Event Details For:

☀ Ongoing UsynligO Training Course at Camp Elim (Woodland Park)
Monday, June 1st, 2020 - Thursday, December 31st, 2020

Course Setter: Jim Baker
Course Vetter: N / A
E-Punch Coordinator: N / A
Meet Equipment: N / A

• General Information: THANK YOU to Jim Baker for creating a Brown (short advanced) training course at Camp Elim.

  The course is loaded in the UsynligO app. UsynligO ('InvisibleO' in Norwegian) is a GPS-based smartphone app that makes orienteering courses available without flags to mark the control points. The app vibrates and makes a sound when you have found the control point location. Beginners can ask the app for hints (direction and distance).

  * Download the app HERE.
  * Read the app configuration requirements HERE.
  * Launch the app and tap "UsynligO Events" to search for Camp Elim.
  * Tip from Attackpoint: set the punching radius to 25m and the minimum accuracy to 100m.

  You must load the course into the app while you still have cell service, even if you're using a printed paper map. Once you start the course, the app only requires GPS (not cell service) to track your location.

  NOTE:
  * Please complete RMOC's 2020 online waiver before starting the course.
  * Please abide by all state & local guidelines related to COVID-19.
  * If you want a paper map, find it using your browser HERE or use the UsynligO app to download and print (tap map name, "Tap Here for the Map", and then tap the share icon to send the PDF file to your email or printer).
  

• Course Notes from Jim Baker: I set a Brown (short advanced) course for practice, and tried it as my first ever use of UsynligO. The app burbled at each point, sometimes early, so I think it's OK. No streamers, for maximum COVID-19 safety (and maximum laziness as a side benefit). I added a new fence to the map, and downgraded some closed trails that have become less obvious. I've marked Camp Elim land out of bounds (purple hash). The indistinct trails vary, generally more toward indistinct than toward trail. There are a number of yellow, blue, and purple flowers (photos below), views of Rampart Range, and even a huge hare that I scared (which ran off too quickly to get a good photo).

  The course uses the Camp Elim map, but deliberately none of Camp Elim's land, all USFS land. Please do NOT go to or on Camp Elim, in order to safeguard them and their campers. The parking, start, finish and course are all elsewhere. There's a high quality, taut, quite new (a couple years old) fence separating Camp Elim's land from the USFS land. Please do not cross. There's an old, weathered, not-taut fence with the top wire down many places (easy to cross) within the USFS land, which you may (and will need to) cross. And a few newer fences along USFS road 341A blocking off social trails, which you probably won't have any cause to cross, and can generally get around easily without crossing anyway. And a good fence along CR 782 (Quinlan Gulch Road), which it's better to follow rather than cross from the last control to finish. Please follow any posted instructions regarding gates (particularly the one on USFS 341A at CR 782), such as whether to leave them open or closed.

  Do take public health directives to heart. I'm one of the SAR folk who'll have to rescue you. ;-) Carry a mask in case you need to approach people, or be rescued. We have proper Personal Protective Equipment, but it's limited, so maximally reducing the odds of it being contaminated (in case we need to clean and reuse), or of us getting and transmitting something to other people we rescue or live with, helps. Do the course alone or with household members; don't approach anyone who may happen to show up the same time (at least six feet); etc. These guidance links give more complete info: [Colorado DNR Outdoor Recreation Guidelines] [FAQs]

• Local Weather Forecast: National Weather Service
• Driving Directions: From highway 67 north of Woodland Park and south of Westcreek (and just south of Manitou Lake recreation area), take CR 78 (Painted Rocks Road) west. Just past Painted Rocks Campground (which appears to be open), turn left onto CR 782 / Quinlan Gulch Road. (If you come to Camp Elim, you've gone a little too far.) Take CR 782 to the pullout on the right and gate for USFS road 341A (39.078422, -105.120115). Park in the pullout; the gate is the start/finish. Do not park at Camp Elim.