Discussion: NRE (A-Meet) and Training Camp, September 22-23 2018

30 Years at Pond Mountain (National Ranking Event/A-Meet and Training Weekend), September 22-23, 2018
• Where: Pond Mountain, Kent, CT
• Hosted by Western Connecticut Orienteering Club
• Events: National Ranking Event (A-Meet) on Saturday, training courses on Saturday afternoon and Sunday.
• Camping will be available at the meet site. At this point it appears there will be no fee for camping; however, we encourage campers to make a modest donation to a fund for the junior team.
• Pre-registration for NRE encouraged but not required. Cost for NRE $10 for individuals and $15 for families.
• To pre-register, email Rick DeWitt (wrdewitt@snet.net) and include name, SI (dibber) number, if you have one, class and/or date of birth.
• Payment and waiver form will be handled at the meet.
• Start any time between 10 and noon. No pre-assigned start times, though there will be a start crew to hand out maps and assure a minimum 2 minute window between starts on the same course.
• Directions: From Kent CT, take CT341 west out of the town. After 1.6 miles, take a right onto Macedonia Brook Road. After 0.8 miles, turn right up Fuller Mountain Road. Parking will be on your left after 1 more mile. Google calls this 85 Fuller Mountain Road.

Pond Mountain is a gorgeous mature, mostly deciduous forest, with very little undergrowth (e.g. laurel) or invasive species. It is fast, rocky, and steep. This year marks our 30th year of using the map, with the original map dating from 1988 (Goodwin), with updates by multiple people since then (Dominie, Walker, Despard). The map was last used for the 2016 Senior Team Trials.

Event Officials:
Event Director: Rick DeWitt
Registrar: Rick DeWitt
Course Setter: Niels Lyng-Olsen
Course Vetting: George Walker
Training Camp Coordinator: Greg Ahlswede

Hi Rick - can you explain a little more about the camping/facilities for campers? Showers? Or a place where swimming is permitted? These questions are on one's mind after days of 90 plus weather ... though of course it could be 30 degrees by then!

Hi Kristin--the land manager for the property is letting us use one of the many mowed fields for a camping area, so in terms of facilities, it will be pretty basic, i.e., no showers. It will be the same camping arrangement as we had for the 2016 Team Trials in that location. I wasn't there for that, but I heard is was a nice spot to pitch tents in. For swimming, there is a large pond close by, but I'll have to check on whether swimming is allowed.

Hope you and the family can make it. It's a beautiful area, with good terrain for orienteering.

Looks like a campground with showers is available at Housatonic Meadows, 18 mins away according to google: http://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2716&q=32522...

There's a closer one at Lake Waramaug but it closes after Labor Day.

I don't think swimming is allowed in the Pond Mountain pond. This will actually be the first time the field has been used for camping, we just left stuff in it for Team Trials. Steve is great guy and will just mow the space that's required - so very basic!

The campsite at Housatonic Meadows is very nice. Can be rowdy on the weekends but maybe not that late in the season.

The shores of Pond Mt. Pond are not conducive to swimming and swimming is also not allowed according to the policies of the land trust. I was on the board for a period of time and this is not something that is allowed. Housatonic Meadows is an alternative and is relatively close. I would say that it is more like 25 minutes away but that is not much different. I know the area as I lived there for 35 years and made the initial map of the area. Mark Dominie mapped the southern and eastern parts for a National Meet long ago but left the original parts in tact.

I've been inner tubing from Housatonic Meadows down under Cornwall Bridge and through the rapids where the A.T. comes down to the river. If you have 2 cars it's a fun trip (and pretty exciting in the rapids, which I went back and ran a few more times). But that was in August, and the water could be cooler in late September.