August 30 Orienteering: Revere's Crossing

Review

• Weather, people, scenery: perfect.

• Map: excellent, all new or updated. (We love bringing people to places they haven't been before, especially folks from NEOC & CSU & school partners, who live around here!)

• Navigational challenges: fun, and innovative for the given topology. 

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Event Information

Join us at DCR's North Point Park or Long Wharf for a map navigation adventure!

We are so excited for you to check out our urban courses on Saturday morning! This is a test run for the October US Championships. We will gather data to address safety. 

Host Club and Partners

Additional Rules

In addition to the Orienteering USA rules of the sport, we will add additional rules between now and the race, and ensure that every participant is familiar with them prior to starting.

1. Be safe. Yield to cars, bicyclists and pedestrians. Cross streets safely.

2. Have fun

3. Take care of each other

4. If an electronic timing box is missing at the checkpoint, use the manual punch. If that is missing, remember the numerical code or the animal, if either are still there. Barring that, look around and identify a favorite part of your view; report that at the Download/Results station. Checkpoint markers are not hidden; if you are sure you in the right place, and there is no checkpoint marker, it may have been removed. Move on.

5. No metal spikes

No Metal Spikes

No metal spikes or studs are permitted.

Volunteering

We are seeking volunteers. Volunteers may also race. Email nre@navigationgames.org with subject "Aug 30 volunteering" if you'd like to volunteer.

Registration

Recreational runners may register here.

Competitive runners should register at EventReg. REGISTRATION HAS CLOSED.

Email nre@navigationgames.org if you have any questions!

Schedule: Saturday, August 30, 2025

Wednesday 8/27/25

• Last day to register

Thursday 8/28/25

• Start times will be posted

Saturday 8/30/25

• 10:00-11:00  Start window for  intermediate and advanced courses (Long Wharf). Arrive at the end of Long Wharf 10-15 minutes prior to your assigned start time. Approach from south of the Marriott hotel. We will have a clothing drop; items will be driven over to the Finish at DCR's North Point Park.

• 10:00-12:00  Start window for  beginning courses (DCR's North Point Park)

• Time limit: 3 hours

• 4:00 pm: TEA PARTY in the back roof garden of 116 Henry Street, Cambridge, MA 02139. RSVP to nre@navigationgames.org 

Sunday 8/31/25

• 10:00 pm  Results will be posted online

• Corn Maze orienteering, Sunderland, MA

EMBARGO

The following areas are embargoed: The North End waterfront (Boston), DCR's Paul Revere Park (Charlestown), DCR's North Point Park (Cambridge), and Cambridge Crossing (Cambridge). Note also that Boston's North End is embargoed for the US Sprint Champs on October 13th. (Please come back in October for the US Long, Middle and Sprint Champs, a.k.a. the Rev-O-Lution, which we are honored to co-host with the New England Orienteering Club and Cambridge Sports Union.) 

The courses will not enter into the embargoed area for the October US Champs. You will not be disqualified for the US Championships if you participate in the August 30th race.

Start and Finish Locations

The Finish will be at North Point Park in Cambridge. 

Starts for White and Yellow will be in North Point Park.

The Start for all other courses will be at Long Wharf in Boston.

Long Wharf is in the lower right of this photo from Boston Marriott's website. Meet us at the compass design on the ground at the end of Long Wharf. Approach Long Wharf from the south or west. Do not go into the North End, which is embargoed.

Clothing and Bag Drops

There will be TWO clothing/bag drops:

1. We will have a clothing drop at the Start at Long Wharf. Please minimize what you bring so that we can fit it all into a car. We understand that some of you are arriving by train into Boston and will therefore have a bag.

2. Please do NOT enter North Point Park prior to your race. We will have a second bag drop at the southern corner of the intersection of Edwin H Land Boulevard and the Charles River Dam Road (the road that the Science Museum is on). This drop-off spot will be open only from 8:30 to 9:30 am on Saturday morning. If you arrive after 9:30, please bring all your things with you to the Start. This drop-off location is along the route to the Start. These items will be transported by bike trailer or on foot, so please again be considerate about how much you bring.

Items from both clothing/bag drops will be transported to the Finish at North Point Park.

Travel, Public Transit and Parking

Public transit: Long Wharf is at the Aquarium stop on the MBTA subway's Blue line. You can also walk from the State street stop on the Red line, or the Haymarket stop on the Green line.

North Point Park is near the Community College stop on the Orange line, or North Station on the Orange and Green lines.

Parking near North Point Park: Parking at the CambridgeSide Galleria on a Saturday costs $8 for 2-3 hours, $12 for 3-4, $18 or 4-5 hours. There are metered parking spots Education Street ($1.25/hour), but the time limit is 2 hours. 

