The Hoosier Woodlands Meet will be held on the Story West map in Hoosier National Forest.  This is a bare-bones OUSA-sanctioned National Ranking Event with full range of competitive age-class long courses plus Recreational long courses (white, yellow, orange).  There are open classes available if you want the option of a longer course than is standard for your age-class.  You can also compete in an age group that has a course that is harder or longer than the standard for your age-class.  

Location:  Nebo Ridge North Trailhead in Hoosier National Forest near Story, IN.  888 W Elkinsville Rd, Nashville, IN 47448

Parking:  The parking lot at the Nebo Ridge Trailhead is small so most of us will need to park on the side of the road.  If the lot is full, please park on the east of Elkinsville Rd. north of (before) the entrance to the parking lot.  Do not park on the road or on the bottom of the curve south of (beyond) the entrance to the parking lot.

Embargo:  The portion of Hoosier National Forest from Elkinsville Rd. east to Kirks Ford Rd., north of Combs Rd. and south of Elkinsville Rd. is embargoed for NRE competitors from Sept. 1, 2025.

Safety:  This meet will be held during Archery and Muzzle-loader hunting season.  Please wear an orange or bright red hat or shirt.

Toilets:  There will be one porta-potty at the parking lot.  The nearest public restrooms are at the Brown County State Park Horseman's Camp on SR 135 north of Story or at gas stations in Gnaw Bone.

Walk to Start:  There will be an approximately 1km walk to the start, mostly off-trail and with about 50 m of climb.  Plan on 10 - 20 minutes to walk there.

Starts:  We will have three start windows (10:30 – 11:09, 11:10 – 11:50, and 11:51 – 12:30).  If you registered in for the NRE event, please see the Event Reg registration list (https://eventreg.orienteeringusa.org/eventregister/reglist/home/hoosier-woodlands) for the time of the beginning of your assigned start window.  Within each start window, runners will start every three minutes with the Blue and Brown and Green and Red courses alternating so that there will be at least 6 minutes between starts on each of these courses.  When you arrive at the start during your assigned window, please line up according to your course and you will start at the next available start for your course.  The Brown and Blue start windows are especially full so please plan to arrive at the start location at the beginning of the start window.  White, Yellow, and Orange runners including the recreational classes may start in any start window.  White and Yellow runners will be permitted to look at the map and ask questions three minutes before starting.  All other runners will flip their maps after punching the start box.

Course Time Limit:  There is a 3-hour time limit for the NRE classes.  All courses will close and control pick-up will begin at 3:30 pm.

Water on Courses:  While we plan to have water controls on the longer courses, there is a risk that the expected cold temperatures will freeze the water – please bring your own if you think you will need it.

White & Yellow Courses:  The White and Yellow courses will have the route from the second last to the last control marked with streamer tape.  Indistinct trails on the map relevant for these courses may also be marked with streamer tape.

Course Setters:  Mattias Eriksson

Mapper:  Robert Minto

Event Director:  Brenda Blacklock

Registration is Closed

NRE Online Preregistration Only HERE

Recreational Online Preregistration Only HERE 

Event Fee OUSA Discount OUSA/IOF Club Discount  Deadline  

NRE Adult $28 - $4         - $4 Sun. Dec. 7, 11:00 pm

NRE Junior $16 - $2     - $4 Sun. Dec. 7, 11:00 pm

Rec WYO $15 none - $5                             Sun. Dec. 7, 11:00 pm 

SI card rental $2

Extra maps $2 each

Course Details with Preliminary Climb/Distance:

Course Classes           Length (km) Climb (m)   Map Scale

White F/M-10, F/M-12,         1.5 km       50 m 1:10,000

Open/Rec White

Yellow F/M-14,             3 km 50 m 1:10,000

    Open/Rec Yellow

Orange F/M-16,             4 – 5 km       140 m 1:10,000

Open/Rec Orange

Brown F-18             3 – 4 km 120 m     1:10,000

F-55+, F-60+     1:7,500

F/M 65+, F/M 70+

F/M 75+, F/M 80+

Green M-18, F-20

F-35+, F-40+, F-45+

Open Green               5 – 6 km     160 m             1:10,000

F/M-50+, 

M-55+, M-60+ 1:7,500 

Red F-21+           8.5 km       330 m             1:10,000*

M-20

M-35+, M-40+, M-45+

Open Red

Blue M-21+, Open Blue 10.5 km   500 m             1:10,000*

*  1:15,000 scale maps will be available for National Team members upon request.  Please make a comment in the registration.

