Don Carter State Park
Sunday, September 20, 2026

Join GAOC on Sunday, September 20^th, at Don Carter State Park for classic distance orienteering.

The Georgia State Park fee is $10 per car. This fee is separate from the event registration fee, and must be paid to the park. You may purchase your Day Use Pass online (valid only on the day of purchase), or at the park. Annual passes are also available online from the Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites product catalog or the Friends of Georgia State Parks membership page.

Notes

Beginner instruction is available at 9:00am; participants must pre-register for the Beginner Instruction class.
Water will NOT be provided on any course. A CamelBak or similar hydration pack is highly recommended. Participants must bring their own compass, whistle, and water.
Pre-paid pre-registration is required. (Registration will open for our volunteer event directors at 7:00pm on Monday, September 14^th, and will open for other volunteer coupon holders at 8:00pm. Registration will open to everyone at 9:00pm.) No paper forms or payments will be accepted on-site.
Participants will be started promptly at the start time they select when pre-registering. Please come to the start no earlier than 5 minutes before your start time, but be sure to be at the start on time.
Runners have the option to run one or two courses using the same e-stick. If you want to run two courses, you must pre-register for both courses. On the pre-registration form, select the "I want to run 2 courses option". After selecting your courses, select your start time for your first course. At the event, when you are ready to start you second course, come back to the start to be assigned a start time. You must start your second course before noon.

Courses

Course	Level	Controls	Distance	Climb
White	Beginner	10	1.7 km	40 m
Yellow	Novice	12	2.2 km	60 m
Orange	Intermediate	11	2.5 km	115 m
Silver	Very short advanced	9	2.2 km	80 m
Brown	Short advanced	14	3.8 km	160 m
Green	Medium advanced	12	4.7 km	235 m
Red	Advanced	14	6.3 km	270 m

Schedule

Runners must select their start time when pre-registering, and will be started promptly at their selected start time. Please come to the start no earlier than 5 minutes before your start time, but be sure to be at the start on time. Last start is at noon. All runners must be off all courses by 3 hours after their start or 2:00 pm, whichever comes first. Volunteers will start picking up controls at 2:00 pm.

Directions

Don Carter State Park address is 5000 N Browning Bridge Rd, Gainesville, GA 30506.

Directions to the park from the DNR web page go out of their way to go too far north. Suggested alternate directions below consist of only a short stretch of gravel road:
Take I-985 to Gainesville
Take exit 24 (to US 129N)
Right on Limestone Pkwy (129N) at McDonalds
Right on Clarks Bridge Road
after 4.8 miles, right on B. Clark Road (gravel - changes to paved)
at dead end, right on N Browning Road into park.

Volunteers needed

Event volunteers are always needed and appreciated. Each volunteer is awarded a coupon that may be used for discounted (and early) event registration or items from our merchandise page.

If you are interested in helping out at the start, search and rescue, or control pickup, please select your volunteer position(s) on the registration page or contact the meet director.