Event Details For:
☀ Ongoing UsynligO Training Course at Dell Gulch (Buffalo Creek)
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 Brown (short advanced) & Green (advanced) training courses at Dell Gulch / Spring Creek.
The courses are 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 Dell Gulch.
* 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).Map & Course Notes from Jim Baker: I've uploaded a Brown course and a Green course to Usynligo, on the new Spring Creek wedge map and the Dell Gulch map. 1:10,000, 5m contours.
The Brown course goes mostly through new map, gently rolling with some boulders and small reentrants, similar to the upper part of the Dell Gulch map. The Green course adds more of the Dell Gulch map, but unfortunately forestry work is ongoing, so there are lots of tracks made by the equipment (Green course only). On the plus side, much of the deadfall and slash is gone in the area mapped with vertical green lines. Since forestry is still underway, I haven't changed the vegetation mapping, nor added the tracks made by the equipment. (I started to, but quickly got overwhelmed.)
As usual, follow public health guidelines. There's a vault toilet a mile south at the trailhead parking for the Colorado Trail and the trail up Little Scraggy (fee area). There used to be toilets at other spots including downtown Buffalo Creek, but I haven't checked them this time, so don't know if they're open or still there.
Brown & Green Courses --
1) While forestry is ongoing, the mapping of yellow (open areas) is mostly very generalized. Focus on contours, trails, rock features, and so forth.
2) The terrain on the west (other) side of County Road 126 is unfieldchecked (mostly). So is the terrain east of Green controls 3 and 4, and south of Green 4, where you can see some purple blobs (which are cliffs on the basemap that haven't been turned into fieldchecked cliffs).
Green Course --
1) The small piece of terrain between the Spring Creek Ranch housing development (the purple out-of-bounds area) and Forestry Road 530 (the main east-west forest road through the map) was unfieldchecked as of 8/31. I did a quick fieldcheck (30 minutes) while verifying the UsynligO course, but didn't spend the usual amount of time deciding whether to map rock that was nearly one meter (I usually didn't), nor to scout every square meter for pits. This only affects a short section of the middle of leg 2 to 3; I think that it's fine but maybe not quite the same as the rest of the map. Forestry Road 530 is a massive feature that you'll be crossing beyond this small section anyway.
2) The ongoing forestry...sigh. It's made runnability better, and not changed the contours or rock, but it looks like a mess, especially the tracks every which way made by the equipment. It only affects the area around controls 3 and 4. I don't think that it'll be a problem, just be prepared for a mess of forestry almost-trails (focus on contour and rock), and fewer downed trees and slash in parts of the area marked with vertical green lines (which the course only passes through a finger of, which is all normal runnability now).
Despite that, I think that the courses will be quite enjoyable. Note that it's usually several degrees warmer in the Dell Gulch / Spring Creek area than it is on our Woodland Park maps, and the area dries quickly.
Cheers,
Jim Baker- Local Weather Forecast: Weather Underground
- Driving Directions:
From US 285 in Pine, take Jefferson County 126 south for 13 miles. Turn right onto the Colorado Trail (1776). Park as directed by signs.
From Woodland Park, take Colorado 67 north for 23 miles to Deckers. Continue north on Jefferson County 126 for 12 miles, and turn left onto the Colorado Trail (1776). Park as directed by signs.
Start and finish will be 200-300 m away from the parking area, about eight meters off the Colorado Trail.