2019 Greater Boston Youth Orienteering Series

In addition to having regular NEOC orienteering courses, NEOC will host the 2nd event in the 2019 Greater Boston Youth Orienteering Series. The youth series will feature activity stations aimed at teaching map reading skills and navigation through unfamiliar terrain (activities aimed at ages 3-5, 6-9, 10-12, 13+). After the activity stations, participants have the option to try an orienteering course with family or friends. More experienced youth can complete the courses individually. No experience necessary. This youth outreach initiative is a joint project of NEOC, CSU, and Navigation Games.

Pre-registration is required for Groups (space dependent on coach availability). Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Youth Event Director: Pia Webb and Wendy Johnecheck, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Directions

Parking is in the lot next to the Dairy Farm (see below). DCR parking fees apply. Please follow signs 300 meters to registration and start/finish as the location is changed from last year. Restrooms are located at parking; none are available at registration.

Map notes

The Great Brook Farm orienteering map is in the first year of a multi-year field check and update. The original orienteering map dates from the mid-90s with numerous subsequent partial updates. It was an early example (in the US) of an orienteering map with contours derived from a digital elevation model. For this year's event, a bit more than a square kilometer received a complete re-field check (in June 2019) and update. The White & Yellow courses remain completely within the updated area, and all courses pass through it at the beginning and end of their courses. Additionally, the symbology on the entire map was refreshed to the latest international orienteering mapping standards (ISOM 2017-2). In many cases, symbols "grew" in size, resulting in boulders, cliffs, and stony ground symbols laying on top of each other. I manually adjusted these for areas traversed by this year's courses, but without field checking (ie the symbols are different; the map content is the same). We have these areas scheduled for update in their turn over the next few years. A sharp-eyed orienteer, comparing this and previous versions of the map, will certainly be able to find uncorrected "artifacts" from the symbol conversion, particularly in areas of the map not used for today's courses. Overall, I think you will find the whole map more legible and the updated area more representative of the park in 2019. My thanks to the meet director for her patience as the map itself morphed during the run-up to today's event. Continue to enjoy the map of this great state park over the next few years as we invest in its improvement!

Jon Campbell, NEOC Mapping Chair