Parking in Boston near Long Wharf will likely be more expensive. If you park in Boston be careful not to go into the North End, and stay south of the Boston Marriott as you head to the end of Long Wharf. Options include:

• Harbor iParkit Garage

• LAZ Parking - Rowes Wharf

• 75 State Street

• Dock Square Parking Garage 

Apps to help you find parking: SpotHero, ParkWhiz, WhereiPark

You can walk from the CambridgeSide Galleria Mall parking to Long Wharf in 45 minutes. As you approach Long Wharf, please stay to the south of the Marriott on State Street.

Alternatively, you can take the subway for $2.40 from Lechmere to the Aquarium stop, as shown below. This takes about 25 minutes.

Race Information

Course data

• Short: 1.6 km (straight); 10m climb, 12 controls

• Middle: 3.7 km (straight); 4.9 km (shortest viable distance); 20m climb, 24 controls

• Long: 5.1 km (straight); 7.4 km (shortest viable distance); 35m climb, 35 controls

Competitive courses

Update: classes will be assigned as follows:

• F10, F12: Short

• F18, M18, M65 and older: Middle

• F20, F21, F50, M20, M21, M40, M45, M50, M60: Long

Update: this will be an Orienteering USA National Ranking Event. It will be an "urban middle."

The time limit for all courses will be three hours.

There will be at least one map exchange and/or map flip on courses other than White and Yellow.

We reserve the right to add artificial barriers including mazes. 

There may be a timed crossing (i.e., the time it takes you to cross from one point to another is not included in your running time). You will need to register your timing card at the "IN" and "OUT" control boxes at this timed crossing.

Recreational courses

Recreational participants are welcome to run as a group. Each participant must register separately. You can register here for recreational courses. The cost is $16 for adults and $10 for age 20 and younger.

The recreational courses will not have awards, and will not be counted toward national ranking points. No results will be published for recreational courses. Volunteers will get discounted participation in the recreational courses. You can participate in the recreational courses if you were not able to meet the terms of the embargo.

Map Notes

The map is a standard sprint (ISSprOM) map at 1:4000 scale (Long, Short) or 1:3000 scale (Middle) with 2.5 m contours. We thank Cambridge Sports Union (CSU) for their contribution of the maps of North Point Park and Paul Revere Park. The CSU maps have been updated and integrated into the larger map. 

Link to previous maps of North Point Park and Paul Revere Park: 2.5-km race map from 2016 Boston Sprint Camp. Map owner: Cambridge Sports Union.

The other areas (North End Waterfront and Cambridge Crossing) have not previously been mapped for orienteering, to our knowledge. The wharves were built out from Boston’s North End into the ocean; you will be running where there was only sea in 1775. Cambridge Crossing is a very recent development. We’ll visit the ponds and hills of its newly sculpted park, as well as some architecturally pretty splotches of garden.

The legend is not on the map. Here is a good general-purpose sprint legend. Take special note of:

• Out-of-bound symbols (olive green and purple cross-hatch) . If you go into out-of-bounds areas, you will be disqualified, so it is VERY IMPORTANT that you understand how to read these on the map. Often it is not obvious just by looking, that an area is out of bounds. Examples of out-of-bounds areas include busy streets, playground, and private areas.

• Uncrossable feature symbols (buildings and thick black lines: uncrossable fences, uncrossable walls, cliffs). If you cross these, you will be disqualified, so it is VERY IMPORTANT that you understand how to read these on the map. You are never allowed to go into a building, including to use an elevator. (You may go under canopies, which are grey on the map. You may also cross crossable walls and fences, which have thinner lines.)

• Multi-level areas, marked with striped lines. Entrances to lower levels are marked with a line of triangles like sharks’ teeth. We strongly recommend reading the IOF's guidance on urban mapping, accessible on this page: https://orienteering.sport/iof/mapping/. Know also how to distinguish whether a control in a multi-level area is in the upper or lower area, based on the description in the clue sheet. 

Additional points 

• We mapped cobblestone areas with the Stony Ground symbol (scattered black dots).

• There are some areas that have cobblestones with scattered granite blocks. These are mapped with the Stony Ground symbol overlaid with the Boulder field symbol (triangles).

• Some areas that are mapped as sand are actually open dirt.

• Elevated roads that are quite high overhead are not shown. If they are lower overhead, then they are represented with the canopy (grey area) symbol.

• North lines are shown as thin black lines. These are magnetic north.

Course Notes

It’s important that you read your clue sheet. This will help you know whether a control is on the upper or lower level, what side of a fence or other uncrossable feature it is on, and so forth. 

Start Times

Corn Maze Orienteering Sunday August 31, 2025

The day after our event, there will be corn maze orienteering in Western Massachusetts. For more information, please visit Attackpoint. 

To register, send an email with the subject line "CMO registration" to me (jjcotelists@verizon.net) with the following information for each participant:

• Name

• Sex

• Age

• SI number (or "borrow")

• Club (if applicable)

• email (or some other way to contact you if you don't have email)

Entry fee is $20/person, payable at the event in either cash or check made out to Western Connecticut Orienteering Club. There may be discounts for national team members, we'll figure that out later and let you know.

Registration deadline is whenever they reach the registration limit, and I'll post the list of entrants and update it periodically.

