Mapper's Notes

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With the exception of the brand new Granite Planite map, all of the maps being used for this event are a few years old or older.  In most respects little has changed (contours, rock, open vegetation) and the maps have been holding up well. At least that is my impression, and I run on the maps regularly, but there are some exceptions.

All the maps have been gone over lightly and quickly this summer with some updating, with the updating generally falling into two categories: trail changes, and significant changes in the water features in the bigger drainages — nearly all of which are due to beavers either moving in or moving out of an area.  As a rough rule of thumb, most of the thicker, less crossable areas of the larger drainages have been mostly mapped only in a rougher sense, to give runners an idea of places to avoid and places offering better crossing possibilities, and not at all in any super fine, super precise way.  Plus, remember, it takes a crew of two beavers only a couple of days to *radically* change what was once a small stream, a little area of marsh, or a good sized grove of aspen.

The other significant change that has occurred, and which is *not* reflected at all on the maps is the fact that so many trees have been beetle killed.  There are many smaller areas of pine trees which were mapped as white forest — and which the maps still show as white forest — which by now have mostly or entirely fallen down, and look nothing at all like a forest anymore.  So, rough open areas of fallen and/or standing dead trees will probably show on the maps as white forest.  As far as I know, no controls are being set in areas of bad deadfall, and no courses require runners to get through any larger areas of fallen trees.  Most of these areas are small enough so that you can readily see how to get around or through them without much problem, but it does add to the difficulty of holding a line through the forest and therefore raises the navigational challenge.

— Mikell Platt


This Page Last Updated on Tuesday, 14 August 2018 19:30