Discussion: COC 23 Big WOW!

Remember folks you heard it here first.
I just saw the website with program for the 2023 Canadian Orienteering Championships.
I'm guessing the marketing folks for the event want to make a big splashy introduction but I can't help spilling the beans.
Eight days with lots of fantastic orienteering in gorgeous Canadian Shield terrain.
The week starts with two days at the Ark, north of Ottawa. "The Ark? Never heard of it," you say. Brand new map, brand new area except that once 10 years ago I made a rough map of the area, hand tracing the contours from a government topo sheet, did a lot of field work and held a simple event. The area is mostly private property with very friendly landowners and part crown land. I remember a lot of never logged forest and I remember helping one property owner lug coils of pipe up a hill so he could efficiently tap his maple trees. It is an area to be on your (maple) bucket list.
Besides great orienteering Ottawa, St Jerome, Rawdon and even Montreal are super places for you and even your non-orienteering family members to visit.
I have registered. Have you?

I'm considering this event and wanted to start scoping out plans for travel & lodging.

Here's a map I made for the event locations, in case it might be useful to anyone else:

link

Thanks bbrooke. But I got the impression that Event 7 (COC Middle) and Event 8 (COC Long) will be at the same location, the Ski Montcalm area, no?

Yes, you're right! I just fixed it.

Gord, if you had to pick just one weekend or the other to attend, which would you choose? (Based on map / terrain quality; championship status is not important to me.) Maybe this is like asking you to pick your favorite kid...but I have vacation time & budget limitations. :-P

I can't speak specifically for the COC areas but as the mapper for the Ottawa O-Fest area I can attest that that terrain is absolutely stunning. I'm sure the COCs terrain is absolutely excellent too from what I know of the region.

If both are absolutely stunning...that doesn't help me pick. ;-)

(Or, it tells me that I can't go wrong either way.)

Thank you for the input!

Ask me to choose one or the other? Who are you? Solomon?
If I were in that situation I think I would use holidays for some of the days and sick days for the rest. No... I did that once and it did not work out particularly well. (But that's another story)
I'm with Canadian in saying the terrain for the Ottawa O-fest is 'absolutely stunning'. I staged a small Rogaine there back in 2012 and in the process took some promo photos of the area. Yes those are alpacas roaming free in the area. But not by the owner's choice.

Hah! At first glance I though #4 was a very large wild animal.

A petrified giant troll, perhaps?

Okay, here's a specific question: does anyone know what the poison ivy situation is in these areas? I've orienteered in some wonderful places in Canada where I was darn glad I'm not more sensitive to it than I am.

Canadian poison ivy likes to grow in areas where it tends to be sunny with sandy soil. So in Quebec you'll find it in patches along roadsides but not so much in the woods.
For those prone to poison ivy infections full leg cover is always a good idea.

That certainly describes the Manitoba sandhills. The other poison ivy jungle that I've encountered up there was Ganaraska.

@gord: Photo 1 of 7 doesn't look very inviting at all, but the rest do...

@jjcote: Both terrains are in/on the Canadian Shield, which means hilly, good rock features, thin organic soils, marshes. I do not expect to encounter any sandy soils or poison ivy at the Ark or Ski Montcalm. In addition to the forest events, we will run a knock-out sprint in Ottawa on Monday Aug 7. Still working out the format for that one, but we plan to offer multiple races for all competitors, not just the speedy ones.

Excellent, good to hear.

Follow-up: No poison-ivy in the KO sprint terrain either!

Just a reminder that the Early Fee Registration ends this Sunday April 23. Register now and save.

Beat the poison ivy season. Get ahead of it. Come to Friendly Manitoba in May and experience world class sandhill terrain—sunny and sand soil—epic orienteering terrain.

https://www.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/m...

Any leads on economical lodging in these areas? The landscapes as described sound glorious for camping--but a Google search turns up only RV parks!

engineerexplore: You should contact the event organizers about the camping. Their website says they are exploring the possibility of a temporary campground. I don't know what they have in mind but from what I remember I think the Ski Montcalm downhill ski area would make an excellent campground. And what winter ski area shoould not want a whole lot of extra summmer revenue? But there are other possibilitues around there, too.
But your contact and others could move the campsite issue up the priority list of the many things to get done.