The book details all the major roads in Scotland (115 years ago – so no motorways or city bypasses!) with a subjective description of the road, a list of key gradients and sights, and an altitude profile. The Scottish Mountaineering Club reviewed it in their fourth edition (September 1896) and were encouraged that it could be used to relate cycling and mountaineering.

I was pleased to see route 157 (Oban to Crianlarich) is “Class II [an ordinary main road]. The first 8 miles of the road are good.” Thankfully I’m not going further along it though, as it continues: “Thence to Tyndrum is a fearful road – grass and loose stones”. The book suggests a 1/13 gradient 3/4 mile from Oban will be my main concern, and that I’ll encounter Dunstaffnage Castle as a “Principle Object of Interest” after 3 miles. The section concludes with the encouraging comment that “The scenery on this road is very fine”.

Here is a copy of the accompanying altitude profile, from the 1898 online version on the Internet Archive:

Picking out one more route – 298 (Inverness to Fort Augustus), the guide writes that “the road gets worse and worse, and after Whitebridge is a loose mass of stones, with very steep hills… at times the surface… is little better than a watercourse… These hills of are course highly dangerous… the scenery about Foyers is very fine”. I cycled this route on Day 2 of my John O’Groats to London challenge and can indeed vouch for the scenery at Foyers.

There are some evocative advertisements from the time – one for the Cockburn Hotel which is “adjoining Waverley Station” in Edinburgh, and offers “Passenger Lift” and “Electric Light” but “No Intoxicating Drinks”. The Pneumatic Brake Co Ltd of Manchester has “Tips to Tourists” where it quotes the book it is in – “Hills are not generally regarded as dangerous to descent until they are 1 in 15, and with anything steeper the danger increases” – by adding “If you desire to desire to descend hills of the above description with ease, safety and comfort, send your Cycle to the nearest Cycle Agent to be fitted with a Pneumatic Brake which can be done in a few minutes”. Good to know.

There is also a section with maps of Scotland, the most eye-catching difference is there were many more railway lines in Scotland 115 years ago than there are now…

So are you coming to the greatest show on earth in London next summer? Or are you making a point of staying away? Perhaps even going to a rival sporting event?

Answer my one-question survey below, and enter the first bit of your postcode, and a map will be drawn automatically, showing how the country’s enthusiam for tickets for the games varies!

You can answer the question and see a live map of the results here.

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Here’s some photos I took – click through to the Flickr pages for some slightly pithy commentary to go along with them:

Direct link to the photo set.

January

The year started with a training score exercise in Aird’s Park, near Oban, on New Year’s Day. “Park” is a highly misleading name for the area, it was extremely physical with tussocks and marshes everywhere. Managed to finish second, but only because most of the good people misjudged the time back to the start and got penalties. I was up in the Scottish Highlands on the annual JOK New Year hillwalking trip, so the following day it was back to the Munros – and what a day. The four eastern Mamores climbed in cold and crisp conditions, finishing well after dark.

The only other orienteering in January was two London street-Os – an LOK race in Hampstead and a SLOW race in Wimbledon. They were very hilly, and I got a late penalty at both. And also a weekend of city races – on the Saturday the second Edinburgh Street Race which I enjoyed even more than the first, especially as I didn’t get disqualified this time – and then on the Sunday, having travelled right back to London, it was up again to Lincoln for their own City Race, again the second time I have run it. Again, a great race, and even better than the one before. This time, we got to run right through Lincoln Castle – up the drawbridge, across the battlements and out through the gate. A race with a definite “wow” factor.

February

In February I was quite preoccupied with planning for the JOK Chasing Sprint, which was near Watford. A few chilly weekends were spent surveying the courses. There was also another SLOW street-O, at Kingston, where I again got a late penalty!

Also, I got back up in the Highlands, for one day only. Sleeper to Glasgow, early morning train up, six damp hours in the hills around Loch Ossian (some snow, but a big thaw was on) and then back on the train overnight to London. I’m doing it all again next month.

Finally, I got to use my mountain bike on “proper” terrain as opposed to the streets of London – a two hour lap of the “Red trail” singletrack at Bedgebury Forest in Kent – a warm-up for a weekend singletracking in Wales. My cheapo-MTB held up just fine, which was more than could be said for Chris’s hire bike.

