Maps for ACC

Here is a race synopsis (race partners Rod Price and Alan McDonald as team Eco-Choice). If anyone wants a detailed how I got to any control or found any of them - just leave a comment - I'll add it. Yes, I can remember my attacks and approach to every control.

- The race started at 8 AM with a choice between run or bike start. We chose run, which was about a 90 minute orienteering run for CP 1 through CP5 as shown on the map. This was pretty straightforward as was the first bike leg.I had one nav error on the bike leg (about 5 minutes) turning on a parallel dirt road about 75 meters from the correct one - but I figured out the mistake very quickly and we found all controls and the top 5-6 teams all arrived at the TA after the run and bike within 5 minutes of each other.

- The next leg was a paddle to Stoke's Landing with a lot of CP's to find - nearly all of which required a significant detour off the river. We skipped CP11 till the way back to better use the tide. The rest were spot on - but still required some solid marine navigation. The big boats on the IntraCoastal also made paddling our small canoe pretty exciting. At Stoke's Landing we did a foot nav (CP 18 - CP 21) and had a major issue with CP21. After 2 false tries - we finally looped around to the 2 small lakes NNE of the control and bushwhacked to the CP - this worked, but the control had cost us a solid extra 50-60 minutes (and a lot of energy). We made some of that back by going due north from the landing to the river with a very short portage.

- The real race really starts at night. We had a lot of bike controls (CP23 - CP39) Bike nav is also pretty exciting at night. We had minor problems with a few controls, none of which were more than 10 minutes extra time - except for CP30. There were at least 5 teams searching for this when we arrived - and I got into group mentality (I was tired) and instead of using my wits to find a good attack point - I instead ended up following other teams. Bottom line was 2+ hours later we still had no control and we ended up giving up and heading for CP33 (which we found very quickly). In retrospect the best approach for this would have been to bushwhack due south from CP 29 - the terrain along the river was open and the landing (Cook's Landing was very evident even in the dark). The rest of the controls were not too bad, we worked with a few other teams and helped them out before arriving at the TA for the final trek a little before 6 AM.

- The final trek (CP41-CP45) ended up being wonderful (though long at 3+ hours). The wildlife was stirring as we moved through wonderful open forestland. Rod got to be towed by Alan and repayed us by giving up some nice home-made cookies from his food stash. We finished the trek along with some other teams, hit our bikes and pedaled hard back to the main TA to finish a little after 10 AM. Congratulations go out to Team Miami SAL - they had solid navigation and a good pace and truly earned their USARA qualifier jackets. Tim and Anna - you better watch out those jackets were pretty nice, so I'm going to be heavily motivated at the next race ! Of course I'll need to get a coed team ... and all of my female partners are injured, hmm....

Navigation Attack Points - in order
CP2 (Trek) - After passing visible marsh west of trail (below 5 on 54) we angled off trail along contour and spotted pond and control.
CP3 (trek) No problems
CP4 (Trek) - from the trail intersection we went north 75 meters to minimize bushwhack distance and went due east to control, we left south via marsh.
CP5 (Trek) - Took small trail towards lake and handrailed lakeshore.
CP1 (Trek) easy find.
CP6 - CP10 (Bike) - Easy nav, did them in order.
CP12 (Paddle) - Easily saw feature after passing marked Daybeacon.
CP13 (Paddle) - Cook's Landing was readily apparent from the river, not so at night on bike.
CP15 (Paddle) -Turned east at second channel, spotted CP34 along eastern shore, ran north to CP15.
CP22 (Paddle) After leaving CP15, went across and easily found channel and paddled to control.
CP16 (Paddle) Cutacross was open, though shallow - got into channel and went easily to tower which was visible from river.
CP17 (Paddle) Feature was very visible, easy find.
TA1 (Paddle) - Entered Stoke's Creek at main channel (saw Team Miami leaving) and paddled to TA. Leaving we headed due north and entered main river (after short portage) east of Little Pine Island.
CP 11( Return Paddle) - Angled in at channel marker 5 directly to control, left south and then due west - was able to paddle directly to channel.
CP23 (Bike) - Dropped bikes at intersection and headed due east, flag was actually a
bit north of the due east bearing.
CP25 (Bike) - All trails no problem.
CP24 (Bike) - No problems, headed south from 24 on eastern trail. Road took us out to major road, went south.
CP27 (Bike) - Tried at first to bushwhack straight across, abandoned effort after a few minutes and went south and then back up NNE trail to control.
CP26 - Measured 600 meters from intersection to firebreak, took wrong firebreak about 50 meters shy, but were able to go north on unmapped firebreak to control.
CP29 (Bike) - Measured 600 meters from trail bend, found quickly, led many teams to control. Headed north and back around after finding - which was slower as Punch Junkies were there and took the southern route which was faster. (towards CP28)
CP28 (Bike) - Simply measured distaance from exit of CP29, turned west and followed to control.
CP30 (Bike) - Weaved through unmapped trails east and south of control. Ended up south of Island. Lost all navigation sense here and spent 2+ hours searching before giving up.
CP33 (Bike) - Took main trail south, turned west on trail that "felt right" ended up right on the control.
CP31 (Bike) - Measured north on main N-S trail to attack point, found easily.
CP32 (Bike) - Entered woods too far north, though woods were open and flag was easy.
CP34 (Bike) - Followed second trail to control
CP35 (Bike) - Came out a little north on lake after measuring south from intersection, followed shoreline until control was visible.
CP37 (Bike) - Easily found tower.
CP36 (Bike) - Backtracked from tower using distance
CP38 (Bike) - Somehow missed entrance and had to backtrack 200 meters.
CP39 (Bike) - Followed fence easily to control.
CP40 - CP 45 (Trek) - All easy finds