Discussion: Orienteering in Tennessee?

I don´t know if this is the right place for this question, but if you don´t ask, you will not know...

However, I have just moved from Sweden to a small town called Oak Ridge, near Knoxville in eastern Tennessee and of course I am now looking for some nice maps for training! According to US orienteer Boris Granovskiy, who joined my swedish club, OK Linné, just before I left, Tennessee is not the orienteering Mekka on earth. Somewhere there should probably exist two old maps in this state though... The question is where and how could I get a copy of those? And are there any other good advice for a new Tennessee orienteer? The forests and terrain here are great for orienteering, so I really think there should be something here at least.

/Mats Froberg

You could join the Oak Ridge Boyz! Are you working at the lab?

Yes I am working at the National Lab. I guess that is why most people move to this town. Who are the Oak Ridge Boyz? Country music band???

For a weekend drive, try Atlanta area or Birmingham, Alabama. Georgia hosts the "Navigator Cup" every Jan or Feb - lots of mapped State Parks within 1 hour of Atlanta in several directions. Birmingham has one large excellent mep - Oak Mountain.

There was a woman (Meg Garrett?) who moved to Tennessee a number of years ago with great plans to get orienteering started there. Don't know whether she got any maps made or not, but I believed she has since moved away (I don't know where to), and I've not heard anything from her since. I have orienteered once in Tennesee, but it was an adventure race on an ordinary topo map. There is once online recource I know of for a Tennessee orienteering map here, but beware!

Welcome Mats! (someone had to say it :) Yep, the Oak Ridge Boys are a country music stalwart. They even look the part, mostly. Some of them are older than uranium and showing signs of decay.

I don't know of any maps in that area. The relatively nearby Smoky Mts National Park has some of the finest hiking and backpacking anywhere on the planet, provided you avoid the high seasons. You don't have to go far off a road to get away from all the people though. Its a little steep for trail running, and its rife with cookie-fed bears, but Its still my favorite place to hike. I bet its pretty awesome there now with the leaves changing. Today's Terra image shows that the colors are probably past peak above 1700m, but the rest of the park is at peak color!

I've seen once a decent-looking o'ring map
of a place near Manchester, TN
made by Plamen Djambazov (?) around 1990 (?)

In the other direction, it's a bit of a haul, but all on interstate to get to either Cincinnati, OH or Louisville, KY. Both have active clubs with decent map collections.

Thanks everybody. It seems like I will have to travel to find some maps, or make them myself maybe... It is a great place for hiking though. The Smoky mountains are fantastic!

Wow. Eddie can look at a photo of the entire SE US from space, and tell the elevation at which the leaves are changing color at a park in Tennessee.

With Google Earth, and the packet-pickup control descriptions, he'll probably have the Long O' course plotted by sometime tomorrow afternoon... I'd better talk to him at the Sprint O'. Oh it looks like he's not registered. Maybe that work thing is interfering again. (Or is the too much time spent here on AP? Coming from someone who is reading AP, but should be asleep given the kids are going to wake me up soon :)