2024-25 Winter League Celebration Weekend Relay – Saint Edward State Park

WINTER LEAGUE

Sunday, February 23 at St. Edward State Park in Kenmore, WA

Meet Director: Michelle Kastner

  • You need a Discover Pass to park at this venue. There is a pay station (maybe by the parking lot east of the lodge).
  • Pre-registration only for this event. There is NO day-of-event registration.
  • Registration closes on 2/20/25 at Noon for this meet.
  • Mass start at 11 am for first leg.
  • Site map is here.

To celebrate the end of another successful Winter League season, we are hosting a low-cost 3-person WL Relay on Sunday, February 23rd. We hope you join us for the fun and excitement! 

How it will work:

  1. Gather your team of three and decide your team name and who is running which leg.
    • Legs 1 and 3 will be equal in distance and difficulty. If you choose Leg 1, you will be part of the mass start at 11 am.
    • Leg 2 will be easier than legs 1 & 3. Leg 2 will be equivalent to JV Rookie/Advanced Beginner.
    • If you want to participate but do not have a team you can do that too!
  2. Everyone registers in the Public Registration system here.  When you register:
    • ONLY if ALL three team members were WIOL runners this season, choose WIOL Relay (Leg 1, 2, or 3).
    • All others choose OPEN Relay (Leg 1, 2, or 3).
    • There are no other restrictions when forming a team.
    • Be sure to tell us your team name and list of teammates when you register.
    • If you want to participate but do not have a team, just choose the seventh-course option “I don’t have a team, please pair me up” and we will do that for you.

COURSES

Course designer(s): Rebecca Jensen

Controls Distance Climb

Leg 1 (Advanced)

 18  3.3 km 80 m
Leg 2 (Intermediate) 16  2.2 km 30 m
Leg 3 (Advanced) 14  3.1 km 65 m

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

Welcome to St. Ed’s! If you’re approaching from the north on Juanita Drive, take extra care to mind the 30mph speed limit, as it is photo-enforced at all hours. Also, as a State Park, a Discovery Pass is required to park at this venue. If you don’t have one already, you can purchase a day ($10) or annual ($30) pass at the park from an electronic kiosk or the little State Park office if it’s open.
St. Edward State Park offers a mix of forested trails, grassy fields, and a little bit of pavement around The Lodge and Bastyr University. While we are running around Bastyr, the campus itself is marked out-of-bounds with magenta cross-hatching.
With much appreciated assistance from Ethan O’Connor, I’ve (Rebecca Jensen) remapped St. Ed’s from scratch, using Sprint (ISSprOM) symbols and scale. All courses are at 1:4000m scale. Contour intervals are 5m to accommodate the very steep areas of the park that lead down to the water, but there are still some intricate contour details elsewhere in the park that would benefit from more description, so I’ve made generous use of form lines. Form lines are thin, dashed contour lines that are drawn between the regular contour intervals, and provide more information about the shape of the ground. Be mindful that these dashed lines aren’t telling you that the terrain is steeper, but rather, giving you more detail about the shape. They are particularly handy for tracking the up and down of flowy elevation change on trails. Also, a reminder that brown contour slope line marks always point downhill and are typically placed in re-entrants.
There are 2 spots where large, downed trees have crossed the trail, and only one spot is on a trail that you might consider as a route choice. As an almost-5’4″ adult, I find the trees simple to climb over, but you can choose an alternate route if you want to keep your shirt clean. I’ve mapped the downed trees with the “earth bank” symbol across the trail, which is a brown line with a brown dot centered along it.
St.Ed’s is a TRAILS ONLY venue, please do not travel cross-country through “dark green” (the “slow running/fight” color/symbol). Some controls may be just to the side of the trail in the green, but do not travel cross-country through dark green as a route choice, as it will not only disqualify you, but also jeopardize our ability to get permits in the future at this freshly re-mapped venue! Please also stick to mapped trails and do not take any unmapped social trails you might encounter. Some more distinct social trails have been mapped to aid your navigation as you pass by them, but are themselves out-of-bounds, as noted by magenta “X”s across them. Courses were designed to avoid the temptation of these social trails, so you may not even notice them. As usual, other out-of-bounds or uncrossable features are olive green (either manicured greenery or private areas), thick black walls, thick black fences with double tick marks, and very dark green (uncrossable vegetation, such as hedges). All open areas (open land, pavement, white open forest) are fair game.
There is car traffic in the park, so please be alert and cautious when crossing roads and parking lots.
Trails intersections with an indistinct connection are shown as not touching to indicate their vague relationship. Triangle-shaped trail intersections are mapped as such, to distinguish them from more abruptly T-shaped intersections.
As a trails-only venue, I was also a bit generous in picking out distinct/prominent trees. In the forest, you may find individual trees mapped that are particularly large, particularly lonely, a distinct species from the majority in the area, and/or interacting with the path of the trail.
The “cairn” symbol (black circle with a dot inside) is used for wayfinding signs (large signs with a map on them), as well as statues.
As always, be mindful of other park users and take care when passing. In particular, look out for mountain bikers who may be riding fast down steep trails.
As for the courses themselves, none of the courses go down to the water and back up. You’re welcome. 🙂 The advanced courses feature a mix of longer route choice considerations and short rapid-fire sequences. The Intermediate course features a bit less route choice in order to reduce the difficulty, but packs in a ton of controls-per-km to keep you engaged and make it more challenging to read ahead on the map. To challenge yourself on the Intermediate course, aim to know your exit from every control so that you can flow through them all.
Have fun!
-Rebecca Jensen

SCHEDULE

9:30 am Team check-in opens
10:00 am Beginner instruction opens
10:30 am Team check-in closes
10:40 am Beginner instruction ends
10:45 am Pre-start briefing; demonstration of exchange procedures
11:00 am Mass start

11:45 am Leg 2 mass start if your teammate is not back to tag you

12:30 pm Leg 3 mass start if your teammate is not back to tag you

1:45 pm Course Closure

This event will be a mass start at 11 am.

PRICES

PRE-REGISTRATION PRICES

$3 or 1.5 volunteer points = base price  (Cascade OC members and non-members, with or without e-punch rental)

 

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

PRE-REGISTRATION PRICES

$3 or 1.5 volunteer points = base price  (Cascade OC members and non-members, with or without e-punch rental)

Learn more about volunteering

Volunteers make these events happen! You can volunteer and participate on the same day, plus earn volunteer points to earn a free meet.

LOCATION

PARKING

See site map here. You need a Discover Pass to park at this venue. There is a pay station.

CARPOOL

Looking for a carpool? Join the club email group and share your request to find a ride.

THE MAP

Many of our venues are built on hills. St Edward Park is the hilliest of them all! It is also among the first maps that this club created, more than 30 years ago.

This map combines two open and developed campuses with a complex trail network behind the college and another, simple set of trails going down the steep, steep slopes from the St. Edward historic seminary building to the water.

When used with adjacent land, this park provides enough geographic range that it has been used with a mountain bike orienteering course. Even without that section, it is routinely part of the large meets in the winter series and student league.

Read more on the map page

Navigational Challenge: 4

Physical Challenge: 6

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.