mapping further downstream

Another 47+ miles and 20+ hours of fieldwork

BOK has recently gained permission to hold orienteering events at West Point on the Eno Park! I had already finished mapping the adjoining section of Eno River State Park last February, so now there's an orienteering map that extends at least 13 miles along the river. An "Enothon" may be on its way. 

For anyone interested, there is a good 1-hour presentation by Jeff Teutsch of Navigation Sports hosted by Orienteering USA from last December entitled "Getting Started with Mapping." Along with this informative video, Jeff posted some great advice to Attackpoint that resonated with me:

The goal of making a map should be to create a map that is as intuitive to use as possible. How do you do that? By following some basic rules about prominence and prioritization. Basically - what is most prominent in the terrain (i.e. what someone will see first when looking around - regardless of orienteering experience) should be most prominent on the map.

The Enothon: will be a unique trail run/rogaine in Durham, NC along a 13-mile linear natural area including West Point on the Eno and Eno River State Parks. Estimated minimal distances for the event are 26.2 miles for the roundtrip Enothon and 13.1 miles for a one-way “Half Enothon” option. 

Possible race rules: Start/finish at West Point on the Eno Park. Finish for the half is at the Fews Ford Access of Eno River State Park with shuttle option for getting to the start at West Point on the Eno Park. The time limit for the Enothon is 8 hours. The time limit for the half is 4 hours. Runners choose their own route, but must stay on park and/or city property and obey all park/city rules at all times. There will be approximately 50 checkpoints/controls spread out on either side of the river on park property. All but one of these are optional. The one that must be visited by all runners is located furthest upstream in Eno River State Park and is worth one point: A1. 

Possible scoring: each runner starts with 480 points (those doing the half will have 240 points). Runners lose one point for each minute that elapses between start and finish until after 8 hours they have 0 points (or after 4 hours for those doing the half). Participants can opt to “earn back minutes/points” by visiting controls along their run. The letter/number identifying each control on the map signifies how many bonus minutes each control is worth. Each control’s value is based on distance from the trail and/or relative difficulty to visit. The runner with the most points at the end of the time limit wins.