okansas.blogspot.com

okansas.blogspot.com
Occassional thoughts about orienteering

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Nebraska Sand Terrain

How does this sound for good O' terrain?

...90,000 acres of gently rolling sandhills interspersed with 20,000 acres of trees. Ponderosa pine, Eastern redcedar, and jack pine are the three major tree species...

That's a description of the section of the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey.

Check out the Google Map view of the terrain:

View Larger Map

An odd fact about this part of the Nebraska National Forest is that it is entirely hand planted. The natural vegetation would be grasslands. But about 1900 the forest was planted in the middle of Nebraska.

I have often thought about taking a road trip up to Halsey and exploring the terrain to see if it is as interesting as it looks. I've never managed to actually make the trip (it is a good 7 hour drive from my house).

From an orienteering standpoint, the biggest weakness is the location. There just aren't many people out there (the population of Halsey was 59 in 2000). And it isn't especially easy to get to. Once you get there, I think there are good facilities for an O' race. For example. this 4H camp looks like a good spot for hosting an event.

What needs to happen is Swampfox needs to get inspired and take a few trips out to Halsey, map a few square kms, and then work with a couple of "local" clubs to host an A-meet.

Thanks to J-man for his post on an Attackpoint discussion which reminded me to look at some of the Nebraska sand hill terrain again (see a 2002 note about the same terrain...with a link to a topo).

Update

Some photos from the forest...looks nice.

Back to okansas.blogspot.com.

posted by Michael | 8:02 PM

3 comments

Comments:

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

# posted by

Anonymous : 8:34 PM

I am so there!! Please, someone go there, map it, and put on a meet. Heck, map it and I'll put on a meet.

Clem

# posted by

Anonymous : 10:05 PM

If you build it, they will come.

I drove through there on a roadtrip in 2001. That was before I was orienteering, so I didn't think about the terrain in that regard. I've also flown over it, too.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:27 PM

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