Riga Spring Rogaining 2018 map published

Original publication date: 13.03.2018

For the most interesting places, where it would be worth returning after the competition, we have written down the names on the map, which you can type in an internet search engine and read what the students were looking for 100 years ago on the Šampaniėš hill or where Riga used to store its heat (in the form of peat briquettes). Maybe you too will come to the same conclusion as us, that Riga is much bigger, more beautiful and more interesting than it seemed until now.

Even in the coming spring months, it is possible to reach all checkpoints on dry feet, as long as you manage to avoid mud and puddles and if you do not choose the most direct route.
As in the city, most of the land belongs to a private owner, which would be considered a prohibited area in classical orienteering competitions. In order not to paint the entire card red and not to disqualify almost all the participants, we invite the participants themselves to be sober and not interpret the inscription "Nepiederošiem ieeja aizliegta" as an invitation to visit the security. We have also placed checkpoints in such a way that crossing such areas would not be profitable. On the other hand, pedestrians of more alternative routes can understand such inhospitable areas from the map just like fences.

The basis of the map is the usual "Jāņa Sētas" city map, where the forest is green, but the open spaces are white (as in the "normālās" maps for "normāliem" people, not as in the maps of a sworn orienteer, where the forests are white because they had to save green ink).

The terrain is obtained from an airplane by scanning the earth's surface with a laser. However, we did not fly ourselves, the Latvian Geospatial Information Agency did it for us, but the laser points were interpreted by the Latvian State Forests. If you see 2 brown contour lines next to each other on the map, one will be 2 meters higher than the other in nature. And if the hillside has 5 elevation curves, how many meters high will the hillside be? Wrong - 8 meters!

To make it easier to orient the compass, magnetic north lines (which must coincide with the north arrow of the compass) are drawn across the entire map. These lines are placed every 5 centimeters or 1 kilometer in nature.
Many additions and corrections have been made to the map, especially for rogaining purposes, but consider that it is impossible to fully survey such a wide area and you may come across some changes not marked on the map.

Recommended crossings over major streets, highways, railways and ditches (crosswalks, bridges, tunnels, beaver dams, fallen trees) that we recommend participants use are marked in red. We do not recommend crossing highways in other places, because then you may have to wait up to 10 minutes before a gap appears in the flow of cars.

As in the city, fences are everywhere. Only those fences that the participants will definitely run into are marked on the map. If you plan a more alternative route, where the fences are not marked (this does not mean that they will not be there), then you can guess their existence from the map:

• multi-storey or public building - generally unfenced, publicly accessible territory,
• mansion and industrial construction - usually a fenced, publicly inaccessible area.

If a gate is marked in the fence, it means that it is allowed to stay there. In addition, some checkpoints are deliberately placed in fenced areas, where the movement of participants has been allowed by their owners.

Separated in map designations "pārvarami" and "nepārvarami" ditches and rivulets. In the language of the Rogainists, "pārvarams" means - can be jumped or waded up to the road (if you are the same height as the particular surveyor and cross in the same place. On the other hand, "nepārvarams" means - you will have to open the swimming season. Crossing places for insurmountable ditches are marked on our predicted participants' routes. Unfortunately, ditches have not been checked along the entire length, and fans of alternative routes can hope for a surprise from a beaver or disappointment All the marked ditches have water, while the dry ditches were not drawn on the map at all.