Is the Panorama Farms NCAA course fenced off? If not, what's the best place for me to take an uber so I can run my way in as a bandit

I fully support this message.. The race within the race

I have some wire cutters for the fence should we need them.

So i just mapped out the best way.

ibb.co

Screen-Shot-2023-11-17-at-1-30-21-PM

Image Screen-Shot-2023-11-17-at-1-30-21-PM hosted in ImgBB

Link:ibb.co/gzjSjzW

If you go to Willow Brock road, its only about 50m away from the 1km marker on the course.

You never have to touch panorama road which is blocked off to cars.

I'll see you there. Don't worry I'm not a cop. Just a line I heard Kramer say on Seinfeld

You could try Willow Brock Road, but in my opinion, anything coming from the south side (like Willow Brock) would be a little risky because this is where the monitoring will be (anything off Earlysville Road). Ubering to and from might work. You'd still have to cross Naked Creek, but at least it won't be freezing.

I would consider parking all the way up near Albion Cabinets and Stairs place on Reas Ford Road. Or perhaps even better would be all the parking behind the Earlysville Volunteer Fire Company. You'd be completely out of the way, there will be spots (esp on a Saturday morning), the odds of anyone caring would be quite low. No one would think that you're trying to get to the meet. Then, by foot, I would head east on Reas Ford and take a right on Graemont Dr. I would cut through the woods (only .05mi) to get to Loftlands Farm Road, And then I woud take a right on that and take it all the way to the end. At the end, there would be 2 homes to sprint past. I doubt they would care, but even if they did, you're back in the woods. Then, it is about a 0.3mi trek through the woods to get to the course. The overall trip would be a little long for some- about 1.5mi each way. But, for us, that is an advantage because no one else is doing it.

The advantages of this plan, is that there wouldn't be anyone stopping you and you're completely out of the way of ANY race traffic. You can drive there. There is no creek crossing. The only disadvantages are the distance and the long-ish woods section (so if you don't have a gps signal, you have to be able to go straight (lol)). Good Luck!

You'd have to run past someone's house that way. Looks like almost all the roads around the place have houses at the end. The recluses that live way out at the end of these roads tend to not take kindly to strangers.

Looks like your best bet is to approach from the northwest via Reas Ford Lane. At the end of that is a place called Panorama Natural Burial, which is associated with Panorama Farms. Looks like there may even be paths through the woods that lead right to the course.

Interestingly, Panorama Farms runs both a "natural burial" operation and sells "natural compost" 🤔

Good point about the GPS signal, but you won't know if you have a signal until you are there. I would recommend bringing an old fashioned magnetic compass. Probably makes sense to bring printed a screen shot of the area as well.

Does anyone know how deep / wide Naked Creek is?

Would another option be to wear a college sweatshirt and jogging pants and then run right up Panorama Rd and say your are doing a warm-up if anyone asks? I see racers running all over the nearby roads before a XC meet. You can even have a bib underneath that you can flash. Will anyone working the outskirts know the difference, or really care, or do anything to physically stop you from continuing to run up the road?

Look at the strava heatmap for the site:

strava.com

Strava Global Heatmap

Over 1 billion activities, 13 trillion data points create the ultimate map of athlete playgrounds.

Link:www.strava.com/heatmap#15.37/-78.49307...

Entrance from the north looks viable with lots of options

That's a very good question to see if anyone knows how deep / wide Naked Creek. My inclination (admittedly without knowing it) would be to avoid a route that required crossing it, but it could be just a small thing or even dry at the moment.

We definitely are on the same page that if you're going to bandit spectate, then at least do the minimal requirements to have a solid plan so that you are successful. DO YOUR BANDITING JOB WITH EXCELLENCE! The worst would be to go all that way and fail. That's completely unacceptable.

Yes, I would have a screenshot and also just know the distances to my turns. I probably wouldn't bring a compass, but I wouldn't knock anyone for bringing one.

As for the warm-up idea on Panorama Rd, I think it could work for some (unfortunately not for me as I would need to dye my hair, botox, and lose a little weight by tomorrow). However, a lot of people in the other thread yesterday were saying that the road is very narrow and you would be an impediment to the shuttles on the 1-lane road. They could be over-reacting, idk. In general, though, whenever any contact with people can be avoided, I tend to think that is more likely a better plan. The more you can control, the better.

I'm expecting at least one successful bandit story that I can live vicariously through!

In normal backwoods homes, I would agree. But, this course has been hosting meets for 20 years. I'm sure the neighborhoods are used to runners.

Here is a video of naked creek from 6 years ago. Most of it was dried up except for the falls. We would be crossing where the creek ends which I would bet is the narrowest part.

And is a screenshot of "walking directions" for the last two houses on the street. It says 4 min walk and shows the creek in white dotted lines. If the creek were a significant break in terrain, the walking directions would not be direct, but would circumvent the creek.

ibb.co

Screen-Shot-2023-11-17-at-4-26-52-PM

Image Screen-Shot-2023-11-17-at-4-26-52-PM hosted in ImgBB

Link:ibb.co/GpDvtrm

If I do this, I will take an uber to 200 willow brook. if that doesn't work, i'll need a plan b.

200 Willow Brook appears to be on the other side of the creek, so I think there's a bridge there. But you would need to immediately go into the woods after the bridge because the house is pretty much right there.

I think you can kayak your way in, there’s a river that runs through the farm

If we all banded together, this could be like Woodstock '69 where we are in such great #s that they are helpless to stop us!

We just received an order for some of the old barbed wire stock and machine gun turrets we used on the east German border, headed for UVA. They could be planning to build a formidable wall overnight. Good luck.

Could you also tell me more about these compost burials. Sounds like something we would be interested in.

If anyone ever tries to tell you Valbymania isn’t real, direct them to this post where people use satellite imagery to map out routes for trekking through the Virginia forest and contemplate the feasibility of crossing an uncharted river, all just to get a glimpse