Gardom Bench South Salmon Arm

Organizers: Abbigail May (Event Director), Abbigail May (Course Planner)

Map: Gardom Bench

Post-Event

3D-ReRun:

• Intermediate - there seems to be a timing error on one of the tracks, but the routes are correct. Playing around with the different analysis options will let you see all of both tracks at once.
• Advanced

Registration is closed.

Location, Parking, and Map

The Gardom Bench is a section of crown owned land above Gardom lake entirely surrounded by Private Land. This is a new area for us, with only one training earlier this year on a different portion of the area. We have not had time to finish it to full orienteering standard yet. In particular, the vegetation, contours and cliffs are 100% computer generated. You will likely come across some unmapped trails throughout the map.

There is ample parking in the cul de sac - see the Google Map at the bottom of the page for the exact location. Take the trail north out of the cul de sac (marked with orange flagging tape) to access start. Note that this trail is wet and muddy for much of its length. There is a driveway from the south side of the cul de sac which is NOT the way to go.

Be aware of the fence along the trail at the north end of the map. I marked with flagging tape in some locations, but it is still a significant tripping hazard. There are mosquitos out there, especially in the low marshy areas. The higher areas are nice and open with good visibility and runnability and many fewer bugs.

Courses

There is a short a short ~200m walk to the start in addition to the distances below.

• Intermediate: 3.0km - Mostly close to trail navigation. Typical leg is navigating along a trail, choosing the correct location to leave the trail, and navigating through the forest for 50-100m to the control (checkpoint). Slightly more challenging last few controls on the course where you should navigate using a pond, hilltop and marshes.
• Advanced: 4.7km - Mostly off trail navigation, and physically demanding.

Overview

Due to the exceptional global circumstances at the moment, we will not be having our usual events. Instead, we are setting up trainings that can be completed in your own time, any time, over the coming weeks. For all the trainings we will be hanging some flags in the woods for a few weeks, and individually emailing out maps. You print out the pdf to get your own map (or if you are very careful, keep it on your cellphone) to use.

We are choosing training location very carefully to be locations that tend to have low public use to maximize social distancing, but are relatively close to the city to minimize travel. We will be on forested maps exclusively, and not using any of the park maps in the city that are already over-crowded. We have some new maps in the works, but will also be returning to some previously used ones.

Precautions

• Read through the Orienteering Canada Self-Guided Orienteering Guidelines.
  
• Please stay home if you have any symptoms of COVID-19 or illness.
• Please stay home if you have been in close contact with a confirmed or probable case of COVID-19 in the last 14 days.
• Only participate in orienteering activities with individuals from your COVID-19 bubble.
• Stay at least 2 metres away from all other park/wilderness users and do not congregate at the trailheads or control sites.
• Do not touch the control(checkpoint) flags – just get within 5 metres or so.
• Walk/run with extreme caution to avoid any injuries.
• Carrying bear spray is according to your comfort level but is a good idea.
• It is tick season! Check yourself when you're done and when you get home.

Cost

These trainings are being offered as a free mental health service to all Sage Orienteering Club members. Now is a great time to go for a run by yourself or in a very small group in the beautiful Okanagan nature.

How it Works

1. Register your Sage Orienteering Club membership online. Membership Registration (including payment) and waiver (youth waiver, adult waiver) both need to be filled in online this year.
2. Send an email to the organizer to register for the course of your choice and let us know how many of you are going. We will email you a map individually - so make sure your email address with your WhyJustRun account is accurate.
3. Run the course whenever you want during the times when the event is open. If you are interested in comparing results & routes with others, record a GPS track on your smartwatch or phone.
4. (Optional) Upload a .gpx file (you can export this from Strava, Garmin Connect, Attackpoint, and many others) to our website (link will be posted once registration is open) which will calculate your split times. We will also then overlay all the GPS tracks onto the map together so you can compare routechoices with others. We might not be able to gather socially, but we can still talk about or routechoices digitally.

How You Can Help

These events are running entirely on volunteer manpower. We would love some help if you would be willing to pick up controls at a specified times at the end of each event, and handing them on to the next volunteer who will put them out.

Location