About this site

My name is Ian Holmes. A few years ago I discovered the branch of motor sport known as road rally. Along with my wife, Lorrie, we road rally our 2014 Ford Focus in regular road rallies and my 1976 MGB in classic road rallies. In 2015 I took over the co-drivers seat for local rally driver Dan Little. This blog describes my adventures in all forms of rallying.

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Finding my way

Navigation. It's probably the most important part of Road Rally.
Sure, it takes some driving skill pull up at a timing control exactly on time. But if you aren't on the right road in the first place, then it's a moot point.
Now, the vast majority of the rallies that we have take part in have been simple course following rallies with basic Tulip or some other simple instruction to follow. We tried a trap rally once and hated it. Our brains just aren't wired to deal with cryptic, hidden clues that you have to decipher before calculating your route. 
That's not to say that I'm not interested in other sorts of rallies. I'm always on the look out for other ideas on ways to present rallies with regards to the next Rum Runner (whenever it is) and being of British heritage I look to the home country for ideas. In fact just the other week I came across some instructions for last years "Tour of Cheshire" road rally that involved quite a bit of map reading. I spent several hours on the site plotting the routes on the various legs from the instructions given (even though the correct route was overlaid on the maps).
Now I love maps and map reading. I always have done, right from a very early age. That might be one of the reasons I got into road rally in the first place. I even considered cartography as a career after leaving school. I find looking at maps (particularly the British Ordnance Survey maps) quite relaxing. So looking at these instructions quite naturally got me thinking about how to implement map reading into Rum Runner navigation instructions.
When it comes to maps we Brits are spoiled. Spoiled like you wouldn't believe. The Ordnance Survey have been producing maps since 1791, and these OS maps are wonderfully detailed and with one in your hand and a little basic knowledge it's not too difficult to find your way around some unfamiliar countryside.  
However, when it came to looking for maps of this quality to use for the Rum Runner, I quickly came up against a brick wall. For maps of OS standard just aren't easily available here. Sure there are US Topo maps but they don't carry anything like the level of detail that an OS map does.
Lets look at a few examples.

US Topo map
This is a US Topo map, downloadable for free from the USGS website. It's like some kind of hybrid satellite photo/map, and shows the end of the first half of the Rum Runner this year, (if you can see the road that is).  What good is a map for navigation if you can hardly see the road?
Another US Topo map
This second US Topo map has stripped away the photograph enabling you to see the contour lines and roads more clearly. But shows no other details. There are schools, churches, police stations disused rail lines and other things missing from this map that could be useful for navigation.
MNDoT Highways map
This is a Highways map from the Minnesota Department of Transportation, showing the end of the second half of the Rum Runner. Nice road detail is shown, marking different types of roads. But no other details. There are bars, churches and township halls in this area, all things that could be used to give a Rallymaster a opportunity to create interesting instructions.
An OS map sample.
This then is a much vaunted Ordnance Survey map. Where in the UK, I don't know, I just pulled a random image off the web. I expect it's Scotland, looking at the place names. Just look at the detail in the map. I can see there is a lot of pine forest, a railway line crosses the area from SW to NE as does an electric power line. A castle, phone box, and a church. So much detail for a Rallymaster to get their teeth into. For example, I have marked an A and B on the map. To get from A to B could be straightforward and easy. But let me add some extra instructions.
Use yellow and brown roads only.
Cross over the railway line.
Drive though SH 226 followed by 156. (SH is a "spot height" and is the elevation of a point above sea level you can see several marked on the map thusly .320 for example)
Cross over the railway line again.
This route would take you in a loop over the river up and down some steep hills, and around some sharp right angle bends before getting you to point B.
So much more fun than following Tulips, or any other instructions I think.
Perhaps there are maps of this level of detail available in the US, but I have yet to find them, and that's the great thing about OS maps. They are so easily available.
Lets say I go back to the UK and find out that the Mablethorpe and District Motor Club is putting on a road rally and I want to take part. I can pop into "The Paper Rack" (a small, independent local newsagent) on Seacroft Road and buy the maps I'll need in there it's that easy. If I want to buy maps like this in a store in the US I'd have to go to Outdoor lifestyle stores like Cabelas.
I think rallying could be so much more fun with maps like Ordnance Survey maps to work with.