Course Setter’s Notes

Burton Creek - Sunday, May 25 and Monday, May 26

Welcome to BAOC's Memorial Day Melt-a-thon...er, I mean Slush-Fest...no, it's the Tahoe 3 Day orienteering event.  While this year's late snows did add an unusual challenge to the course setting, they are mostly melted now.  The streams and marshes will certainly be full, and participants in the advanced courses on Sunday will likely come across some slushy remnants of the deep drifts that existed several weeks ago.  But don't blindly follow any tracks that you may see in that snow, as someone may have placed them there specifically to trick you!

The forest at Burton Creek is similar to what you have seen on Saturday at Spooner Lake--open and runnable, with many clearings.  The mapping is also similar to Spooner, with the smaller mapped clearings sometimes difficult to discern at competition speed.  You may be able to pick out such clearings more easily by looking up at the treetops.  The terrain that we are using is generally flatter than Spooner's, limiting the climb on the courses to only about 2%.

As at Spooner, areas of intricate rock detail are present.  Boulders smaller than 1m are generally not shown on the map as individual boulders.  They may be mapped as boulder fields or left off the map entirely. 

The brown "X" on the map denotes either a rootstock or a tall stump.  The only such feature that I have used as a control is a tall stump, and is noted in the control descriptions as a single tree, modified with the "ruined" symbol.  There are many more stumps and fallen trees in the terrain than are mapped.

The green "X" on the map denotes a distinct tree.  It is distinct from the other trees either because it is in or adjacent to a clearing, or because it is a large redwood tree that stands out from the pine forest.

Three points of note regarding Sunday's courses:

1.  The Brown, Red and Blue courses will visit a feature mapped as a black "X".  It appears to have been lent from the Harrah Museum in Reno to this park just for our event.  You may not enter it in an attempt to drive to your next control. 

2.  The Green and Blue courses will pass through an area that has been logged this spring.  While the forest may be thinned a bit there, this should not affect your navigation.

3.  The trail followed by the White course through its last three controls is somewhat indistinct, so streamers have been placed to make the trail easier to follow.

On Monday, the density of controls is very high, and you will surely see controls that belong to another course.  Check the control codes carefully!

On both days, you may come across markers that are part of the permanent orienteering course that exists in this park.  These markers are wooden signs that look similar to control bags.  In several cases, they are very close to controls for this event.  If you see a permanent course marker, don't let it confuse you!

The warmup area for Sunday is the unmapped forest directly south of the school.  All other areas are competition areas and are out of bounds.  On Monday only, the area southwest of the school is also OK to use for warmup.

I hope that you enjoy the courses and this beautiful park.