Walthamstow Forest (Local)
Results | Routegadget | Report
Ray Curtis, Organiser
Although most of this area has been used many times over the years, it is only the second time that the northern area – around Highams Park lake, has been used for orienteering.
Unfortunately, the scout hut used last time as the event centre, is no longer in use. This meant looking for another area for our event centre. The manager of the Humphry’s Café was very helpful and offered the rear of the café building plus use of their toilets. Naturally there was an increase in sales of teas and coffees to orienteers and the organising team. The café and also the start area were popular with dog walkers and families, some of whom expressed an interest in orienteering.
We had more competitors than originally expected (over 90 starts), including a few from the cancelled Thame Urban event. I hope your run was worth the distance travelled.
Finally, a big thank you to all who made this event happen and helped on the day – Jacob, Ray W, Jennifer, Tim, Sally P, David, Sally L, Philippa, Tony, Harold, Kostya (and son) and Adam from CUOC.
Jacob Stevens, Planner
I hope you enjoyed the courses in Highams Park and Walthamstow Forest. This part of Epping Forest is less open and runnable than the main forest to the north, bringing a different set of navigational challenges, with some surprisingly confusing areas to trap the unwary, despite the extensive path network.
The brambles and holly have colonised more of the forest in the last couple of years, but I tried to avoid the worst areas. I hope the very recent unmapped pollarding and thinning didn't confuse any of you; as well as improving the forest ecology, this forestry work should result in a better area for orienteering in the future.
The event centre location and requirements of white/yellow courses necessitated a start in the less technical area of Highams Park. For this introductory section of the courses, I tried to give variety by combining parkrace-style legs in the urban parkland with woodland legs, although the narrow layout of the park with the lake constrained options somewhat.
Once across the road into Walthamstow Forest, on the technical courses I tried to plan legs that tested concentration in the dense path network through mostly low-visibility woodland. Yes, there were some unmapped paths, but careful attention to direction and distance allows one to distinguish them from the mapped ones. I also aimed to incorporate route choice into most legs.
Please do upload your routes to Routegadget: it's very interesting to see the routes people took and their mistakes, and it helps with the planning of future events.
Many thanks to Tony and Ray for advice, Harold and Tony for putting out controls, and Kostya, Tony and Adam (CUOC) for collecting them.