Traditional @ Mirror Lake on Saturday June 27

Come enjoy the beautiful forest running on a newly-expanded Mirror Lake map. Starting at the Girl Scouts’ Camp Singing Hills on the east side of the Glen Highway on Edmonds Lake, this National Ranking Event boasts white, yellow, orange, brown (short green), green, red and blue (long red) courses through open birch forest. Stick around afterward for the cookout at the finish area!

• There will be a 20 minute walk to a remote start for orange level courses and up. Arrive in plenty of time to park and register at the camp before walking to your start.
• Starts will be every two minutes from 12pm until 2pm. Start times will not be pre-assigned, you should be able to start shortly after you arrive at the remote start.
• All punching will be via inserting your SI stick into the control box. There will be no contactless punching.
• Consider your personal safety when deciding whether or not to bring bear spray, a snack, and/or water. Whistles are mandatory equipment.
• Stop and look both ways at road crossings to ensure your own safety.
• Come back by the course closing time of 5:00 and sign in whether you finish your course or not!
• Enjoy the after-party!

Course Setters Notes

Put down your salmon rod for a few hours Saturday and come look at your reflection in Mirror Lake for this year’s one and only National Ranking Event hosted at the Girl Scout’s Camp on the north shore of Edmunds Lake. We hope the image looking back at you will have a big smile on its face!

New Mapping!!
The already good running Mirror Lake map has been added to east of the highway and offers new and interesting terrain around the lakes and into the foothills of Chugach State Park. We will have 7 different courses set to National standards from a 2 kilometer White all the way up to a 9 kilometer Blue challenge. White and Yellow will stick to the extensive trail systems in and around the lakes while Orange through Blue will venture into the beautiful birch forests with challenging terrain features and surprisingly little downed timber or alder. Bring your repellent for bears, moose and mosquitoes. All have been sighted during set up.

Getting there and to the start
Take the Glen Highway north through Chugiak, get off at the Mirror Lake exit and follow the orienteering controls to the Girl Scout Camp. There is ample parking north of the main lodge and registration will be set up next to the lodge. Bring your finger sticks or get one at the registration table as we will be using electronic punching. Once registered White and Yellow have a 3 minute walk to their start area just up the hill east of the parking area. All other courses will have a remote start west of the Glen Hwy. It is a 1 kilometer walk or drive back along the road you came in on to the overpass, there is some parking west of the overpass if you choose to drive it. Once west of the under pass, turn right at the Do Not Enter signs and pick up the flagged route down the embankment and west ½ kilometer into the forest. You will arrive at the hold area and be released to the actual start when your start time arrives. Walk over a small, hill get your map, clear and start, and be on your way to fun and adventure. All finishes are in front of the registration area at the Girl Scout lodge. Mark Finley will be serving up burgers and hot dogs with condiments under the awning outside the lodge after the finish.

Vegetation and other features
Most of the area is new growth birch, evenly spaced with limited undergrowth and limited areas of high bush cranberry, rusty menziesia, elder berry, rose bushes and some devils club patches (mapped as green lines), vegetation mapping has been updated and is pretty accurate with a tendency toward less green showing than mapped. Alder thickets show up along utility corridors and in disturbed areas. We have tried to avoid the slow green areas to the best of our abilities, but you can find yourself in it if you don’t pay attention. The stream channels are old glacial remnants and contain large cobbles to the extent that the stream flow disappears into the rocks in some areas. Running and crossing these areas offers uneven footing at best. As is common in southcentral the yellow mapped open areas offer good visibility but terrible footing, choose carefully. There are a variety of man-made features marked as either black X, or O. These range from old cars, piles of abandoned tires, log structures, picnic tables, fire rings and tent platforms.