2019 Ultimate Orienteer #2 – Frenchman Spring (Middle) and Pig War!
Start times available!
Download start times for both days.
Snow Update!
The snow is melting pretty well at Frenchman Spring, so we’ll be using the original-length courses on both Saturday and Sunday. The forecast this week is for warmer temps, so hopefully that will melt most of the snow.
Pre-assigned start times
We will be using pre-assigned start times for the Advanced courses only. We’ll post start times on this page by Friday morning (possibly Thursday night after registration closes at 9pm), so please check here. We’ll have some vacant start times, so if you miss your assigned start, or have registered on the day, once you’ve checked in at registration, head to the start and a volunteer will let you know when you can start. If you have any special requests, please contact Peteris Ledins by Wednesday, March 20.
Run in the Coulee – two days of great orienteering in eastern Washington
We’re heading east for the 2019 Ultimate Orienteer Series with a collaboration between Forest Runs and Cascade for a 2-day event in eastern Washington.
We’ll be using a new map of Frenchman Spring (across the highway from Frenchman Coulee) near Vantage, WA for Middle (Saturday) and Long (Sunday) events.
Pig War
Pig War Traveling Trophy – US version (created by Sherri Brady)
Pig War Traveling Trophy – Canadian version
Day 1 includes the Pig War Challenge, a low-key competition between the USA and our friends to the north in Canada. The top three finishers in each category earn points for either the USA or Canada. Which country you represent is based on where you live (and even this is flexible) rather than your citizenship, so everyone is eligible! Last year, in a close competition in Vancouver, Canada reclaimed the title. Come out this year and help us get it back!
Weather
Temperatures are expected to be above freezing during the day and below freezing at night, with little to no snow. There’s a WSDOT traffic camera near Vantage that you can check for snow cover.
Camping/Lodging
See Visit Vantage for information about camping and lodging near Vantage (approximately 11 miles southwest). Vantage is very small and has few facilities. Ellensburg, approximately 40 miles west, has numerous lodging and restaurant options.
Many people stay in Quincy (approximately 19 miles north), which is farther away but has more services, including several motels, gas stations, grocery stores, and restaurants. Visit Tour Grant County (scroll down to Quincy) for details.
Saturday Dinner Gathering
We’ve reserved the back room at Tijuana Mexican Restaurant in Quincy (709 1st Ave SE) starting at 6:00pm. It will include the highly-anticipated awarding of the Pig War Trophies, so come join us!
Other Things to Do
The map terrain and surrounding areas are unique and beautiful. Below are some other things to explore nearby.
- Wanapum Dam
- Crab Creek map area (25 miles south)
- Gingko Petrified Forest (interpretive center open by appointment only through March)
- Quincy Ancient Lakes – this area north of Frenchman Spring/Coulee has primitive camping areas and hiking with great views, as well as 2 orienteering maps
- Wineries – while there are several in the area, most are closed at this time of year; an exception is Cave B Winery and Resort
- The Gorge Amphitheatre (not much happening in March)
- Wild Horse Monument (a quick stop off eastbound I-90)
Questions
Please check our Newcomers page for general information. If you still have questions, please contact the event director.
COURSES
Course designer(s): Ott Toomett
- Beginner – 1.8 km, 5 controls, 10 meters climb
- Intermediate – 2.4 km, 9 controls, 40 meters climb
- Short Advanced (Ultimate Masters; Ultimate Junior Women; Women 21-49; Men <50; Groups) – 3.8 km, 15 controls, 80 meters climb
- Medium Advanced (Ultimate Junior Men; Ultimate Open Women; Men 21+; Groups) – 4.9 km, 13 controls, 80 meters climb
- Long Advanced (Ultimate Open Men, Groups) – 6.1 km, 17 controls, 90 meters climb
All courses are printed on a 1:10,000-scale map. No water is provided on any courses.
Starts
There will be two start areas, one for the Beginner course and one for all other courses. Both starts are a short walk from the registration area.
Start details
- Every pre-registered runner doing an Advanced course has a pre-assigned start time.
- The Starts are a short walk (5-10 minutes) from the registration area. Make sure you allow plenty of time to arrive 5 minutes before your start time.
- Make sure you go to the correct start area. The Beginner course starts in a different place than the other courses.
- Although most Advanced course start times are pre-assigned (day-of registrants, see below), you will still punch a start box.
- There are a lot of controls out there; check your code before punching.
Start procedure
- After you arrive at the Start, check in with the start volunteer.
