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There was a bit of a kerfuffle at the COC Long distance event with many people crossing forbidden features (lakes and swamps). I feel partly responsible for this, as perhaps the article I wrote about Forbidden Features left people with the incorrect notion that these features mapped as "uncrossable" are not "forbidden". Let me try to clarify...

Mapping Standard (ISOM) - has only five "forbidden" features - "out of bounds", "permanently out of bounds", "forbidden route", "uncrossable boundary" (a purple line), and "cultivated land". i.e. there is nothing in the ISOM that forbids you from crossing something that is "uncrossable" - such as an uncrossable lake or marsh (the feature will be very difficult to cross, but not illegal)

COF Rules - these were the rules that applied to the COC Long final. These rules say that any feature marked "uncrossable" is also forbidden to cross.

Okay - so that is that, quite simple? In Canada, uncrossable features are forbidden to cross,. Crossing these uncrossable features in the COC Long would have given a massive advantage in some situations.

But here's the confusing thing. Imagine that the Long Distance race had been sanctioned by the IOF as a WRE event. Then the M21E and W21E *categories* would have been subject to the IOF rules - and in that case, for those two categories only, it would have been okay to cross those lakes and marshes. But only for those categories - which would create the bizarre situation that, with W21E and M35 both on the same course, the W21E runners would be allowed cross the uncrossable lakes, but the M35 runner could not !

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Out-of-bounds or dangerous areas, forbidden routes, line features that shall not be crossed,
etc. shall be marked on the map with the appropriate purple symbol of line, hatch, cross-hatch
and/or cross. If necessary, they shall also be marked on the ground. Participants shall not
enter, follow or cross such areas, routes or features, unless otherwise specified in the Event
Information.