March

The first terrain orienteering of the year – BUCS in SW London. Oxford was organising it on SLOW areas. I went very wrong indeed at the individual race – probably lack of practice. The relay was a bit better but I was still a bit clueless. At least I was a bit better at the next SLOW street-O two days later, in Surbiton. Didn’t get a late penalty for once.

The next weekend it was time for my first mega-cycle of the year – over 10 hours in the saddle, as I tried (and failed) to get to Eastbourne. My mistake, perhaps, was following the National Cycle Network route (21) strictly, even where it goes off the road to go up a bumpy, muddy track, only to rejoin the road a couple of km later. It did this many times. Some sections were very pleasant, such as the bit around Eridge. But, 140km after leaving Hackney, it had got properly dark, so I cut the trip short.

One week later I was off on the bike again, this time taking the “official” road-cycling route to Brighton. I completed the 100km route in just over 5 hours, + a couple of hours of stops – slightly disappointingly seven minutes longer than last year’s.

I also made a start on mapping the western extension to the City of London orienteering map, with a wander around the old alleys off Fleet Street.

The month finished with a weekend in Wales, on the various MTB singletrack trails in Coed y Brenin in North Wales. Great fun, a lot of trails were done, including the Tawr and most of the Dragon’s Back.

April

The fourth trip in four months to Scotland – on Saturday I ran in the Scottish Sprint Orienteering Champs at Stirling University. Afterwards I went for a walk up to the Wallace Monument – I’d been meaning to have a look around this for years. The following day I ran the Edinburgh Half-Marathon – the sprints having been a less-than-ideal preparation. The second half of my race was a lot slower than the first. I’m doing the full-marathon version this year, and will be preparing better!

A couple of days later, and I had not recovered, but I ran anyway in the final SLOW street-O of the year, in Pimlico. I got around with two seconds to spare, and got my second best result of the series. Tim & CJ’s feast was excellent. Then it was back up to Scotland for Easter, but doing the JK Sprint in Newcastle on the way.

Back in London, I cycled 75km to Cuckfield with Anna, the first of our joint training trips for John O’Groats-London in the summer. It was a busy weekend – on the 19th I ran in the Newham Classic 10K – it was a very local race for me, and cheap to enter, and the route past the Olympic Stadium looked interesting. Then in the afternoon more City of London map surveying, around Lincoln’s Inn – and I had my bike nicked! It had lasted only 18 months, although as it happened I was going to be getting a road bike for the long summer cycles anyway.

Finally, there was the Varsity Match, which was just north of London and later in the year than normal – this year’s is in early March in Cornwall. The individual was in Epping Forest – always an enjoyable area to run on. The course was tough but pleasant, and my race was livened up when I spotted a snake slivering away from one of the controls near the end. It was warm enough to lie around at the finish and eat ice cream – summer was on its way!

The above map (basemap by Cloudmade, based on OpenStreetMap data) shows existing and possible venues for orienteering events around the Olympic Park site which is shaded in red:

