+ so I am not trying to be the fastest, just be consistent in completing Brown courses.)