May 5 is National Orienteering Day here in the U.S., and BAOC is hosting two of the more than 40 events being held nationwide. One event is at Coyote Hills Regional Park in Fremont, part of the East Bay Regional Park District. Coyote Hills is at the East end of the Dumbarton Bridge, easily accessible from the entire Bay Area.
Four courses will be offered this year: White (beginner), Yellow (advanced beginner), Orange (intermediate), and a Long Orange (intermediate orienteers who want a longer course). All courses have been designed to provide exceptional views of the Bay Area. The wildflowers will be beautiful.
Maps are at 1:10000 scale with 5-meter contours. All courses will have premarked maps. Sorry, no electronic punching.
Updated stats for the NOD Courses at Coyote Hills are:
Distance Climb Controls
White 2.975km 55m 9
Yellow 4.000km 115m 11
Orange 5.500km 180m 13
Long Orange 9.225km 195m 13
There will be prizes (Brunton compasses) awarded to the top "first-time" orienteers running
White, Yellow, and Orange as a first course.
Sunday morning brings out a lot of joggers and bicycles. Get there early to get a good parking place and a good start time. We'll be using the same area for registration and parking as previous years. Follow the orienteering signs after you pay your $4.00 park entrance fee at the kiosk. Standard registration rates are in place.
There won't be drinking water at any of the controls on the course. Rather, there will be two "common" water areas marked on your map. Obvious route choices go by one or both of these water stops.
Water over ankle deep is out of bounds. Straight lines between some controls on Orange and Long Orange courses go through marsh or water areas. You can't do that! It would have been too confusing on the map to mark all of the wet areas as out of bounds and break the line between controls into segments, so I left it as a straight line over the water areas. For this reason the listed Orange course distance is slightly under the actual and the Long Orange course distance is under by almost 10%. Adjust your plans accordingly.
Control number 9 on Orange (8 on Long Orange) is a government elevation marker.
Control number 5 on Orange is a solar panel attached to the pipe that is on the map.
If you haven't remembered to offer to help at the event, I could still use a few more volunteers. Drop me an e-mail at robtlewis
attbi.com or call me at 408-984-8124.
From 880 in Fremont, exit at Decoto Rd. (a.k.a. 84 West) and go west onto the freeway that leads to the Dumbarton Bridge. After you are on Highway 84 on your way to the Dumbarton Bridge, about 2 miles west from 880, exit at the Thornton Avenue/ Paseo Padre exit, and turn right (north) on Paseo Padre. (Note the both Paseo Padre and Thornton also cross 880, but you don't want to exit at either of these.) After about 1 mile, turn left at the entrance to Coyote Hills Regional Park and follow orienteering signs.
From the Peninsula, take 84 east to the Dumbarton Bridge. After you have crossed the bridge and passed the toll plaza, you should take the first exit at Thornton Avenue & Paseo Padre. Turn left (North) on Paseo Padre and proceed about 1 mile, turning left at the entrance to Coyote Hills Regional Park.