101 Maps not to run on before you die

[High Peak]

If we're talking of Welsh forests, surely Penmachno (circa 1979) must be worth a mention? Or was it just the weather?

[Stodgetta]

Llyn Elsi beats that Stragglers map hands down!



I'm glad I was a young & hopeless junior when I orienteered in north Welsh forests, so my experience of Penmachno, Hafodgewnllian & llyn Elsi was all on paths!

In more recent times, Burnworthy in the South West was somewhere the whole of the Cardiff Uni minibus decided unanimously never to return.

[King Penguin]

I recall Salcey Forest (near Northampton) as being rather green.

[Miner]

Ranmore common is on my black list. There's nothing wrong with the map - you just need a machete to give yourself some route choice through the sapllings and holly.

I ran in North Wales when I first started orienteering so I didn't expect anything different. I remember running a light green on a six feet deep covering of brashings across the whole forest area (another forest near Betws y Coed). Orienteering has always retained that element of physical challenge for me!

In contrast, I also ran on Moel y Dyniewyd which is excellent and Newborough's rather nice too.

[Big Jon]

Salcey - that name rings a bell (an alarm bell) - I remember mapping it in a week when the visibility never improved beyond about 10m (thick mist) and the muddy tracks held muddy water over ankle deep. Brambles in every part and what wasn't brambles was thick plantation. Put me off Northamptonshire orienteering for life.

[Strider]

Salcey - that name rings a bell (an alarm bell) - I remember mapping it in a week when the visibility never improved beyond about 10m (thick mist) and the muddy tracks held muddy water over ankle deep. Brambles in every part and what wasn't brambles was thick plantation. Put me off Northamptonshire orienteering for life.

I would second that. Ran there last year the day after the British Nights and couldn't believe the contrast (nor the fact that SMOC would stick a regional in there ). Without a doubt, the worst forest I have orienteered in....

[JayBee]

This is pretty shocking! white the map = not as horrid to try get though as the rest.

event there in few weeks if anyone is interested?

http://www.ebor.routegadget.co.uk/cgi-b ... =44&kieli=

[Jon X]

Salcey - that name rings a bell (an alarm bell) - I remember mapping it in a week when the visibility never improved beyond about 10m (thick mist) and the muddy tracks held muddy water over ankle deep. Brambles in every part and what wasn't brambles was thick plantation. Put me off Northamptonshire orienteering for life.

I would second that. Ran there last year the day after the British Nights and couldn't believe the contrast (nor the fact that SMOC would stick a regional in there ). Without a doubt, the worst forest I have orienteered in....

Salcey Forest was the one that leapt to mind when I saw this thread!
I have orienteered in a LOT of places but a late 80s M21A course there of (proper course lengths in them days!) over 14k of bramble bashing was never to be forgotten....I particularly remember the look of horror from on-the-way-to-the-start Steve Birkinshaw when he saw the extent of the bramble bloodstains on my o-trousers as I headed back from the finish....

[jac]

Salcey - that name rings a bell (an alarm bell) - I remember mapping it in a week when the visibility never improved beyond about 10m (thick mist) and the muddy tracks held muddy water over ankle deep. Brambles in every part and what wasn't brambles was thick plantation. Put me off Northamptonshire orienteering for life.

I would second that. Ran there last year the day after the British Nights and couldn't believe the contrast (nor the fact that SMOC would stick a regional in there ). Without a doubt, the worst forest I have orienteered in....

Midland Championships at Salcey in 2007 was the nearest I have ever come to asking an event organiser for my money back. Since that experience I have a somewhat sceptical view of the event level quality control.

[Roger]

Salcey Forest was the one that leapt to mind when I saw this thread!
I have orienteered in a LOT of places but a late 80s M21A course there of (proper course lengths in them days!) over 14k of bramble bashing was never to be forgotten...

14 Jan 1990 M21A 14.2km 65m 25 controls. It was even pretty muddy under the bramble, and it was clear to me within 200m of starting that the course was several km too long.
Roger 101:38, 11/86 + 28 dnf
Average of first 3 (target 64 - 72 mins) was 91:50, so it could have been the British Champs. Although perhaps the elites were among the 28 wise men.

[EddieH]

Wentwood Forest (East)

When I first went it was an exceptionally good Welsh forest, then I went back just a few years later where we started in the west finding linear routes through youg plantations. I was looking forward to the other half only to find that the brambles had taken over tryfid style. I have never been so ripped apart. The following eweek my legs swelled up like an elderly lady's , I felt quite ill and could only walk in great pain.

A doctor took one look at my lacerated legs and told me I was suffering blood poisoning. I told him that i often got scratched. He asked "As badly as that? .... Each thorn can have a little contamination on it - multiply it by that many scratches and you have serious blood poisoning" .

It was nearly a week of antibiotics before i could walk comfortably again.

Mind you we went back to Wentwood (west) in the last Welsh 6 days and it was lovely.

[NeilC]

A very memorable event that one (Salcey).

Since then the forest has improved I think - certainly my last visit was nowhere near as bad as I expected from that earlier event.

The planner too may have mellowed with age, he's planned a nice Xmas score event at Tilgate Park on Dec 27th if you're in the area (Crawley).

[ifor]

[quote="EddieH"]Wentwood Forest (East)
It got renamed Carida Beaches, which fooled a few people. They did do a remarkable job at Croeso using it and it is better than it was. The next event we were warned about sections of enhanced brashings which I think means if your feet get withing a foot of the ground while crossing the area you are doing well...

[Red Adder]

Whilst the green screens are generally reasonably mapped I've always felt that the undergrowth screen is often poorly applied on our maps. Whilst the ability of visuality navigate may not be impared one or more of brambles, bracken, brashing or deep heather do have a serious negative impact on progress, especially with the increasing age of the average orienteer.
I do wonder if its because mappers are OK with putting on a green screen, especially if its passable in one direction but know if they cover a map with the fine green stripe screen then many runners will write off an area. I know I will take on a green screen if the alternate is a long way around but the hashes - even when widely spaced, is generally a no-no. A map with lots of stripes will generally only get one visit.

[Steve]

I feel the need to stick up for Salcey Forest a little bit. The infamous 1990 event went down in the folklore of SMOC, a club I was a member of in the 1990s. There are various urban legends about what went wrong, none of which I will repeat here. SMOC re-mapped Salcey before the next event, and I planned a colour coded event there myself in 1993 ish. I thought parts of it were quite nice, there was some runnable oak down in the south east, and many of the coniferous blocks were free of brambles and runnable in the direction of planting. Perhaps these have been felled / brashed since.

Bear in mind my first orienteering event was Bucknell Woods 1991 near Silverstone, and the 1992 Salcey Badge Event would have been an early event for me too. Bad brambles are normal aren't they? I got a real buzz out of planning there early in my orienteering career and Salcey is one of the reasons I fell in love with orienteering, believe it or not.

Somehow I have never been back to Salcey since the mid 1990s. I can quite understand why people don't like it, but if you go with the expectation that at least some of the course will involve rough terrain then you may be pleasantly surprised. Northants is a bit of an orienteering wasteland and Salcey does at least serve the needs of the local orienteers.

In defence of Northants orienteering there are at least two excellent areas there - the small but perfectly formed Twywell Hills and Dales (SMOC), and Irchester Country Park (WAOC) which is a little larger.