Wheaton Park

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Course map scales will be 1:5000 for white, yellow, beige and brown courses, and 1:7500 for all others.

Some courses have a spectating loop with close-by control locations—your route choice on the loop may bring you right past the start or the finish. Do not punch the start or finish out of sequence or it will result in a mis-punch. Be cautious and yield to moving vehicles when starting and finishing your race too. It’s recommended that you confirm control codes since there are many controls in close proximity. Be sure not to miss the early or last controls that are near the start/finish in congested areas. Though courses pass very near the school grounds at the start and finish, neither are being used for this competition and are out of bounds (another event is scheduled at the school). Some routes will likely cross or use a miniature train track; use caution there since the train will be running during the event.

An attempt was made to set the courses in ways that maximize use of the open areas (while still maintaining the use of features expected for an advanced course). Some courses were shortened to achieve finish times within the standard guidelines.  However, the Yellow course is more technically challenging than average for QOC.

Wheaton is one of the older county parks in the DC area. Over the fall of 2025, and the winter of 2026, the map was completely updated. The degree of accuracy was improved through the use of much better data and mapping tools that became available in 2025. The map was extended into the Northwest Branch stream valley and the recently completed Odessa Shannon School grounds. During the event, a major paved trail north and west of the of the ballfields will be closed and is fully out-of-bounds for orienteering. Please respect other mapped out of bounds areas too so that the club retains access to the park and school for orienteering.

The map has parts that are feature-dense and somewhat busy. One is never far from a trail. The map shows the scars of many past people activities such as old hiking trails that have been shifted to new locations, closed campsites, small cairns, pits, and depressions. Many facilities complicate the map further such as an ice rink, dog park, soccer pavilion, train station, picnic grounds, playgrounds, parking lots, and one of the best manicured gardens in the area. The park has continued to evolve with the weather—it continues to get greener/thicker. There are thorns in places but not all of the areas mapped green are thorny. Competitors are advised to use the trails or to slow down when it’s necessary to get through the greener parts of the map. Even the woods mapped white, tend to have a lot of ground clutter which is unmappable.  Wearing protective clothing (gaiters) is strongly recommended.

Erosion has lengthened gullies and prompted park water management projects that continue to be developed today. More ditches and gullies show-up on the map now; shallow ditches have been shown using the linear marsh symbol and may not be wet.  Wheaton has few boulders; those that were mapped historically and now tend to be only half a meter tall. Some temporary wooden lean-to shelters built near control locations have been mapped with the black-X, man-made object symbol. Most older rootstocks were removed from the map, but still may be represented by low vegetation symbols.  The threshold for rootstocks on the map is 5 ft. However, some slightly smaller rootstocks remain mapped.  Mostly, this was to allow them to be distinguished from nearby larger ones. Map updating was conducted during an extensive period of drought, however an attempt was made to show even visibly dry stream beds with expected average wetness.