Discussion: US Team Trials - anyone want to share a car and campsite at Hawn?

I'll be arriving at St Louis just before 11am on the Friday (not that this matters much given the excellent public transit available to the sprint) and flying out again at 5:30 pm and, assuming it isn't all booked up already, camping at Hawn State Park. Anyone wanting to share a rental car and camp site, please post or email me directly. Thanks.

Jon

Just checked with the Missouri State Park reservation system. According to the woman I spoke with, there are no more sites available to reserve. She said that there are 8 (I think) first come first served sites at Hawn that might be available. She also said that there are a lot of sites available at St. Francis--which according to her was about 10 miles away. She said it probably wouldn't be necessary to reserve a site at St. Francis.

I did not verify her information on a map. Just reporting what she told me.
If anyone has a site resrved and doesn't mind one more tent on Sat. night only, let me know.

Jon, if you didn't get my e-mail, let me know.

St. Francois is more like 20 miles away, about 10 miles north of Farmington on Rt 67. You go past it on the way to S-F from St. Louis.

On the upside, the cliff trails at St. Francois are very scenic and we have a map of the area for those who just can't get enough O.

I can also attest that St. Francois has Osage Oranges, for anyone who might need a hedge ball fix!

A slightly different Team Trials question. Is there any sort of model event area (for the middle/classic) available on Friday morning?

We hadn't planned on it. The thought was that very few would want to drive all the way down to Hawn and then come back to STL for the sprint. If there's enough interest, we might be able to put something really informal together.

I'd be interested too - either Friday before or after the sprint would be great. Of course controls in the woods is the best, but even just a section of the map that we could run on (and maybe ribbons?) would be useful too.

Currently planning on getting in Thurs night, so I'd be interested in Fri model options, too.

OK, I'll see what I can do. Logistically, Hawn is much easier (open access, slightly closer to St. Louis). However, I think that S-F is the terrain that will most likely throw people - it's very different from what we generally think of as midwest orienteering. Getting access there is an issue, but I'll talk to the scouts about it.

The other problem with S-F is that I've used pretty much the whole area that's newly mapped. That means the model event would be on the old map. It's not bad, but it's a little out of date in spots.

BTW, getting this back on thread: on my way down to S-F today I hit the trip odo while passing St. Francois. Exactly 29 miles later, I parked at S-F. St. Francios to Hawn is probably about 5 miles less.

Thanks for the accurate information. This thread may only pertain to a few of us. If all else fails 29 miles isn't awful.

Based on what you mention, I'd vote for S-F, especially if it's the more "special" terrain. There's not much difference between 24 and 29 miles (unless you're running...).

But I'll happily do whatever training is available - after all, it's not my team trials, so the US hopefuls should probably have their voice heard louder than anyone.