AOC 2023 Course Planner’s Notes
- The SI units are set to regular mode – you have to physically insert your SI card in the SI unit. SIAC is NOT enabled.
- Take special care to check your control codes. The middle event especially has a lot of controls in a relatively small area.
- Some SI units will have tape, with a hand-written number on them. The number written on the tape is the correct number.
- Some SI units with flag will be tied to vegetation, some will be on stands.
- There will be water out in the terrain only on the Long event courses. It is highly advised that you carry your own water, especially if the forecast is for warm temperatures.
- The last major update of the map was five years ago. We found changes such as vegetation being sometimes greener than indicated, or patches of green having grown together. We updated these changes when near a control.
- All the deadfall was definitely not checked when planning this event, which especially affects the Long event courses. What was checked, was still fairly accurate, but we do not recommend using mapped deadfall as a handrail.
- There are unmapped animal tracks and minor trails. However, other users of the area have used pink flagging to mark some new trails, and have gone through with a dirt bike, so the trail is also visible in the terrain. Where these trails were near a control, they were mapped as a “less-distinct small path”.
- For those unfamiliar with the Dalmuir map, major trails are often loose sand.
- In early September, the water table was quite high, and once I found myself shin-deep in cold marsh-water while traversing across what was mapped as white forest (albeit a depression). The water table may, or may not drop by the time of the event.
- Wildlife seen while hanging ribbons: a mama moose with baby!
Middle Event Course 1
- In some locations there are trail junctions only a few meters apart, and so a control was not placed at every junction. Therefore, in order to help those on this course, at trail junctions with no flag, a sign with a face with a frown will be placed a few metres down the wrong trail, and a sign with a face with a smile will be posted a few metres down the correct trail.