People

Event Director: Barb Bryant, admin@navigationgames.org

Navigation Games Program Manager: Mikayla Moss

Course Design: Graeme Ackland

Course Vetter: Nancy Duprey

Course Testers: Josivan Juan de Oliveira, Erkan Sezgin, Andy Driscoll

Electronic Timing: Erkan Sezgin

Day-of-Race Director: Ethan Childs

OUSA Course Design Consultant: Dave Tallent

Cartography: Barb Bryant, J-J Cote

Staff and volunteers: Erkan Sezgin, Mikayla Moss, Maija Pratt, Isabel Bryant, Jared Girouard, Geoff Pingree, Dave Yee, David Bryant, Liz McNerney, Cathy Tingle, Annie Mock, Keegan Harkavy, Clement Jambon, Marius Oksholen, Deb Fraize, Andreas Biri, and more

Land access: Boston Harbor Now, MA Department of Conservation and Recreation, Cambridge Crossing.

Standing Jury: Nancy Duprey, Jon Campbell, Ethan Childs

Explanation for Change of Venue

The August 30th Navigation Games orienteering race venue has changed, due to ongoing closure for infrastructure repairs. 

We will no longer head to the outer harbor, to Georges Island, like a British man-of-war attempting to break through the American blockade. Instead, we, like the British soldiers on the night of April 18, 1775, will cross the water north, to Charlestown. We will channel Paul Revere. You can decide what alarm to raise.

If you purchased a ferry ticket for Georges Island, it will be refunded by the seller. You should have gotten a notice from the ferry company already. Refunds for registration will be processed soon.

Paul Revere’s Ride

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.

He said to his friend, “If the British march

By land or sea from the town to-night,

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light, —

One, if by land, and two, if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm,

For the country folk to be up and to arm.”

Then he said, “Good night!” and with muffled oar

Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,

Just as the moon rose over the bay,

Where swinging wide at her moorings lay

The Somerset, British man-of-war;

A phantom ship, with each mast and spar

Across the moon like a prison bar,

And a huge black hulk, that was magnified

By its own reflection in the tide.

Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street,

Wanders and watches with eager ears,

Till in the silence around him he hears

The muster of men at the barrack door,

The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,

And the measured tread of the grenadiers,

Marching down to their boats on the shore.

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,

By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,

To the belfry-chamber overhead,

And startled the pigeons from their perch

On the sombre rafters, that round him made

Masses and moving shapes of shade, —

By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,

To the highest window in the wall,

Where he paused to listen and look down

A moment on the roofs of the town,

And the moonlight flowing over all.

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,

In their night-encampment on the hill,

Wrapped in silence so deep and still

That he could hear, like a sentinel’s tread,

The watchful night-wind, as it went

Creeping along from tent to tent,

And seeming to whisper, “All is well!”

A moment only he feels the spell

Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread

Of the lonely belfry and the dead;

For suddenly all his thoughts are bent

On a shadowy something far away,

Where the river widens to meet the bay, —

A line of black that bends and floats

On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,

Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride

On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.

Now he patted his horse’s side,

Now gazed at the landscape far and near,

Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,

And turned and tightened his saddle-girth;

But mostly he watched with eager search

The belfry-tower of the Old North Church,

As it rose above the graves on the hill,

Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.

And lo! as he looks, on the belfry’s height

A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!

He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,

But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight

A second lamp in the belfry burns!

A hurry of hoofs in a village street,

A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,

And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark

Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet:

That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,

The fate of a nation was riding that night;

And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,

Kindled the land into flame with its heat.

He has left the village and mounted the steep,

And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,

Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;

And under the alders that skirt its edge,

Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,

Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

It was twelve by the village clock,

When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.

He heard the crowing of the cock,

And the barking of the farmer’s dog,

And felt the damp of the river fog,

That rises after the sun goes down.

It was one by the village clock,

When he galloped into Lexington.

He saw the gilded weathercock

Swim in the moonlight as he passed,

And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare,

Gaze at him with a spectral glare,

As if they already stood aghast

At the bloody work they would look upon.

It was two by the village clock,

When he came to the bridge in Concord town.

He heard the bleating of the flock,

And the twitter of birds among the trees,

And felt the breath of the morning breeze

Blowing over the meadows brown.

And one was safe and asleep in his bed

Who at the bridge would be first to fall,

Who that day would be lying dead,

Pierced by a British musket-ball.

You know the rest. In the books you have read,

How the British Regulars fired and fled, —

How the farmers gave them ball for ball,

From behind each fence and farm-yard wall,

Chasing the red-coats down the lane,

Then crossing the fields to emerge again

Under the trees at the turn of the road,

And only pausing to fire and load.

So through the night rode Paul Revere;

And so through the night went his cry of alarm

To every Middlesex village and farm, —

A cry of defiance and not of fear,

A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,

And a word that shall echo forevermore!

For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,

Through all our history, to the last,

In the hour of darkness and peril and need,

The people will waken and listen to hear

The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,

And the midnight message of Paul Revere.