1. Hackney Marshes and Mabley Green. A very large (400 acre) venue, although not particularly interesting – essentially football pitches as far as the eye can see. However, there is enough of interest for a local event, particularly if the two parks on the west side of the Lee Navigation are included. A hidden gem just in the south part is Wick Woodland, a proper, dense wood with a maze of paths. Sadly, the Waterworks Nature Reserve, just to the north of the marked area, is likely to be out-of-bounds. I believe LOK have an old black-and-white map of the main part of the marshes, from the eighties. The East Marsh is due to be tarmacked over and turned into a giant car park for the Games themselves.
2. Victoria Park is another large (200 acre) green area, LOK mapped it many years ago and it was used quite regularly for events, up to around 10 years ago. I understand they are about to re-map it and it will hopefully be used for an event next summer.
3. Bow – this area was first used for a Street-O race in September – event results.
4. Queen Mary and Mile End Park was used for a SLOW park race in 2008. The campus area is small but allows for exciting sprint racing, the park is also narrow but has some interesting features. A new bridge across the Regent’s Canal has just opened, which will allow the map to be expanded for a similar race in the future.
5. The Isle of Dogs including Canary Wharf and Limehouse – this is an aspiration, no orienteering map exists yet, and organising a race here would be a huge logistical challenge, but this would make a super area for a city race, possibly in 2011 or 2012.
6. Greenwich Park – DFOK have created an orienteering map of this hilly 180 acre royal park, which is also a venue for the 2012 Olympics. It was used for an event in March, and there will be another one in April 2010.
7. Lea River Park – at the moment, the useable area – Three Mills Green and the House Mill – is possibly too small even for the smallest event, and there is no existing map. However, the surrounding area is due to be developed into various new parks over the next six years, so a map of this area could grow with the developments.
8. West Ham Park – quite small (80 acres), but pleasant, could probably sustain a small summer park race. Not yet mapped for orienteering.
9. Wanstead Flats – a large, but very flat and simple area, unfortunately split up into three sections by two busy roads. Already mapped by CHIG.
10. Wanstead Park – a ruined, historic estate, very dense vegetation in places, but used by CHIG fairly regularly for summer events – would possibly be more suited for winter events due to the extent of the vegetation growth!

Also:

• Regent’s Park (LOK) – not on the map here. Newly mapped by LOK, they are keen to stage an event in this royal park which will also be a venue for the London Olympics.
• The Olympic Park itself. Much of it will become available to the public, and therefore potentially for orienteering, in summer 2013.

No orienteering club is based in the East End – indeed, London’s four orienteering clubs sort of converge on this point. London OK (LOK) is based around Hampstead and is generally active in London’s north-west quadrant. Chigwell OC (CHIG) is based around Epping Forest in the north-east. Dartford OK (DFOK) generally runs events in the south-east of the capital. Finally, South London OW (SLOW) is mainly based in the south-west, around Wimbledon and Kingston. There are a couple of SLOW maps in the East End – but only because I live there and have created them!

This means that a collaboration between the four clubs would make sense, for any London 2012-themed series planned for the future.

Last Tuesday was the first Trail Challenge of 2008, organised by SLOW, in Bushy Park, one of London’s Royal Parks. I volunteered to be course planner, to get some planning and organisational experience ahead of a couple of races I will hopefully be putting on later this year. This meant I didn’t get to run, as I was out putting out controls and guarding them. However, it was a good opportunity to take some photographs on what was another warm and pleasant summer’s evening.

As is traditional for the Bushy Park race, the route included an (optional) water splash, which I was surprised to see most (~70%) of competitors taking – as it was early in the race, and not that shallow!

The first control was also quite a spectator friendly one – beside the Duck Pond. The local residents (i.e. the aforementioned ducks) weren’t too happy with the crowd of runners suddenly appearing, and noisily reclaimed their spot once the racers had moved on. The park was, as usual, brimming with wildlife, with several large herds of deer providing an unmarked obstacle. I also spotted a few regal swans and a large heron.

More details about the race – you can also see the routes I planned from here.

Just a quick update on the City of London orienteering map work. Here’s the progress so far:

View Larger Map

The grey areas are the remaining bits, I’m hoping to get them done in June. Green are the nicest areas, red the worst.

Here’s the events I’m hoping to do soon:
13 May pm – SLOW Trail Challenge at Bushy Park (planning)
17 May – JOK Chasing Sprint at Bloom Wood (helping+running)
20 May pm – TVOC Summer Series at Park Wood
26 May – EBOR Park Race at York
5 June pm – LOK Local at Hampstead Heath
7 June – WRE Sprint at Shrewsbury
8 June – HOC National at Brown Clee
10 June pm – TVOC Summer Series at Wittenham Clumps

As always, my map of forthcoming orienteering events is an invaluable planning tool!

Details.

I can’t make the first one but am going to try and be at some of the others.

Maybe, by the time Autumn comes around, I’ll be able to generate maps for the SLOW 2008-9 street-O series, off OSM, rather than off Ordnance Survey maps as is (I think) currently done.

SLOW Street-O map segment:

Corresponding area in OpenStreetMap: