Kingston Pen Tour

After racing through the Pen on Tuesday, join us on Wednesday afternoon for a 1.5 hour guided tour of the Pen to learn about the long history, infamous inmates and amazing escapes that made this maximum-security institution notorious!

The Kingston Penitentiary, constructed in 1833-34, housed inmates continuously from 1835 to 2013, and is now a popular attraction with visitors to Kingston. The Pen covers over 21 acres on the shore of Lake Ontario. At the beginning, cells measured 2.4ft (0.73m) wide by 8ft (2.4m) deep by 6.7ft (2m) high and the site was surrounded by a 12ft (3.6m) high wooden picket fence. Even though the facilities were periodically expanded and upgraded, the bleak living conditions led to three major riots and several amazing escapes over the years. Many of Canada's most notorious inmates have been held at Kingston Penitentiary. Join us on a special guided tour for NAOC participants to learn their stories.

Date: Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Time: Guided Tours from 4 to 7pm (approximately)

Duration: 90 minutes each

Size: ~20 in each tour group

Cost: $38 per person (sorry, same cost for adults and youth)

Tickets: Advance sales only. Tickets can be ordered on the NAOC-COC event registration page.

Land Acknowledgement

The Ottawa region including Calabogie are located on the traditional unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin People. The Kingston region is located on the traditional homeland of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat. Dufferin County including the Mansfield Outdoor Centre is located on the traditional territory and ancestral lands of the Tionontati (Petun), Attawandaron (Neutral), Haudenosaunee (Six Nations), and Anishinaabe peoples.

These Indigenous nations have inhabited and cared for these lands for millennia, and their way of life, culture and presence have nurtured and continue to nurture these lands today. We honour these lands and their Indigenous stewards, past and present. We thank them for their stewardship of the land and pledge to be respectful and grateful for the bounty of this land on which we all live, work, play and study.

Training Opportunities

If you want to get in a little extra orienteering, and/or a little extra training, come early to the Ottawa area and try out some of our favourite training maps. There are three forest maps that will give you a good feel of the Calabogie terrain, and four sprint maps that will give you a feel for the Kingston sprint maps, and a great opportunity to see a the City of Ottawa. In addition to these training maps, there are old maps of the Queen's University campus and Mansfield.

Forest Training Maps

1. Foley Mountain, north of Kingston. Foley Mountain is a great training area for anyone wanting to see what the Calabogie terrain will be like. It is in the Foley Mountain Conservation area, where the 2017 Canadian Championships were held. There is a parking fee at the conservation area.

2. March Highlands, in the west end of Ottawa. A favourite map for being close to the city with great technical terrain, the March Highlands map offers the rocky, forested terrain of the Canadian Shield, without the hills of Foley Mountain or Calabogie.

3. Cite des Jeunes. A hilly and rocky map in Gatineau Park. Mapped by Jeff Teutsch, the mapper for the NAOC Calabogie forest races.

Sprint Training Maps

1. U Ottawa, in downtown Ottawa. The University campus map was used for our 2023 Ottawa O-Fest Knock-Out sprint, and is a typical urban university campus with lots of interesting control sites and route choices.

2. Ottawa Downtown. This new map was first used as the Qualifier round for the 2023 Ottawa O-Fest Knock-Out Sprint. It runs along the west side of Ottawa's historic Rideau Canal, and through our National Arts Centre, City Hall, Confederation Park and other local landmarks.

3. LeBreton Flats - just west of downtown Ottawa. This map is an intricate, challenging sprint map, much of it on National Capital Commission parklands, with tunnels, stairways and recreational pathways often offering challenging route choice options throughout .

4. Heritage Perth. This sprint map was used for the COC 2017 sprint. Perth is halfway between Kingston and Calabogie.

Training maps will be accessible at any time. There will be no controls in the terrain.

Training maps can be purchased when you register for the event on Zone4.