RACE LOCATION
Pineridge Cross Country Ski Area, 1463 Plank Road, Petersburgh, NY
Located in East Poestenkill, NY
SITE LAYOUT
DISTANCE TO START
From Parking: 110 m
From Assembly Area: 300 m
First Starts 10 am; course time limit 3 hrs.
There will be no clothing pickup at the Start due to its proximity to the parking area.
Livelox will be activated at 4 pm.
COURSE INFORMATION
| Course | Length | Climb | # Controls |
| White | 1.3 km | 54 m | 7 |
| Yellow | 2.6 km | 110 m | 7 |
| Orange | 3.3 km | 120 m | 10 |
| Brown X | 3.9 km | 160 m | 10 |
| Brown Y | 3.8 km | 130 m | 9 |
| Green | 5.0 km | 190 m | 11 |
| Red | 7.3 km | 255 m | 16 |
| Blue | 9.1 km | 380 m | 19 |
Water will be available at the Start and on all courses except White.
Maps will be collected at the Finish.
MAP NOTES FOR PINERIDGE
The Pineridge map includes the Pineridge Cross Country Ski Center property along with a section of the Poestenkill Community Forest. The Cross Country section includes winter ski and snowshoe trails, while the Community Forest section includes summer hiking trails.
Pineridge Ski Center Trails: these are not used during the off-season except for maintenance, so can be somewhat overgrown and hard to follow. Some minor trails are totally unmaintained and can be very hard to see in the terrain.
The trails fall into roughly four categories:
- Wide trails which are quite obvious are mapped with the “vehicle track” symbol;
- Less-wide but still obvious trails are mapped with the “footpath” symbol;
- Trails which are even less obvious, depending upon the time of year, and thus the vegetation are mapped as “narrow ride” (generally blazed by blue dots on trees);
- Trails which are not groomed in the winter are mapped as “small footpath” and sometimes “less distinct small path” (blazed by blue dots, though sometimes only visible in one direction). Many of these generally would not be mapped, but the blue crosses are so visible (and possibly useful) that we felt they should be shown.
A few cautions about running the ski trails:
- Some of the lower elevation trails will still be covered with ferns. Use care running on trails with ferns that may obscure rocks underneath.
- There are a number of small bridges made of a few timbers and planks that are much too small to map. They are there only to support the snow and the skiers and groomers which go over them. They are not solid footing for runners, and one can easily break through.
- There are signs on the ski trails indicating things such as “One Way”, “Do Not Enter”, or “Stay Right”. These signs are for skiers and may be ignored by Orienteers.
Poestenkill Community Forest Trails: these ARE hiking trails, and look like it. They are mapped as either footpath or small footpath, and are well marked on the ground by nailed-in markers, along with some “You are Here” posters. There are diamond shaped or circular markers of different colors for the different trails.
SPECIAL MAP SYMBOLS
Note that there is a non-ISOM symbol used on the map. A solid brown triangle is used to indicate a “hunters blind” on the ground [as opposed to a “hunters stand”, which is an elevated platform and uses the “T” (small tower) symbol]. Also, see the mapper’s comments below regarding the symbols used for mapping boulders/knolls.
The courses are entirely on the South side of Plank Road. This area features a large central mountain, with varying degrees of slope, some modest, some steep, around it. The woods are mostly rather open, in terms of visibility, but the footing can be very difficult because it is in many places extremely rocky. While there are many large rocks/boulders, the real issue is that there are numerous small moss-covered and sometimes fern-covered rocks underfoot.
In general, boulders here are mapped if they are over 1m in height or very wide. However, you may encounter what you think are un-mapped boulders, or small cliffs or knolls. There is just so much “stuff” on the South side, that in the end you need to understand that what’s on the map is there, but you may encounter other un-mapped things.
The distinctions among boulders, boulder groups, boulder clusters, minor cliffs, and knolls of varying sizes are all open to interpretation. An easy way to think of this is to remember that you are looking for a relatively large “clump” of something. Mapper Mark Dominie described his decision process this way:
Many of the boulders in this terrain’s environment are often moss covered and have flattish tops that allow leaves and general forest “duff” to accumulate. In other words, it is quite often difficult to distinguish these types of boulders, from a distance, from the surrounding ground terrain, or often they may have the appearance of a small “dot” knoll. The mapping “rule of thumb” was: If it could be identified as being made of rock in at least 3 of 4 directions the boulder symbol is used. If only 1 or 2 sides have the look of rock, the brown dot knoll symbol with a small rock-face is used. If it’s difficult, even up close, to distinguish that there is any rock associated with the feature, then the
plain brown dot knoll symbol is used.