O in the Oaks

Course Setter's Notes: Day 2

Morgan Territory, Livermore
Sunday, Oct. 28, 2001

Contact: Hannu Haarma, course setter

The terrain for the Day 2 is mainly rolling California hills with plenty of open areas. It is not as steep terrain as for the Day 1 event, but both WRE courses still have over 5% climb. There are very few steep slopes on the courses, and most of the slopes are possible to run up/down/sideways. However, the footing can be quite treacherous in some areas. During the rainy season, farm animals sink quite deep into the soil, and during the dry season these marks dry into hard soil leaving difficult footing in some areas.

The walk to the advanced start (WRE, Blue, Red, Green, and Brown) is approximately 1.7 K or about 25 minutes. Reserve enough time to walk to the start.

Course Statistics

Course        Controls    Length           Climb

WRE Blue         25       10.275 km        590 m
WRE Red          16        7.3   km        390 m
Blue             25       10.275 km        590 m
Red              16        7.3   km        390 m
Green            12        5.5   km        260 m
Brown            10        3.975 km        200 m
The map was checked and drawn by Zoran Krivokapic in the summer of 2001. Maps for Blue and Red courses for both WRE and A-meet are 1:15000 with 5-meter contours. Green and Brown have maps with scale of 1:10000 with 5-meter contours. The controls will be on stands with e-punch units and at least one backup manual punch.

Some of the controls are less than 100 meters from each other. However, the nearby controls are in different types of locations, so there should be no questions or confusion.

Map and Terrain Notes

The forest is mainly California oak forest with good visibility. In "white" forest, the visibility and running is very good. There are three shades of green on the map. The lightest green is still runnable and the visibility is reasonably good. The next level of green will slow the runner, but it is still very passable. The dark green color means "stay out" because in some cases the bushes are not passable. In all courses, there should be no dark green route choices, so those areas should be easily avoided.

The map has many trails and roads. In addition, there are many more seasonal non-mapped farm animal paths in the terrain. Some of them are currently easily noticeable, and some of them are just a faint trail. A decision was made not to map these animal trails because, during the winter rains and spring, most of these trails disappear under the heavy grass and are not noticeable, and in addition, some of these trails change from year to year.

There are rocks, stony areas, rocky areas, boulders, boulder clusters, and fields in many parts of the terrain. Based on this, the rocks are unevenly mapped. Some areas of the map have large 1 meter or higher boulders that are close together and mapped as rocky areas or boulder fields. Other areas can have a single rock of about 0.6 meters or higher that is mapped as a boulder. I have tried to avoid those areas near the control points if there is no clear indication of which one it is. There are also many cliffs and passable rock faces. Most of these cliffs are less than two meters high, but there are some exceptions.

Green X's on the map represent dead trees. The control description is the lone tree symbol modified by the ruined symbol. These trees may be fallen or in the form of tall stumps. If they are stumps, the height is indicated on the control descriptions. Most of the time fallen branches surround the stump. There are some smaller dead trees in the forest, which have not been mapped. I have tried to be consistent and only selected noticeable dead trees for the control locations. Green circles on the map represent living single trees or distinct trees in the forest. The control description is the lone tree symbol.

Hazards

There are quite a few barbed wire fences in the forest, and they all should be easily noticeable. However, please be careful when crossing them (preferably under the fence).

There are some poison oak areas on the terrain, but fewer than on Day 1. If you have allergies for the poison oak, please take precautions and wash with Tecnu afterward.

During my many days in the forest, I have not seen any rattlesnakes, but if the weather is hot, it is possible that someone could encounter the rattlesnake. Be careful.