CANADIAN ORIENTEERING

Mansfield

Lying along the spine of the Niagara Escarpment about 100 km northwest of the cosmopolitan Toronto urban centre, Mansfield is a unique, well-drained area with virtually no water or rock features. An extensive trail network laces through this newly remapped terrain, with a highly runnable forest and a range of contour detail from complex, rolling ridge and valley closer to the Outdoor Centre, to flatter, subtle sections in the Dufferin County Forest.

A challenge for all and one of the real jewels in the crown of Canadian orienteering!

Kingston

All the mapped areas in Kingston are new areas not previously used for orienteering competition. All maps were drawn to ISSprOM 2019-2 (v4) during the spring and summer of 2023 with pre-race updates during summer 2024. They all feature 2.5m contours and will be printed at 1:4000 scale. As per ISSprOM 2019-2, small objects that are not essential for navigation are omitted to improve readability at speed. Hence sidewalk furniture such as benches, mail boxes, garbage/recycling bins and lamp-posts are omitted. Competitors should be familiar with the symbols for mapping multi-level structures introduced in ISSprOM 2019-2 (details here and/or here), and also with the symbols indicating out-of-bounds areas and features that must not be crossed in sprint competition. Crossing any of these features is forbidden during competition, and violators of this prohibition will be disqualified.

The Individual Sprint will be held on terrain centered on the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour, which was developed to host the sailing competitions within the 1976 Summer Olympics. The main building at the harbour is an interesting multi-level structure. In the east part of the map lies the historic and notorious Kingston Penitentiary (the Pen), which housed inmates continuously from 1835-2013 and was the scene of several riots and many escapes and escape attempts, but is now a popular tourist attraction. Designated as a National Historic Site, the Pen features a labyrinth of buildings, stone walls and tall fences. Portsmouth Harbour is bordered to the west by a small residential neighbourhood. Further west we have the Beechgroove Complex, an area of grassy parkland that is home to several large parking lots and low-rise government buildings, some of them historic. The mapped area is bounded to the south by Lake Ontario and by King St. West to the north. The terrain slopes gradually upwards away from the lake. The terrain includes sidewalks and streets that are open to cyclists and pedestrian/vehicular traffic, and competitors are reminded to look carefully in both directions before crossing all roads and paths, cross only when it is safe to do so, and to be courteous to cyclists and pedestrians at all times.

The Sprint Relays will be contested in Lake Ontario Park, a large grassy urban municipal park on the east side of Cataraqui Bay on the shore of Lake Ontario, 4.8km west of downtown. Facilities include a day-use pavilion, toilets, parking, picnic areas, boat launch, splash-pad, children's playground, beach volleyball court, cobble and sandy beaches, and walking paths. The park is bordered by the Providence Care Hospital to the east, by King St. West to the north, and by Lake Ontario to the west and south. The terrain slopes upwards away from the lake and includes many distinctive trees and several pockets of dense woodland.

The central Kingston waterfront, a scenic, historic and busy urban area with abundant technical detail, will host the Qualification Race for the Knock-Out Sprint. The map includes several areas of cultural and/or historic significance, including Confederation Park (historically site of a gun battery on the waterfront in front of city hall, but now a compact and busy urban park), Battery Park (named after the historic Mississauga Battery that was located there in the early 1800s), military fortifications from the early 1800s, the Maritime Museum of the Great Lakes (home of the S.S. Keewatin, a large passenger-liner from the Edwardian (Titanic) era) and the PumpHouse Steam Museum (housed in an historic steam-powered water-supply plant dating from 1851, and home to an eclectic collection of historical artifacts tracing Kingston's growth and development from inception to modern times). The terrain slopes gently uphill away from the lake. The entire area is popular with visitors and residents alike and has many shops, cafes, restaurants and other businesses that will be open during the competition. There are many sidewalks and several streets that are open to pedestrian/vehicular traffic, and competitors are reminded to look carefully in both directions before crossing all roads, and to cross only when it is safe to do so. Furthermore, please be courteous to all cyclists and pedestrians at all times so that urban orienteering is welcomed in this community.

The Knock-Out Sprint elimination rounds will be contested on the main campus of Queen's University. Founded in 1841 at a time when Kingston was the capital of the United Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada (now the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec), Queen's is the second oldest University in Ontario. Today it educates 30,000 students and 4,000 international students from over 100 countries. A typical feature-rich University campus, it features a complex mix of lawns, lanes, courtyards, paths, buildings, stone walls, fences, distinctive trees, flower beds and more. The terrain rises gently from south to north. There are a few small streets running through the campus that may be open during competition and competitors are reminded to look carefully in both directions before crossing all roads, and to cross only when it is safe to do so. Please also watch out for and avoid all cyclists and pedestrians so that orienteering may flourish in this community.

To be continued....

Calabogie

​The terrain has deciduous forest of maple and oak, but with a mix of white pine, hemlock, and cedar in places. There are plenty of boulders and cliffs, and lots of climb (it is a ski hill after all). Intricate rock formations and contour details makes it great place for a middle distance course. The long distance race will test an orienteer’s stamina with route choices in hilly terrain with few trails. Fear not, though, the forest is runnable with good footing.