Minnesota Orienteering Club: 7th Annual MNOC 6-hour Rogaine: Details

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7th Annual MNOC 6-hour Rogaine: Details

Saturday, August 15th 2009

Main | Details | Announcements | Register

Location

This year's rogaine will be held in Savanna Portage State Park and the adjacent Remote Lakes Solitude Area in Aitkin County, MN, about an hour west of Duluth (map and directions.)

The park is a 2½-3½ hour drive from the Twin Cities. Take I-35 north to the State Hwy 210 exit. Go left (west) past the Black Bear casino until you reach the town of McGregor. Take State Hwy 65 north out of McGregor to County Rd 14. Go right (east) past Sather's grocery (BP station) and follow the road 10 miles until you enter the state park.

Assembly, start, and finish locations will be at the Loon Lake picnic area. You can download a printable park map at the DNR website.

Black spruce bog in Savanna Portage State Park

Schedule

August 15, 2009

9:00 AM	Mandatory pre race meeting at Loon Lake.
9:30 AM	Race start.
3:30 PM	Cutoff time - penalty points start accumulating.
4:00 PM	All courses close.
4:00 PM	Awards ceremony and cookout. Please bring a potluck item to share.

Terrain and Maps

The terrain is glacial in nature, with many ridges covered with open to moderately thick forest. Between the ridges there are flat black spruce bogs carpeted with sphagnum moss. There are a number of small lakes, ponds, and streams, some of which are surrounded by open areas filled with marsh grasses. The variety of features should lead to some interesting route choices that will be highly dependent on weather conditions.

Competitors will receive two preprinted 11x17" maps, at 1:15,000 scale with 3 meter contours. The eastern part of the competition area is a state park and is generally more open, more developed, and has more trails. The western part is state forest and is more remote, with thicker vegetation and some cutover/second growth areas. The base maps were produced from USGS contour files. Rough vegetation features were added using 2003 color aerial photographs from the Minnesota DNR. Roads and trails (where not visible from the air) were recorded by GPS, and some additional field checking was done.

Format

This race has the following competition classes:

Co-ed: Not all members of the team can be the same gender, any ages allowed.
Open: All team members must be the same gender, any ages allowed.
Masters: No gender requirement, all team members must be 40 years of age or older.

You will be asked to choose a competition class when you register.

This event follows the usual Score-O rogaine format. Controls may be visited in any order and will be worth 5-10 points each, depending on their difficulty and remoteness. The race cutoff time is 3:30 PM, regardless of the time the race starts. Every minute (or portion of a minute) past 3:30 PM will incur a 5 point penalty.

Competition rules are based on those outlined by the Australian Rogaine Association, with the following changes:

R2: A team with any member under 18 years of age must have at least one member over 18 years of age.
R27: The event shall end at a specified clock time, rather than a set number of hours after the start time.

Additional rules will be advised at the pre-start briefing on Aug 20th, and on this web site when available.

Safety

To ensure the safety and comfort of race participants, we require the following equipment:

Backpack with hydration pack and/or water bottle, one per person
At least two compasses (one primary, one spare)
One safety whistle per person.
One first aid kit per team.
Spare food (snacks, energy bars, etc.)

Raingear is not required, but is strongly suggested if there will be any chance of showers.

Whistles are only to be used for emergencies or injury situations. The standard distress signal is a series of three short blasts, followed by a pause, repeated until help arrives. All teams are required to respond to any distress signal. Teams that lose time as a result of responding to a distress signal may be awarded compensatory bonus points, at the race officials' discretion.

The safety bearing is west and south to park roads when in the state park (eastern part of the map), and north to the boundary road when in the state forest (western part of the map.)

Accommodations

The Big Sandy Lake area is a popular fishing destination, and thus spur-of-the-moment accommodations may be hard to come by. Here are some local options:

Savanna Portage SP Campground: Camping will be available. MNOC has reserved campsites at the state park main campground (drive in tent sites). A charge of $8/adult per night is payable to MNOC at the event for these shared sites. Sites are available on a first-come first-served basis. Although you will not be charged extra during registration, please check the box on the registration form for each night of camping that you wish to join us.
Other accommodations: Lodging in the McGregor Area. We are investigating some additional (primitive) lodging options and will post an update to the Announcements page.