Discussion: Misplaced controls

3 of them! They had a map marked up showing that you'd moved (I think it was) 4 in addition to 6 but I've no idea what the third one could have been. Thanks for your persistence. If, hard though it is to believe it could have been mishung that badly but I have much more faith in your navigation than in that of any of the other people involved, 6 was originally where you indicated, I never would have found it and Dan would probably have searched for a long time and got exceedingly frustrated. As it was, I think I found where you put it after five to ten minutes of searching the nearby reentrants and only had to move it a little bit to agree with the master map I and hopefully everyone behind me on the course had copied from.

It's really a pity they didn't make use of the interesting detailed areas of the map - it's the only ICO map I've seen thus far that would lend itself to making a really good middle distance course.

Yeah, sorry that I screwed up drawing my map form master. Number 7 was actually very close to where #6 was supposed to be. So people who got there ahead of me while I was still looking for 6 found a bag, did not check the code or chose to ignore it, punched it as 6, and then went on to look for 7 (eg Adam). While looking for 6, I actually found 7 before 6, made a note of the spot, then continued looking up the next reentrant system where I found 6. Moved 6 to where I thought it should go, then grabbed 7 and took it to where it belonged. Shortly after leaving 7, I found Adam who had by then given up on 7 and was heading for 8.
6, I can see how they put it in the parallel reentrant system. That sorta makes sense. But how they put 7 so far away from where it should have been, I simply can't imagine what was going thru the course setter's mind.

Ahhh... that actually makes a whole lot more sense if the additional circle on the map was where you originally found 7. Yes, closer to where 6 was supposed to be than to where 7 was supposed to be but the terrain was so unlike the circle for 6, i.e. just off a major trail, I couldn't imagine how anyone could put 6 there. I don't have the map with me but at least, as a doppelganger for 7, it was in something like the right relationship to a trail. A much more distinct trail than it should have been and I can only assume whoever hung it there approached from the west rather than coming in from the road just to the east and put the map in their pocket after hanging the bag in order to avoid realising what they had done but it's now slightly easier to understand.

The experience makes me wonder whether USOF ought to recruit a pool of volunteer remote course consultants for C meets. Not that it would address mishung controls (can't see a simple way to do that without at least one experienced local willing to vet) but it was also a crying shame how much of the map's potential went to waste. From limited past experience with the mapper, I was worried that the contour detail might be overmapped but what little I saw of it looked absolutely legitimate.

Here is a jpg of the map. Black circles show where I actually found controls 4,5,6 and 7. I did not move number 5 as visibility was good and the location / description ("single tree") was meaninglessly vague anyway. But it was definitely the wrong side of both the trail and the ditch from where my circle was centered. Never saw the rootstock, but there was a big pit just north of the control which could have been mapped. (We can at least be thankful that the course setter did not use "bottom of pit").

My guess on number 6 is that the setter took the trail going north-northwest from the road, did not estimate distance or pace, and turned left along the first stream instead of the second one. Pure speculation, but based on where I had number 6 drawn, it seemed like a logical parallel feature and poor distance judgement error.

As you see, I found 7 very very close to where 6 should have been, based on two of the red master maps. I wonder if the third was wrong or if I just screwed up my drawing that badly.

From looking at your map, now I see what happened to me for number 6. I wandered around east of where it should have been, then I bailed north and attacked it again from the corner of the out of bounds area. I'm not sure how I got from the ridge that 6 was supposed to be on to the ridge where 7 was, though. I remember crossing the 3 ditches, and I remember checking them off on my map, but I kept on going, and turned west toward where 7 was.

If #6 would have been in the right spot, I would have found it after I attacked the second time from the corner of the out of bounds area. I lost a few minutes from my own mistakes.

Just seeing this discussion now. Very sorry you guys had such a frustrating time at Robb Hill this year. And I totally agree with Jon's comment about the maps suitability to middle-distance.