HUTTON MULGRAVE AND SKELDER WOODS Planners' Comments

Planners' Comments

Hutton Mulgrave and Skelder is a lovely forest, with some wonderful areas for orienteering -- Skelder in particular.  Unlike some forests, real TD5 legs are possible.  It makes the job of planner easy, and the time in the forest a joy -- especially as we had good weather.

I only got into the forest two weeks before the event because of the shooting - so time was short.  I had already made first draft courses 'on paper', but then discovered there was rather more windblown (especially in Hutton Mulgrave) than I remembered.  I made changes to avoid the worst of it, but my apologies if you ended up fighting through fallen trees.

We used the same parking field as in 2003 and 2004.  To give some variety and get all the longer courses into Skelder this time (the best part), I moved the start towards the east.  I hope the walk was worth it.  I avoided the southern areas in Hutton Mulgrave as some felling was planned and there is deep heather where the forest has been replanted.

I tried to get a good balance between route choice legs and control picking.  Most of the runners I spoke to seem reasonably happy - except for some comments on the windblown.

Many thanks to Dave for his common sense controlling, and to Will who finished off the maps and printed them as well as organising the event.

Steve Restorick
Planner