PTOC hosted a local event at a new area -- Landahl Park -- this afternoon. The park is on the east side of Kansas City and is not far from Burr Oak Woods. The area is used by mountain bikers, horse riders, and target shooters. The horses and bikes were not out (it was about 35 degrees and there was on-and-off rain in the morning of the event). The shooters were out. The red course did a loop that took you all around the shooting range. You could, as Gary Thompson pointed out, orient your map by listening to the gun shots.

The area is interesting. The woods are mixed -- some very nice areas but some really thick area. There are a lot of trails. The trails seem to drain very well. Even the horse trails were not shoe-sucking mud despite the recent rain and snow. The trails also give you a lot of chances to avoid running through the thickest forest.

The area might be good for mountain bike orienteering. Maybe PTOC will organize a mtb-O' in the next year or so.

The map is fine. Dick L. did the map and the vegetation is very well drawn. Dick saves white for the really open forest. The lightest shade of green is actually very runnable. The contours are decent. Landahl is, based on my one run through the area, the best map Dick has made to date. The map is very colorful (lots of green) and there is room for improvement in the printing. The map we used looked like a color copy of an original printed on an ink-jet.

I had a decent run on the 7.2 K red course. I lost a little bit of time when I hesitated at a control near the end. I ran hard, if not necessarily fast.

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), March 19, 2000

Answers

I found an interesting map of a section of Landahl Park on the internet. It is from the "earthriders" mountain bike club. The map looks something like an orienteering map. I'm not really sure who made the map:

http://www.earthriders.org/trails/LandahlMap.jpg

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), March 23, 2000.

Ideas on how I might print the full map using my printer? Or is that possible?

Mt bike O'?

-- Fritz Menninger (fpmenninger@hotmail.com), March 24, 2000.