Discussion: master maps

Hi Jon,

I never saw more than 2 of the 3 red master maps. I thought I looked at them both, but apparently there was a third? Is there a chance that 6 was the one mis-marked on one of the masters?

I'm glad I got numbers 4 and 7 to where they belonged before you got there... a shame that I messed up 6 in the process.

I tend to follow the good advice of never moving anybody else's controls, but after spending 20 minutes looking for 4, finding it a little over 100 meters from where it should have been (and not in the most logical place to look), and realizing that I was still ahead of everyone except Adam who had just caught up to me, I figured I could save everybody else's day by repositioning it. So, then when I hit 6 (again well ahead of Adam), I figured I'd search until I found it and put it right. In the process of hunting for 6, I found 7, actually quite close to where 6 was supposed to be. By the time I finally found the real 6, at least a couple people had punched 7, thinking it was 6, and gone on to hunt futilely for 7, some 400 meters to the west. So probably almost everybody but me (and you) was missing control 6, although the ones that got around me had punched 7 thinking it was 6 and then didn't find anything at all where 7 should have been.

Great map; it is a shame that controls were so poorly placed and that some were hung on unmapped features (two single trees that were essentially "bag in forest" although at least they were within 50 or so meters of where the circle was centered, in areas of decent visibility.)

A good general rule, no doubt, but this was certainly a special case. Perhaps it's just as well the master maps were so carelessly drawn and the control descriptions so inadequate - at least we were somewhat warned to expect problems. When I registered, there were two red masters with the controls marked with red permanent marker and also one with them marked in blue ink on which 4 was shown perhaps 100m west and somewhat south of where the other two maps showed it (sound familiar?). I didn't notice any other major discrepancies between that map and the other two but the meet directors removed the faulty map from sight to make sure no one else copied it as soon as I brought the problem with 4 to their attention so perhaps there were others I hadn't caught yet.

I have to say the controls hung on unmapped trees in the forest and, for that matter, the unmapped watery depression struck me as the least of sins under the circumstances. I only hope that the orange, white and yellow courses weren't affected to anywhere near the same extent red was. I didn't hear any finishers on those courses voice complaints so perhaps there wasn't any significant negative impact on beginner/intermediate level orienteers.

Here is a jpg of the map. Black circles show where I actually found controls 4,5,6 and 7. See comments in my log for more detailed remarks...