O Log - Rosaryville '08
 
 

    [27-Apr-08] 

      Here is the Rosaryville '08, M21 map, and here are my routes.

      Brand new map, good courses. This was a LIDAR map, I'm not so sure about the contours, but what do I know? Everything just seemed way bigger than mapped; hills, slopes, and other contour features. That was my problem on #9, it is supposedly only a line up but was way up there. A couple of other times I would see this huge, deep slope, and it was just a line of the map. Contours seemed lazier on the map than in the field, in general. Perhaps some contour corrections or form lines are needed, I dunno.

      Perhaps LIDAR is perfect and by hand base creation isn't. I don't say that facetiously, when I first started and was told maps were 5m contours, I felt that absurd, they seemed way closer than that. Whatever, it seemed different, perhaps it was because I had in my mind the big deal being made of it.

      Another thing that was a problem was confusing gullies with contour lines. Three times I got trapped in a gully that I did not see. Others reported the same thing. Its odd that I wonder why that has never happened before; a long gully looks just like an index contour, especially close to other lines in the bottom of a deep, narrow drainage, it just seemed natural. I guess the only thing that can be done is to use parallel earth bank features, if they fit. Or maybe I should just get better.

      In any case, it is nice to enjoy orienteering again. It really was a very fine event all around, my comments about the map more speculative than having any bearing on my enjoyment of it.

 
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