- If you’re on an Advanced course, the volunteer will check off your name and let you know when to start.
- If you’re on the Beginner/Intermediate course, the volunteer will record your name and let you know when to start.
- The start volunteer will check to see that you have a whistle (if you don’t, pick one up from the whistle box; you won’t be allowed to start without one).
- When the start volunteer tells you to, pick up your map and punch the start box.After you punch the start, proceed to the start triangle marked on your map. This will be marked with a flag but has NO PUNCH. Everyone is required to pass through here before starting their course. You’ll see some flagging from the Start control but this is only for the Beginner course.
- Beginners only: follow the flagging to your first 2 checkpoints. After that, choose your own route.
Advanced courses: missed start time and day-of registrants
If you miss your assigned start time or are a day-of registrant, after checking in at registration, proceed to the start and notify the start volunteer. They will assign you to an open start time.
Age classes
Juniors – 20 and under
Masters – 50+
Open – any age
Ultimate points
While you can run any course you wish, you will receive Ultimate points in a class only if you qualify by age and sex on that course. Please see the chart below for categories in which you can receive Ultimate points.
| Short Advanced | Medium Advanced | Long Advanced | |
| Women 20 and under | Jr. Women | Open Women | Open Men |
| Men 20 and under | no points* | Jr. Men | Open Men |
| Women 50+ | Masters Women | Open Women | Open Men |
| Men 50+ | Masters Men | no points* | Open Men |
| Women 21-49 | no points* | Open Women | Open Men |
| Men 21-49 | no points* | no points* | Open Men |
* You may run this course but will not receive Ultimate points
Pig War Points
We are much more generous with Pig War points. We’ll award pig points in all categories, including non-Ultimate categories.
How are courses measured?
Courses are measured as the crow flies, in a direct line from control to control. Unless you have wings, you will travel farther than this distance! Courses are measured in kilometers, so a good rule of thumb is to simply round up to miles to estimate how far you will go. So in a 5 kilometer race, you’ll likely travel up to 5 miles.
COURSE NOTES
The landscape in Frenchman Spring is shaped by Columbia basalts and Missoula floods. It is in many ways similar to Frenchman Coulee, featuring basalt cliffs, boulders, and large hills, covered with arid desert-like vegetation. The area has no forest, and sagebrush is not a hindrance for running in most places.
Out of Bounds areas
There are several archaeological Native American sites scattered across the Frenchman Spring area. In most cases they look like small circular walls of stone creating a wind-protected pit. There are no controls near them, but some route choices may go past. We’ll have some taped off and/or marked out of bounds on the map. DO NOT ENTER ANY AREAS MARKED OUT OF BOUNDS. Our continued access to the venue depends on this.
Safety
Whistles
You are required to carry a whistle while on the course. You will not be allowed to start unless you have a whistle (yes, we’ll be checking). We’ll have some whistles available at the start if you forget yours.
Do not use your whistle except in an emergency. If you hear a whistle while you’re on your course, you are required to stop and offer assistance.
Footing
There are a lot of loose rocks. Be careful on steep hills. Don’t follow someone else up or down a steep hill: there could be risk from falling rocks.
Safety bearing
If you become disoriented, head south and you will eventually reach Vantage Road.
Water
No water will be provided on any courses.
Course closure
You must report to the download area by 3:00pm.
Recommendations
The area includes only one distinct vehicle road (and a few more indistinct/overgrown ones), and almost no man-made features. On all courses (except the beginner), you have to rely on compass and contours. The Intermediate course is set in a way that most controls are visible from a distance, but initially one has to move using compass bearing and/or large terrain features. Refresh your compass and map reading skills! In particular, you should be familiar with cliffs and contours, and be able to recognize reentrants. Wide views make Frenchman Spring a very suitable venue to practice moving on compass bearing.
We do suggest studded shoes, long pants, and shinguards.
SCHEDULE
10:30am-12:30pm – Registration
10:30-11:30 – Newcomer instruction
11:00am-1:00pm – Starts**
3:00pm – Courses close*
**Pre-assigned start times
We will be using pre-assigned start times for this event. We’ll post start times on this page by Friday morning (possibly Thursday night after registration closes at 9pm), so please check here. We’ll have some vacant start times, so if you miss your assigned start, once you’ve checked in at registration, head to the start and a volunteer will let you know when you can start.
*Wear a watch to ensure that you return to the finish by course closure time, even if you have to abandon your course to do so. Those returning after course closure will be disqualified and will make the volunteer staff very grumpy.
