Big Tahoma Details

Event Details

October 8-9, 2011 — Tahoma State Forest, Ashford, WA

Quick links to info on this page:

Event description:

The Big Tahoma is a rogaining event. About 50-60 checkpoints scattered over a large area of Tahoma State Forest will be circled on a map and marked on the ground by orange and white orienteering markers. Each checkpoint has a point value, which is equal to the checkpoint number rounded down to the tens place. For example, a checkpoint numbered 68 would be worth 60 points. The object is to score as many points as you can within the time limit by visiting checkpoints using your chosen mode(s) of transport. There are point penalties for returning late. Maps are issued before the start, so that teams have time to plan their route. At each checkpoint visited, a team must do two things to get full credit for their visit: 1. punch the team's scorecard using the plastic pin punch attached to the checkpoint marker, and 2. write the team number, time visited, and next checkpoint number the team intends to visit on the log sheet.

Terrain:

The course area is between about 1600 and 4800 feet in elevation and consists mostly of moderate to steep slopes, with a few flat or rolling areas. The area is dominated by large ridges and valleys, but there are some smaller-sized topographic features as well. There are several streams and a few lakes and marshes, and the Nisqually River bounds the area on the North side.

The forest ranges from fairly mature conifer forest to recently clearcut areas, and everything in between, and forestry has left many roads of various ages, some easily drivable by car and some heavily overgrown by bushes and more difficult to travel than the adjacent forest. Many parts of the forest have only light undergrowth and are passable at walking or jogging speed, while other areas have very dense vegetation that makes travel very slow.

Map:

The map was made from lidar data and has a 5 meter contour interval. Since lidar can capture the shape of the ground under forest canopy, the topography is mostly quite good, however there are areas of denser forest where the data coverage is sparser and the ground shape becomes more generalized. The map shows most of the distinct road grades and classifies most of them by their distinctness and ease of passability. Because of the size of the area, not all parts of all road grades could be fieldchecked, and so the condition of some road grades may differ from that shown on the map.

Here are some samples of the map:
The first shows checkpoints from the 2008 Fall BEAST Adventure Race.

Click to view full size (429 KB)

Area around the start/finish. Click to view full size (118 KB)

Weather:

Average highs for Ashford (the nearest town) in early October are in the low 60s, and lows are in the low-to-mid 40s. Here are links to daily averages for October and a weather station in Mineral (a town a few miles West of the area). Keep in mind that the rogaine terrain is at a higher altitude, ranging from the same elevation as Ashford, up to 3000 feet higher. That translates into a good chance of freezing night-time temperatures in the higher parts of the course.

October is, on average, a transition month between the fairly dry month of September and the extremely wet month of November. (See the monthly average precipitation totals.) According to National Weather Service data from the Olympia, WA airport (which appears to have similar precipitation patterns), over the past five years, there have been 28/100 days with 0.1 inches of rain or more within the 20 day window surrounding October 3-4. That is the best indication I could find about how likely it is to be rainy.

There are three divisions:

Foot: teams hiking or running
Bike: teams riding mountain bikes
Duathlon: teams on mountain bikes for the first half of their time and on foot for the second half

Duathlon teams are welcome to return early from the biking and spend more than half their time on foot, but they will receive substantial point penalties for returning late on their bikes.

Teams are ranked within their division according to their total score. Among teams with identical scores, the earliest finishing team will be ranked highest.

There are four event time-limit choices:

4-hour: open to foot and bike teams (two start time choices: Saturday or Sunday)
8-hour: open to foot, bike, and duathlon teams
12-in-24-hour*: open to foot, bike, and duathlon teams
24-hour: open to foot, bike, and duathlon teams

* 12-in-24-hour teams may go out on the course for a total of 12 hours over the 24-hour duration of the event (10 AM Saturday to 10 AM Sunday.) For example, a team in the 12-in-24-hour event might go out for 7 hours, come back to the hash house to rest, then go out again for 5 hours. Duathlon teams may spend at most six of those 12 hours biking (in other words, with their bikes on the course.)

Solo participants may participate in the 4-hour and 8-hour events, however the longer events are open only to teams of 2-5.

Rules:

International rogaining rules will be in effect, but this is not a championship event, so we're modifying a few rules. Here are a few rules highlights:

