Santa Rosa
Sunday, Jun. 22, 2003

Contact: Scott Aster, 415-456-8118

Here we come again! BAOC will host our biannual event at beautiful Spring Lake park. The terrain here is unlike almost anything else in the Bay Area, with dozens of old mining pits, hundreds of rock features, scenic meadows, and a picturesque lake smack dab in the middle. An additional bonus is that the terrain in the park itself is mostly flat, with most course climbs staying well below the average for the Bay Area.

Some changes have occured in the format of the event. The rangers at Annadel (the state park adjacent to Spring Lake) have denied our request for a permit for that day. If we had received the permit, I would have designed normal advanced courses to utilize the great technical terrain there.

Spring Lake does have some very intricate and detailed terrain, but the extensive trail network makes it impossible to set anything beyond an Orange level course.

So, there will be the usual White, Yellow, and Orange courses, plus, I've designed two challenges for advanced orienteers (and anyone else who wants a different sort of challenge), which I hope will encourage those of you who normally do advanced courses to attend.

The first of these will be a three stop memory-o. I will have three master maps with all the controls showing on them. One of these masters will be at the start triangle, while the other two will be set out at two controls on the distant parts of the map. Participants will not have a map with them, but will have to locate their controls by memorizing their location on the master maps and then going out and finding the controls. This will be done "score-o" style, meaning that you can visit your controls in any order. You will be able to come back and view the master maps as often as you need, but doing so will cost you time, so get that short term memory in order! The controls used on this course will be unique to this course, complemented with some (but not all!) of the W-Y-O controls. I have estimated that someone who finds all the controls using only one visit per master map will cover approx. 6km with about 130 meters of climb total.

The second challenge will be a 1,500 meter "sprint" course. This course will be a great challenge to see who can run the fastest "metric mile" while navigating at the yellow/orange level. The course will make minimal use of trails, utilizing the mostly open meadows south of Spring Lake. I will keep the climb below 40 meters total, and am trying to keep it at 25 meters (I'm still tweaking the course). Participants on this course will be able to do it by themselves, or starting together with one of more other competitors as a true, heat to head race. This should be a fun course for spectators!

Registration and starts will be at the Oak Knolls picnic area (where we usually set up) which is located just southeast of the lake. As always, there will be instructional clinics offered throughout the morning for beginners, and starts will run from 10AM until 12:30.

The weather should be beautiful in June, but be prepared! Our summer meets here have encountered temperature extremes from 55 degrees (foggy) to 101 degrees, and conditions can change dramatically from day to day.

Oak Knolls is a great place for a picnic, so plan on bringing up a lunch and enjoying the day after you complete your course. Modern toilets, picnic tables, and barbecue pits are plentiful, and by June the swimming lagoon will be open, so bring your swim trunks for a delightful cool-off afterwards.

See you there!

Directions

Take U.S. Highway 101 north to Santa Rosa. Once in Santa Rosa, exit onto highway 12 going east. Follow highway 12 for 1.5 miles to its left turn at Farmer's Lane. Do not take this turn, but instead, continue straight onto Hoen Avenue. At the Hoen-Summerfield traffic light 1.5 miles later, continue straight, then take an immediate left onto Newanga Avenue. Newanga leads into Spring Lake County Park. At the ranger's kiosk, make a right and go up the hill to the Oak Knoll Picnic Area.