PRICES
Note: To cover additional permitting costs associated with this event, fees are slightly higher (+ $5) than our Seattle-area events.
PRE-REGISTERED
| Non club member | Club member | |
| Using COC epunch | $22 | $17 |
| Using your epunch | $17 | $12 |
DAY-OF REGISTRATION
| Non club member | Club member | |
| Using COC epunch | $25 | $20 |
| Using your epunch | $20 | $15 |
What’s an e-punch?
An e-punch records your race. At each control, you’ll dip the e-punch into an electronic box, which will beep and flash as confirmation. After you finish, you’ll download the e-punch at the download tent and get a receipt that show which controls you visited and how long you took between each; these are your “splits.”
Part of the fun of orienteering is comparing your splits with people who completed the same course, and discussing the routes you took!
SIGN UP
Online pre-registration closes Thursday, March 21 at 9:00 pm
Day-of-event registration is available by cash or check, made payable to Cascade Orienteering Club
LOCATION
Carpool Meeting Place
Parking will be on the northwest shoulder of Vantage Road SW near the (very small) Babcock Bench parking area (reserved for event officials). We are limited to 30 cars along this road, so please carpool if you can.
We suggest you arrange to meet others at the boat launch parking area at the west end of Vantage Road SW and then take one car back up the hill to park near the event center. It’s slightly less than 2 miles one way, so you could also bike or even walk if necessary.
Please DON’T park at the Frenchman Coulee climbing area, as we don’t want to take parking places from the climbers. There’s room for quite a few cars at the boat launch.
CARPOOL
Looking for a carpool? Join the Yahoo listserv and share your request to find a ride.
THE MAP
The Frenchman Spring map is owned and maintained by Forest Runs. They have generously allowed us to use it for some of our events.
Frenchman Spring contains a lot of rocky features. A number of decisions have been made about what and how to map.
- International Specifications for Orienteering Maps 2017 symbols are used.
- Vegetation is mapped in a limited fashion:
- The only vegetation that limits running in any way is sage bush – still growing or burnt leftovers – and similar semi-desert plants. They are mapped with green vertical stripes – undergrowth, slower running symbol – in locations where the impact is larger.
- There are several more distinct trees mapped with the green dot symbol.
- In general, only distinct objects are mapped. A 1-meter-high boulder is mapped if it is in a gravelly area, but not if it lies between other larger boulders. In a similar fashion, we don’t mark 209 Boulder field or 210 Stony ground in a context where these make the map too hard to read. In contrast, most of the 418 Prominent bush or tree are prominent only in the Frenchman Spring context.
- Uncrossable cliff usually means very uncrossable. Please respect that and do not go too close to it.
- Ground covered with little to no vegetation while still allowing near full speed running is mapped as 214 Bare rock. Unlike in many other venues, bare rock in Frenchman Spring is not necessarily a smooth cliff face but may instead resemble a pile of rocks. For instance, in the photo below, the foreground is mapped as “bare rock.”
- Rocky ground may be similar to bare rock, just less smooth and making running slower. Below is a few meters high hillside, mapped as 210 Stony ground, slow running
- As basalt breaks into fragments of widely different sizes over time, so most of the boulders are in some sense just piles of rocks. This is a 1-meter-high rocky thing, mapped as 204 Boulder
- Similar objects that look less rocky may be mapped as knolls. The one in the following photo is 109 Small knoll
Read more on the map page
SAFETY & ETIQUETTE
Return to the Finish
All participants MUST return to the finish and download their e-punch or turn in their punch card.
Even if you have not finished your course, you must still return to the the finish and confirm with event staff that you have returned safely.
Out of Bounds
Some areas may be marked out of bounds. It is imperative to respect these boundaries to maintain our relationships with land managers. Participants MUST NOT go out of bounds. Any participant caught going out of bounds will be disqualified.
Course Closure
All participants MUST return to the finish by course closure time. If a participant does not return by course closure, event volunteers will begin coordinating a search party.
If you need a long time on the course, start as early in the start window as possible, wear a watch, and be prepared to cut your course short to make it back by the course closure time.
Whistle
All participants MUST carry a whistle on the course. Complimentary whistles are available at the start tent (please only take one).
If you are injured on the course and need assistance, blow three long blasts to call for help.
If you hear a call for help, abandon your course to find the person in distress.
Voices
Part of the fun and fairness of orienteering is navigating your own course, so please be polite when you find a checkpoint and don’t holler that you’ve found it.