Team members must stay together (within unaided verbal contact) the whole time they are on the course (IRF rule B10)
All team members must go to each checkpoint visited by the team, meaning all must simultaneously approach within 20 meters (IRF rule B15)
All participants are required to respond to a distress signal and to assist a competitor who is injured and needs assistance (elaboration on IRF rule B30)
All participants are responsible for their own safety while they participate, and participants should make themselves aware of the hazards associated with traffic, weather, rugged terrain, health risks of extreme exertion, equipment malfunction, and remoteness from emergency assistance
Except in case of emergency, all participants must check in with event staff before leaving the area; in case of emergency, an evacuated participant or his/her team members should notify event staff of the situation as soon as possible after attending to the emergency
Teams in the Bike or Duathlon divisions may travel only on bicycles (non-motorized) or on foot (exception to IRF rule B9)
Participants traveling on bicycles may leave their bicycles on the course and come back to them later, as long as the bicycles are out of the way of others, and the participants have the bicycles with them whenever they return to the start/finish (elaboration of IRF rule B13)
Points will be deducted from the scores of late returning teams, and the per-minute point penalty will be announced at the event; teams finishing more than 40 minutes late will receive a score of zero (exception to IRF rule B27)
Points may be deducted from the scores of teams that fail to record their visits on the checkpoint log sheets, and the penalty will be announced at the event
A team may be assessed point penalties or be disqualified, at the discretion of the organizer, for infringing these rules (modification of IRF rule B23)
Solo participants are allowed in the 4-hour and 8-hour events (exception to IRF rule B1)
Minimum age for a participant not accompanied by an adult is 16 (exception to IRF rule B2)
Dogs may accompany a team on the course, but they must be under close control and not be allowed to harass wildlife or people (exception to IRF rule B5h)
GPS devices and altimeters (such as GPS tracking watches) may be carried on the course (to allow tracking analysis afterward) but not used for navigation by teams competing for an official result and awards. If carried, any such devices that have a display must be presented to race officals to be sealed (after tracking is activated, if desired) before the start. Without going into the details of the sealing method, we can say that participants with GPS watches should plan to carry them, not wear them. (exception to IRF rule B7)
Teams that wish to use additional navigation aids are welcome to do so if they notify the organizer, but their results will be listed separately and they may not be considered for awards (exception to IRF rule B7)
Following another team is allowed if consent is secured from the followed team (exception to IRF rule B12)

Safety:

Participants will be responsible for their own safety while taking part. Of course event staff will try to help you if we learn that you are seriously injured or otherwise need assistance, but there is a good chance you would be waiting a long time for help, and we don't have the level of staffing or expertise necessary to quickly and expertly handle many emergency situations that might arise, so your best bet is to be very careful not to get injured. If you are not comfortable assuming the risks involved in prolonged exertion while traveling through rugged terrain under various and possibly unexpected conditions, then you should not take part in the event.
Bow hunting season will be underway during the event, so you should make an effort to present yourself as a human, for example by talking or wearing brightly-colored clothing. Since bow hunters operate at closer range, this should present less of a hazard than rifle hunting, but it is still a good idea not to be mistaken for game.
The terrain is steep and has bands of cliffs and possibly unstable slopes. These potentially dangerous areas are not explicitly delineated on the maps, so you will need to determine the safety of traversing a prospective route for yourself.
Each person will be required to sign a liability waiver upon checking in for the event. A parent or guardian must sign for a minor.
The organizers are not in a position to review each participant's preparedness to participate and will not do so, however if it comes to the organizers' attention that a person or team is poorly prepared for the event, the organizers may deny entry to that person or team in the interest of the safety of all the participants and staff of the event.

Required equipment: (we may modify this list up to one week before the event)

Each team must have bottles or other containers able to carry at least 0.5 liters of water per team member
Each participant must carry a whistle for signaling in case of emergency (three short blasts)
Each team must have a compass
Each team must have a watch (or other time-telling device)
Each team must carry a writing utensil (pencil works best) to mark the checkpoint intention sheets
Each individual should have clothing appropriate to the weather, accounting for the possibility of injury or exhaustion
Each bike or duathlon team must have (and wear) a helmet while riding
Each bike or duathlon team should have the tools and supplies needed to make basic repairs on the course: e.g., spare tube or patch kit, tire levers, tire pump or cartridges, multi-tool, chain tool, extra derailleur hanger

Awards info:

awards will be given in the 8-hour, 12-in-24-hour, and 24-hour events
awards may be given in the following categories: women, men, mixed, child team (teams with members 12 & under), junior team (teams with all members 13-21), veteran (avg. age 45+), and supervet (avg. age 60+)
logical combinations of some of the above classifications will constitute categories, for example, "Supervet Women" or "Junior Mixed"
categories with few teams may be consolidated for the purposes of awards, at the discretion of the organizer

Driving and Lodging Info:

Allow 2-2.5 hours from SeaTac Airport, Seattle, or the Eastside, or longer in poor driving conditions.

For those who wish to travel on Friday and stay overnight in the area, there are lodging establishments in Elbe and Ashford, and there is a DNR-operated campground called Sahara Creek, just East of mile marker 5, between Elbe and Ashford.

You may camp on Friday night at the start/finish (for free, except for the Discover Pass purchase, if you don't already have one). There may be nearby National Forest campgrounds open, too, but we haven't checked those out.

You will not need a Sno-Park permit to park at the start, however a Discover Pass is required. See the Washington State Discover Pass page for info.

From Ashford, WA, go a couple of miles East on Highway 706
Turn right onto Skate Creek Rd (also called Kernahan Road), and go about 1.5 miles
Where the road bends left, turn right onto Osborn Rd, at the sign that says "Paradise Estates"
Turn immediately left (after just a few meters) onto the National Forest Rd (NFD 85 Rd), and go about 1.5 miles
Turn right (the first right) onto a gravel road, and go about 2.1 miles, across a couple of bridges
Turn left onto another gravel road (1 Road), and go about 2.9 miles to the Sno-Park lot

Check-in, start, and finish for this event will be at the Sno-Park parking area on 1 Road. Here is a link to the driving route from Ashford. The mapping of the roads on Google Maps (and on the USGS map) is incorrect, due to old roads being closed and becoming overgrown and new roads being built. There is a pit toilet but no running water at the Sno-Park, so please bring your own.

Big Tahoma, Three15er,
and Rock Creek Ramble
are produced by MerGeo.