The Sierra 3-Day at Little Truckee Summit
2011 Western States Championships
Date: Sep. 9 - 11, 2011
Location: Truckee & Sierraville, CA
Event Director: 
- 530.214.6168
Course Setters: Donatas Ereminas, Dwight Freund (GCO), Greg Walker
Type: A; Three-day OUSA A-meet on a new map: Friday Sprint, Saturday Middle, Sunday Long. This event will be the 2011 Western States Championships.
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Related Event Information
Course Setters' Notes
Friday Sprint Event
Courses Set By Donatas Ereminas
The Terrain
The terrain area is split between a residential condo complex and a forested area. The residential complex has a mix of roads, parking lots, and sidewalks, all for access to the condo buildings. Runnability between the buildings varies from open forest to thicker hedges, but is accurate to what is shown on the map.
The Map
The forested part of the map has been recently logged and brushed for fire control, and is generally very nice running. Some large rootstocks and fallen trunks remain; the larger of which are mapped as a brown T, with the cross of the T at the roots and the longer arm pointing up along the trunk. A larger area of fields contains some intermittent high grass, so leg coverings or tall socks might be recommended, though they are certainly not required to get through.
The map scale is 1:4000 with a 2.5 m contour interval. The revised map is now drawn to ISSOM standards (PDF/580KB) (http://orienteering.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/International-Specification-for-Sprint-Orienteering-Maps-2007.pdf). (Links to all the IOF mapping standards are here (http://orienteering.org/resources/mapping/).)
Hazards
There will be car traffic on the roads, and also downhill mountain bike traffic up towards the village. The cars are probably looking out for you better than the bikers, though in reality neither is a problem. There are no ticks, snakes, poison oak, or much of anything else to worry about. There are bears and mountain lions, but you'll never see them. And they'd rather eat mountain bikers.
Course Statistics
Course Length Climb Controls
White/Yellow 0.9 km 25 m 9 Orange/Brown 1.5 km 45 m 11 Green 2.1 km 55 m 16 Blue/Red 2.7 km 65 m 19
Start and Finish
The Start window is 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM. A-meet Start times have been preassigned (http://www.o-signup.com/wsc2011/reglist/index.php). You can change your start time only at the Start — if and when there is an opening.
The walk from Registration to the Start is about 1 km with about 80 m of climb. A map and some signage will guide you. Give yourself at least 15 minutes to get there.
Saturday Middle Event
Courses Set By Dwight Freund
The Terrain
This terrain is at around 6000 ft altitude, and in spite being in the mountains, is actually quite gentle, being part of an area of rolling hills and meadows near the large flat area of Sierra Valley. It is US Forest Service land, and has been heavily (and recently) forested, leaving large clearcut areas that you may feel free to imagine to be meadows, and mostly thinned forests that are the ultimate in runnability. The area I have selected for the Middle Distance courses has a maximum elevation differential of about 40 m. The Start and Finish are approximately 2 km down Cottonwood Road from Highway 89.
The Map
The map is of course brand new, but the terrain is yet newer (see above mention of foresting activity). It is quite technical in nature, with little in the way of contour features, but amply sprinkled with vegetation and rock features, and "rides" (about which more later). The map indicates both streams and intermittent water channels; at this time of year there is no water in any such feature, and some may be difficult to spot on the ground. Rock features are almost everywhere, ranging from a few large monumental pieces to many boulders ranging up to 2 or 3 meters. The mapper has been fairy consistent in marking as "small" those boulders about 1 m high, and as "large" those 2 m or taller. Smaller boulders are generally ignored. There are also a number of features indicated as small knolls. These are generally quite short in stature (less than a meter), and represent some sort of plowing activity that pushed a bunch of rocks, dirt, and timber together in a small clearing. Note well: this summary applies to the area of the Middle distance courses; I have not examined much of the rest of the map!
