in: fthfl stwrd rudy; fthfl stwrd rudy > 2006-03-20;
| # Posted 2006-03-21 00:10:34 | |
| ebuckley: | Laumeier has an excellent trail network and lots of features. What it doesn't have is runnable woods. We've got plenty of other maps if you want to set a "woodsy" course. Use Laumeier for what it's good at: sprint-style courses with route choice.
Who is the course for, anyway? I don't see Laumeier on our schedule this year. |
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| # Posted 2006-03-21 00:31:22 | |
| fthfl stwrd rudy: | me - so I guess its not really a 'course'. Just want to start practicing putting courses down on paper. need 'woodsy' training course there cuz its close. true, the woods are hardly runnable, but 'they builds character'. Your point is well taken, though. |
| # Posted 2006-03-21 07:33:16 | |
| rwagnon: | I figure Eric is pretty much talking about course design in his comments. Don't hesitate to use your local park as necessary for training! |
| # Posted 2006-03-21 19:46:16 | |
| fthfl stwrd rudy: | Eric and I were talking about 2 different things, it appears. However, some interesting points were made so its not a bad thing.
As I e-mailed Eric in response to his blog comments, I agree there is some element of luck in woods running, but also a great deal of skill. Perhaps one of the most basic skills of orienteering. Reading the terrain ahead of you and almost instantaneously having to make decisions for a fast route through the foliage, oh yeah baby, that's what its all about! If you make an unlucky choice, it is still skill which lets you make the best of it. Also, it is possible to design short legs that have a lot of green in them, but still allow interesting route choices, going a circuitous route to get to trail, open ground, or light green, though w/ our honeysuckle parks, I am wondering what light green really means around here. |
| # Posted 2006-03-22 01:43:28 | |
| ebuckley: | Light green always means woods that are runnable at 50-85% speed (60-85% in sprint mapping). The new (2001) Castlewood map has some pretty good examples on the flood plain. |
| # Posted 2006-03-22 08:03:51 | |
| Ricka: | Subjectively, I always classify 'light green' as 'crappy green'. You can get through it at good pace, but visibility is often restricted and something is always 'there': Knee-waist small stuff; too many saplings; paws-paws at Babler when not fully in bloom. Unless they are really sparse, I consider honey suckle as medium (Forest Park) or even dark green (Cliff Cave in places). I find orienteering in light green quite challenging but still fun and fair - with lessened visibility you have to plan ahead more and read subtler features.
My opinion is that many midwest maps (Kansas, Chicago, and Cincinnati) and sometimes the east have 'optimistic' light green. Vegetation is thick enough for medium green - but maps with lots of medium green are 'ugly' and a bit harder to read. In the first couple legs of a course, it helps to determine what light green means locally - it can affect later route choices. Of course, an intrinsic problem with mapping greens is that they are very seasonal - green woods are usually at least one shade darker in summer than winter. The white woods of Cuivre River, S-F, Meremac, Hown, etc are a real SLOC luxury! |
| # Posted 2006-03-22 19:39:14 | |
| fthfl stwrd rudy: | yeah, I was talking about, Queeny, Kirkwood, Laumeier, places where I have been recently where the honeysuckle has taken over since they were mapped. So maybe those are candidates for medium green re-mapping? Wonder why the honeysuckle hasnt entrenched itself in those white woods you listed? Lets hope it doesn't - or maybe there is a honeysuckle eradication answer there? |
| # Posted 2006-03-22 20:59:01 | |
| ebuckley: | Queeny and Laumeier were mapped by Fisher. He's got the highest green threshold for any mapper I know. Kirkwood is out of date, but usuable. Also note that most of Laumeier is medium green, not light. That means you can't even move at 50% speed. Dark green is for 20% or slower and it has to be mighty thick to slow you down that much. That would imply that it would take over 3-4 minutes to go just 100m.
Honeysuckle thrives in young woods. Once the upper canopy is firmly established, it's not a problem. If it gets entrenched prior to that, the only way to get rid of it is to get out the saw or a match. |
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