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- 2025-05-03 Meramec State Park – DOUBLE EVENT – Saturday and Sunday NIGHT O and MIDDLE COURSE
We are offering two events in one weekend! A Night O (Advanced, Intermediate, Beginner) on Saturday night and a Middle Event (Advanced and Beginner courses) on Sunday morning. All at Meramec State Park.
Your registration is good for both courses so join for one or both. If you could put either “night” “day” or “both” after your last name, that will help us plan.
Lodging: Camp at the group campsite or glamp at the cabins. A group of SLOC folks will be setting up in the campground. Reach out to contourline@stlouisorienteering.org if you have questions about the camping or meet in general.
Date/Time: Saturday, May 3rd 9pm and Sunday, May 4th 9am.
Location: Meramec State Park, Group Campground is HQ and Start/Finish location.
Meet Director: Eric Buckley
Course Notes:
Greetings all! As the web allows one to ramble a bit, let me get straight to the point for those who just want the facts:
The advanced night course is a legit Red course run at night. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY GOOD. It’s hard. Trust me.
If you’ve never done night navigation before, seriously consider the beginner course even if you’ve managed to get through more technical courses during the day. Nobody will judge you. I’ve made it longer than usual and it has some interesting legs. You can always do the advanced course the next day if you want to get in some more technical nav. Wandering around in the dark woods wondering if you’ll ever see your family again isn’t very much fun.
SAFETY BEARING IS DUE EAST. I’ll say it again: SAFETY BEARING IS DUE EAST. Please don’t make us conduct a search in the middle of the night. If you are really turned around, just go straight east until you hit the Meramec River or the campsite (I’ll state the obvious, you may need to go north or south to get around cliffs above the river). You should be able to find your way back from there pretty easily.
Night O (controls, distance, climb)
Beginner: 11c, 3.9K, 85m
Intermediate: 9c, 4.7K, 175m
Advanced: 12c, 6.8K, 235m
Middle (controls, distance, climb)
Beginner: 8c, 3.3K, 110m
Intermediate: 9c, 3.9K, 165m
Advanced: 11c 5.1K, 220m
Having sent the folks that don’t appreciate my erudite treatise packing, here’s the longer version.
The intermediate night course is no picnic either, slotting in as either a tough Orange or easy Green in daytime, but pretty solid at night. That said, while optimal routes are advanced, this course has lots of catching and collecting features that offer safer routes. If you’re at all concerned, look for ways to get very close to the features using handrails (trails, streams, ridge tops, etc.) even if it adds some distance. All the controls on the intermediate course are close to such features, but only if you are willing to deviate from the “optimal” route (there’s nothing “optimal” about getting lost at night).
The beginner night course has most controls off-trail, but only slightly. You should be able to get very close using trail routes but you’ll have to be reading your map to know when to leave. Note that I’m including power line cuts as “trails”. You will want to use those.There are also lots of opportunities to save distance by cutting trail corners. This adds a fair bit of challenge; getting back on a trail at night is not as easy as you might think! For those familiar with USOF color coding, this course is YELLOW which is described by the oxymoron “Advanced Beginner”. The first few legs of this course are a bit bland; I wasn’t able to find any interesting way to route you through the campground without annoying the campers. I hope you find the remainder of the course worth the wait; it’s got some really great features, even at night.
Sunday, we’ll get what I’m calling a “Middle” course, though it could easily be mistaken as classic GREEN. For those who haven’t done A-meets, Middle is supposed to be the super-technical distance where you need to run full-on to win, but you risk terrible mistakes by doing so. Meramec doesn’t really offer any super-technical terrain, but it does offer enough climb that if you run this course as hard as you can, you will get enough brain fade to matter. Point being, intermediates should not be afraid of this course if they take their time. Advanced runners can take their chances as they see fit.
The beginner course on Sunday is standard YELLOW. Things are slightly off trail. You can shave some time by cutting through the woods, but the trail routes are OK.
Intermediate runners are a bit out of luck at the moment for Sunday. I may have time to put together an intermediate course, but no promises. As noted above, the middle course is doable, just take your time and use trails and streams to get you close.
General notes on the terrain:
Climate change is a thing and all of the woods in Missouri are getting thicker every year. This map is 30 years old, so there will be sections mapped as white woods that will slow you down and impede your visibility. I’ve tried to avoid these for the night courses as hitting unexpected thick stuff at night is really frustrating. Still, don’t be shocked if you come across the occasional patch of nastiness on an otherwise open hillside. Areas mapped in shades of green are at least as thick as indicated; expect a shade darker when making route-choice decisions.
There have been a number of new structures built over the last 30 years. The ones I’ve come across, I’ve added to the map, but it’s not like I did a full survey of the park. Don’t freak out if you pass a shelter or hut not on the map.
Trails are still pretty accurate. I updated a few that were obvious route choices in the vicinity of the start/finish. I didn’t encounter any other problems but, again, don’t expect a 30-year-old map to be perfect.