Fountainhead

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Welcome to the New Year. To start out successful, I recommend that you read these notes when you sign up and again on January 4th.

Courses are on the short side to compensate for the elevation.
Fast orienteers will be faster than the recommended times but the elevation gains and confusing trails will take a toll on many orienteers.

Map: Fountainhead East: base is a 1:10,000 scale map with 5 meter contours. North lines Black, 300 meters apart. Last major updates by Jon Torrance 12/2023. Map standard ISOM2017-2. All courses are east of the main parking lot.
Vegetation: The woods are highly runnable if you are in shape to deal with the hills.
Not all clearings, especially in the far East are mapped. Green tends to be mountain laurel. Light and medium green are very runnable.
Green stripe (visible but slower running) is now pretty much open woods. Many of the previously downed trees have degraded to the point that the running is still fast. Isolated patches of green stripe are barely noticeable at a walk pace.
Rootstocks: only a few are mapped as green X. There are many huge (up to 3 meters) unmapped rootstocks.
Rock: There is more rocky ground than mapped. Expect several rock piles (cairns). When used as controls, they have been cleared of many of the leaves.
Topography: Dot knolls are variable in height and may be almost non-existent by now. Pits may be on the map but not on the ground. Some ditches and small reentrants are not mapped.
Water: the Occoquan Reservoir is low leaving large mud flats. Most creeks are drier than mapped.
Trails: Many trails may appear to blocked by the park using streamers or signage. You can ignore this as its for the mountain bikers who will not be out that day. The exception is noted below in Hazards.
This area is infested with mountain bike trails. The bike trails tend to contour with banked curves, jumps, and steep drop offs. Since advanced runners share the trails with walking groups, please allow the faster moving people to easily pass. When controls are next to the trails, please make way for faster people to pass and/or punch. You can ignore the streamers and do not enter signs. These are for the bikers.
Other trails may be covered with leaves to the point they are hard to follow.
The blue blazed trail is the remnant of the original trail (pre-mountain bike). This is marked by splotches of blue paint, not the blue horseshoe marking. Pieces of this trail are mapped as rides. The blue blazed trail tends to go along ridge spines. Expect total leaf covering and for it to be easy to miss.
Star trails are marked with metal signs with a star. These are not mapped. They tend to bisect the mountain bike trails. They are used to extract injured mountain bikers up to roads or down to the water.
In the far east, an old road has degraded to a jeep track. It is mapped as an average trail.
Manmade objects:
Black o: circle of rocks
Black x: junked car, junk, some signs, a picnic table
Hunter stands: may not be mapped or may be on the map but non-existent.

Hazards:
Pay attention to the boards on the bike bridges. There are some rotten or weak boards.
The elevated bridge that ends 15 feet in mid-air has been blocked by streamers. Do not attempt to cross this well-signed bridge.
Do not attempt to cross the mudflats unless you have a whistle, a stick, a phone, a death wish, and a nearby good friend to pull you out of 2’ deep mud. Trust me, I spent 20 minutes extracting myself from what looked like solid ground. I feared I might have to spend the night stuck in the mud.
No swimming (or crossing over inlets if frozen over).
Do not run on the road.
Streep gullies, ditches, and ravines can have over 2 feet of dead leaves.
Respect the out of bounds areas marked by a magenta cross hatch. Close to the start is the archery range. Further away is private property.
Hampton Rd is also marked as out of bounds with magenta X’s. Do not run along the road.

Courses: Expect Climb. Climb is measured by the best route in the opinion of the course setter. Since this course setter hates climb, my optimal route may have less climb than your route.
Straight leg lines may cross open water. Did I mention no swimming and be careful of mapped water that is now appears as dry mud (actually, not dry)?
Courses are on the short side to compensate for the excessive elevation.
Fast orienteers will be faster than the recommended times but the elevation gains and mass of confusing trails will take a toll on many orienteers. This means that times could be slow.
Beginner-White: know that a ride is. This is where the vegetation is different but the mapper has decided not to call it a ditch or a trail. Often it is a very old trail. 1:5000 scale
Advanced Beginner-Yellow: See ride and blue blaze trail comments.1:5000
Intermediate-Orange: See ride and blue blaze trail comments. Thinking about moving from Yellow to Orange? This might be a good time to move up. 1:7500
Advanced Very Short-Beige: ​Crossing mudflats is not advised. See ride and blue blaze trail comments. 1:5000
Advanced Short-Brown: Crossing mudflats is not advised.​1:10,000​
Advanced Middle- Green: Crossing mudflats is not advised.​1:10,000​
Advanced Long-Red: No swimming.​1:10,000​​
Advanced Very Long -Blue: Crossing mudflats is not advised. No swimming.​May have a map flip. 1:10,000
Note: Map scales are subject to change.