Our next event is this Saturday (June 3) at Margaret Burke Wildlife Management Area, Co Rd 254, Altamont, NY, 12009. This is a smallish area, bisected by a county road, but large enough to allow for a 5k long course. It’s an interesting venue, in that the two portions on each side of the road are rather different, particularly in terms of the vegetation. The west side was all farm fields once-upon-a-time, which has now grown over, but DEC mows and sometimes clear cuts some of the land for wildlife habitat purposes. The east side may have been farmed too, as there are numerous stonewalls, but it has been allowed to become mostly open forest.
There are NO Facilities at Margaret Burke. Also, the parking area at the Start/Finish is very small, so most will have to park along the road. To allow for normal traffic, all should park on the west side of Pleasant Valley Rd. Long and Intermediate courses cross the road twice. Traffic is light, but can be moving at 55mph or more, so serious caution is necessary.
The maps will have the “Clues” on them, but if you wish a separate Clue sheet to carry, you can download and the print the Clues here.
UsynligO will not be available for the event, but we will again be using SI “Air”. And, those who ordered SI “Air” sticks/cards/dibblers can pick them up (and pay for them) before they start their course. Beginning Sunday, the courses will be posted to UsynligO. If you choose to wait until Sunday or later to go out, it would be nice if you paid the event entry fee through PayPal, and even if you plan to come Saturday you can pre-pay through PayPal. You don’t need a PayPal account. Just go to their website and pay to my Outlook e-mail address (philht@outlook.com) , which puts the money in EMPO’s account.
There is currently some threat of rain on Saturday expected roughly from 9am to 11am. The event is ON, regardless, with the same 11-1 start window. Not sure how I’ll set up exactly, but there will not be some sort of large shelter. Most likely it will be done out the back of my SUV, with maybe my pop-up providing a bit more coverage.
As always, it would be nice to hear if you are coming, and which course you will do, so that we can be sure to have enough maps. But, also as usual, even if you don’t let me know, come anyway. We’ll figure out how to give you a (possibly used) map.
Click here for further details including course information.
Phil