- Sat - Sep 07, 2019 - Hickory Run Sand Spring
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Night-O Training
Event Director: John John Gillette
Course Setter: Vadim Masalkov and see choices to Volunteer to help at this event 🙏
Notes: 27th Annual Hickory Run training weekend. Preregistration for Training, cabins, meals and night O is required. For more information click the link below to the training weekend page.
ED/CS Notes:
*PA TURNPIKE ALERTFor those travelling to the event viat the Northeast Extension, note the following closure north of Allentown:Click Here for more information and to register online.
Hickory Run Training Weekend 20019 – Night-O
September 7th, 2019
1. Introduction
The Delaware Valley Orienteering Association (DVOA) is pleased to invite you to participate in the 2019 Training Weekend at Hickory Run State Park and test your navigational skills at night.2. Courses
For the Night-O, we are offering 3 courses: Beginner, Intermediate, and “forked” Advanced course with 2 subsets. The Beginner and Intermediate courses are using Camp Daddy Allen, Advanced – Sand Spring Lake map.- Beginner course, 1.7km / 35m / 10c
Participant on the Beginner (White/Yellow difficulty) course will stay within group campground boundaries; course utilizes prominent features, but still tests your ability to navigate at night and choose which way to go. - Intermediate course, 2.4km / 75m / 12c
Participant on the Intermediate (Orange difficulty) course will test their navigational skills, where you would have to go off the trails and make route choice decisions. - Advanced forked course
Short, 3.1km / 90m / 12c
Long, 4.7km / 145m / 16c
Participants on Advanced (Brown-Blue difficulty) course will start and finish at group campground, but most of the course you’ll have to navigate off the trails utilizing your map reading, pace counting, terrain interpretation, and compass skills at night.
Please be aware, Sunday advanced courses use same areas and you may encounter controls, which are not on your Night-O course. Please check control descriptions and numbers before punching. All Night-O controls will have reflectors, so, it would be easier to identify them and use different numbers, which means there will be no control on east (or west) side of Hickory Run creek with the same number.
Advanced course will have a fork at control #8, where competitors can choose either short 3.1km/90m course (Brown/Green) OR long 4.7km/145m (Red/Blue).
Either short or long advanced course are not designed to cross Hickory Run creek. Instead, use park road to get on the other side of the creek.
It’s NOT advisable to run neither of Advanced courses if you hadn’t complete yet any advanced, Brown trough Blue, orienteering courses.
Fair warning! This terrain is technical ranging from difficult to very difficult levels.
3. Schedule
- Start window 8:00 – 9:30 PM
- Courses close at 11:30 PM.
- Please make sure you are back by 11:30PM from the woods and accounted by start/finish personnel, even if you did not complete your course, to ensure we are not conducting a search party.
4. Start/Finish
- Start intervals – 2 min.
- Start and Finish will be in front of Dining Hall.
5. Control Description
- Control descriptions are printed on front of all maps for all courses. For Beginner and Intermediate courses control descriptions are text; for Advanced – symbolic.
6. Terrain/Maps
- Sand Spring Lake, scale 1:7,500 with 5m contours - Advanced
The Sand Spring Lake map covers range of terrain from the grassy and flat with shallow features to the cliff faces along the Hickory Run creek. White woods abound, but there is also plenty of mountain laurel and rhododendron, impassable in places, as well as deciduous forest. Stands of rhododendron are mapped according to runnability. Thus, some rhododendron groves are mapped as light green, some as medium green and some as dark green. Small stands of rhododendron are still generally mapped as dark green dots (bush symbol, ISOM #420) or green blobs. The unique features of the terrain – large numbers of small knolls and depressions. Only the largest ones are mapped, and they appear on the map as dot knolls, u-depressions, broken ground and micro-contours. While field-checking I’ve noticed some vegetation changes, which may affect navigation and runnability – in general, visibility this time of the year is lower due to leafy trees coverage.
PLEASE NOTE map scale: it’s printed at 1:7,500 (10mm=1cm on the map is equal 75m on terrain). The things may come up sooner than you expected. - Camp Daddy Allen, scale 1:5,000 with 5m contours – Beginner/Intermediate
The Camp Daddy Allen map is a subset of Sand Spring Lake map, adapted for the Sprint discipline and covers (generally) are of the group campground. There are no forbidden to cross areas on Beginner/Intermediate courses.
7. Safety
- Advanced
North-West side of Hickory Creek: go East until you reach park road South-East side of Hickory Creek: go West until you reach park road. Proceed North-East until right turn to the group campground. - Beginner/Intermediate
Proceed on the campground road, which loops around campground toward Dining Hall.
8. Weather
- Check local forecast for New Haven, PA.
- Expected day temperature in the low 73F (~23C) and night in high 39F (9C), clouds and sun.
9. What equipment do I need?
Having the right equipment can make a big difference to your enjoyable and safe participation at Night-O race. If you are already an active participant at other night races such as Rogaining, then you probably have much, if not all of the gear you will need to get started.- Clothing
Although you intend to keep moving to keep warm, ensure you comfortable and durable active wear for the expected temperature range. - Footwear
Trail-running or orienteering shoes with studs (rubber or metal) are highly recommended. - Navigation
Orienteering map and compass are the only navigation aids on the course. Technological aides such as GPS, altimeters, and smart watches with these instruments will not give you much of the benefits and can slow you down and distract while on the course. But GPS-tracking is a great post-racing analysis tool and you are welcome to use your smart watch or GPS tracker. - Water
There will be no water stops on the courses. - Torch (headlamp)
A torch is essential for night-O navigation. Head torches are the outstanding choice for racing at night time as they allow both hands to be free for map and compass work, follow the eyes wherever they move, and are now light and strong.
A good head torch will have a strong central beam to pick up controls at distance, as well as lower power settings for map reading. Battery life is an important consideration, so, please don’t forget fully charge them at home and make sure they can last for at least 2 hours.
As will all equipment, torches can fail, unexpectedly. A spare (smaller) torch might be a great companion for night adventure along with spare set of batteries.
Have fun and be safe in the woods !
Map Location:
Previous Results from this Map:
Sep 14, 2025
Sep 15, 2024
Sep 14, 2024
Sep 14, 2024
Sep 17, 2023
Courses Information:
Course Distance Climb Ctrls Beginner 1.70km 35.0m 10 Intermediate 2.40km 75.0m 12 Advanced 4.70km 145.0m 16 Advanced 3.10km 90.0m 12 - Beginner course, 1.7km / 35m / 10c
Full Schedule (old style)
PDF Schedule
Unless otherwise noted:
- Pre-registration is recommended, discounted, and open until Thursday night, before the event.
- Day-of-registration is available, at $10 for beginners, and $20 for other courses.
All starts are from 10:00am until 1:00pm unless otherwise noted. Follow the text directions and look for Orienteering road signs as you near the park.
| Legend | |
| W | White, beginner level 3km or less |
| Y | Yellow, advanced beginner 2.5 to 4km |
| O | Orange, intermediate 3.5 to 5.5km |
| Br | Brown, Short Advanced 3 to 5km |
| G | Green, Advanced 4.5 - 7km |
| R | Red, Longer Advanced 6 - 10km |
| Bl | Blue, Long Advanced 8 - 14kms |
| Sc | Score-O |
| Sp | Sprint-O |
| Adv | Advanced |
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E-Punching |
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Confirmed Event |
| Special Event | |
| Example O-Signs: | |
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