PARC General Information

PARC Location Distances in Miles
Cherokee PARC Cherokee Marsh-South Boat Launch, Madison, WI Novice: Trek 3 — Bike 20 — Paddle 2.2
Intermediate: Trek 5.5 — Bike 35 — Paddle 4
Pro: Trek 9 — Bike 50 — Paddle 5

 

What’s a PARC?

A Permanent Adventure Racing Course, or PARC, is an adventure race that is set up to be run at any time, by anyone. You can download the instructions and maps right here, and then head out to paddle, bike, and trek the course.

Who can do a PARC?

With three different levels of adventure, anyone can do a PARC. PARCs are perfect for:

  • Experienced adventure racing teams looking for a great training opportunity to dial in their navigation, transitions, and teamwork
  • Beginning adventure racers who’d like extra practice in all the disciplines of AR
  • Nature lovers who’d like to get out for a treasure hunt hike in the woods
  • Anyone who enjoys an outdoor adventure challenge

What’s the difference between a novice, intermediate and pro course?

  • Novice: a short distance course designed for everyone, with pre-plotted maps to get you out there quickly.
  • Intermediate: a medium distance course for those who’d like to plot a few UTMS, but would like a bit easier navigation. Often this means trail maps are included and you may decide to extrapolate from the topo maps to the trail maps to make things easier.
  • Pro: a long distance course designed for experienced adventure racers who want to practice plotting UTMs and work on navigation with only topo maps to guide them.

UTM? What’s that?

Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system, of course. That help a lot, right? Ultimately, there is a grid system that is used to uniquely identify any spot on the earth’s surface with an x, y coordinate. Wikipedia does a nice job explaining UTM here.

Ok, I think I get what UTM is. How do I plot them, though?

We have a very nice tutorial to get you started.

What if I only want to do the novice length, but I’d like to plot all the UTMs and I only want to use topo maps.

Our courses are very flexible. The intermediate course includes the novice course plus additional points. Likewise, the pro course is comprised of the intermediate course plus additional points. To customize your own adventure, just pick and choose the portions you’d like to complete.

What am I looking for out there?

In most adventure races and orienteering events, competitors are searching for an orange and white orienteering kite. However, with a course that is permanent, we really can’t leave those flags out there – we suspect they’d disappear over time! So to confirm you’ve reached each location, there will be a question for you to answer.

Ok, you convinced me, now what?

Just choose the course that suits you, print the instructions and maps, and off you go!

Wait! I looked at all the course info and I’m still not really sure where to start. Where can I get more direction?

We are happy to help! Whether you just have a few questions or if you’d like an in-person navigation clinic, shoot us an email and we’ll do everything we can to help you get started.