Mapper Notes:

The Story West map was mapped as a COVID project beginning in 2020 by Robert Minto and has been updated through early 2025 to include vegetation and point features to the 2017 ISOM standard (1:10,000 with 5 m contours).

In the cooler months of the year, Story and Story West are fun, generally open running.  Most of the deeper woods and steep hillsides of Hoosier National Forest are white or light green.  The transition from white to light green is often very subtle; this map was created with an eye to the runnability in September or early May when areas with saplings will impede your vision. 

Southern Indiana forests typically have more than a bit of greenbriar, infrequent raspberry/briar patches, and uncommon multiflora bushes (thorn-resistant leg cover is a way better plan than shorts).  Mapping of the sharp vegetation with green bars focused on areas where it was less avoidable and mostly knee-high or greater.  Where it might significantly affect choices on ridges and in valleys, it is mapped with vertical green lines.  In some of the more dense areas of vegetation, briars are indicated in two ways.  First, scattered bushes are shown as green bars.  Denser patches, occasionally head high, are shown by tight green bars; they collect tariffs in blood.  Areas of dense medium and dark green vegetation has the potential be spiky too!  Fight and double green bars will definitely lower your fun quotient!

Contours (5-m with some form-lines) are smoothed partially redrawn, KP contours from 2017 Indiana LIDAR.  Shallow ditches and reentrant basins that have active erosion tracks but are dry, except in heavy rain, are dotted ditches.  Gullies are occasionally used for steeper sections of ditches/reentrants.  Intermittent streams are rockier and flow in the spring and after rainy periods.

Earthbanks along streams were infrequently mapped, and only if they were large and too steep to pass.  The N edge of the map is bordered by Salt Creek.  Unless it is flooded, it has very high unmapped earth banks and a very mucky bottom.  Stay out of it!  Many of the flowing streams also have unmapped 1-2 m banks, particularly at bends.  

Expect that rock features, cairns, and erosion gullies are often much smaller than the international standard.   Small rock bands were mapped if they were distinct, even if they are minor.  Although most of the cliffs are small, the SE portion of the map has some sharp drops that we don’t want you falling off!

The forest has patches of transitional forests with pines planted for erosion control reaching their lifespan; also, the area has had several major wind events in the past 5 years generating many rootstocks.  Many recently fallen treetops appear as medium to dark green patches.  

• Rootstocks, generally over 1 m in height, are mapped (symbol 115 - brown triangle) 

• Aging rootstocks with minimal root wood exposed are mapped as dot knolls, which may only be 0.5-m high on the leading edge.

• A dashed green vegetation boundary frequently indicates the edge of a pine grove in predominantly hardwood forest.

Brown County has had many homesteads prior to 1940 disappear into the woods.  It is good land for orienteering but a tough life for a farmer!   There may be faint ruins, beds of daffodils in the spring, and wells.  Mapped deep wells and cisterns (blue squares) are generally marked or covered; show care around the many smaller mapped wells, which can have narrow openings.  Black X is used for old junk piles, large tires, cars, and substantial but solitary fence posts.  Ruined fences are not navigable but can be trip hazards.

Tick season comes early and lasts late into autumn in southern Indiana.  Treating shoes, socks, and other clothing with permethrin is the recommended way to avoid them.  Always do a tick check after your run!

Volunteers: We're always looking for help at our meets. The bigger the volunteer pool, the more events we can host each year. If you can lend a hand, please contact us at info@indyo.org.