About those "rides". In England, I think a ride is supposed to be where foresters might patrol on their horses. Here, what are marked as rides are in fact temporary logging roads. A few of the newer ones are quite distinct. Others are probably tens of years old, and have been eroded and overgrown. These can require sharp eyes to detect and follow. Indeed there are other, older and more vanished, such rides that did not even qualify to get on the map. Besides these rides, there are a few well-maintained dirt roads, but essentially no trails in the normal sense.
The map scale is 1:10000 with a 5 m contour interval.
Important Notes
For all orienteers, and especially those on non-advanced courses: Recognizing and following a ride can be a bit tricky. Look for signs of crude plowing on the sides, and fairly straight lines of trees (and skyline) on either side. In particular, they are often obstructed by transverse mounds of dirt, which represent where the plow dug in a bit deep. Rather than treating such a barrier across the "road" as an end, it is a sure sign that you are indeed on a ride, and that it continues on the other side of the dirt mound. Rides are just as likely to go straight up a hillside as follow a contour.
All orienteers should note that, due to the short and zigzag nature of these courses, there are areas in which many controls from different courses are located. They are all the statutory distance apart (60 m for similar features, 30 m for dissimilar), but in some cases, just barely. Look before you punch!
Hazards
I didn't see much in the way of dangerous critters, and definitely no poison oak. All the courses cross Cottonwood Road (the dirt road into the area), which has occasional vehicle traffic.
Course Statistics
Course Length Climb Controls
White 1.5 km 40 m 11 Yellow 1.8 km 40 m 12 Orange 2.5 km 80 m 10 Brown 2.3 km 60 m 10 Green 3.0 km 85 m 12 Red 3.7 km 100 m 13 Blue 4.4 km 165 m 16
Start and Finish
The Start window is 10:00 AM to 12:00 noon. A-meet Start times have been preassigned (http://www.o-signup.com/wsc2011/reglist/index.php). You can change your start time only at the Start — if and when there is an opening.
The Start is about 2 km east of Highway 89 along Cottonwood Road, which is on your right. Registration/Packet Pickup will be about 1.8 km east along Cottonwood Road. There is a shuttle bus from the paved parking lot to the Registration/Start area leaving at 10-minute intervals.
The Finish is close to the Start.
Sunday Long Event
Courses Set By Greg Walker
The Terrain
The terrain for the Long courses is much the same as for the Middle courses, with more elevation difference. There are sections of old logging, new logging, and in-progress logging. Some of the clearings have a lot of low slash on the ground, mainly the smaller branches that didn't get burned. Running is okay through these areas, though somewhat slower than full speed.
There is low ground cover over most of the semi-open areas, but it is mostly big-leafed ferns that won't slow you down at all. There is nothing sharp or thorny in the woods, even the green areas are just denser pine forest.
The logging operations have left behind some partially buried, thick, steel cables, most of which are very rusty and blend in well with the dirt. Some have exposed pointy wire ends, which might be prudent to watch out for, and other cables are just there to trip you.
The Map
See the Course Setter's Notes for the Middle Distance event for comments about the map.
The map scale is 1:10000 with a 5 m contour interval.
Hazards
There are lots of deer in the woods, and the possibility of bear and mountain lions, and also the occasional ATV driver on the main dirt roads. But all of these are scared of people and shouldn't be a concern.
Course Statistics
Course Length Climb Controls
White 1.8 km 75 m 8 Yellow 2.1 km 125 m 10 Orange 5.2 km 215 m 12 Brown 4.9 km 170 m 11 Green 7.2 km 220 m 15 Red 9.3 km 305 m 19 Blue 12.4 km 465 m 22
Start and Finish
The Start window is 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM. A-meet Start times have been preassigned (http://www.o-signup.com/wsc2011/reglist/index.php). You can change your start time only at the Start — if and when there is an opening.
The Start is a 1.4 km walk from parking/registration (there is no shuttle bus on Sunday). The Finish is near parking/registration.