Annadel B Event
Annadel State Park
Santa Rosa, CA
Sunday, April 19, 1998

Registration

No pre-registration is required. Registration will be day of event from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Registration will take place at the Oak Knolls Group Picnic area in Spring Lake Park in Santa Rosa. Spring Lake Park is immediately adjacent to Annadel State Park. The usual BAOC entry fees will apply. Currently the fees are $6.00 for members and $8.00 for non-members. There is a $2.00 surcharge for groups. Orienteers younger than 21 going out on a course by themselves pay half the normal fee. Extra maps are $2.00 each. The maps will be pre-marked with the courses.

Map and Terrain

The map is 5 color, IOF standard with a scale of 1:10000 and has a 5-meter contour interval. It was first prepared for the 1989 US Championships and field checked in 1988 by Rami Pitkanen. The map was extensively revised and drafted in OCAD in 1996-97 by George Kirkov. Portions of the map were used for the Western States Championship, an “A” meet hosted by BAOC last October. There will be a minimal overlap of terrain for the Green, Red, and Blue courses with last October’s event.

Some of the best orienteering terrain in the Bay Area is found in Annadel State Park. There is a wide variety of forest, including oak savanna, pine, and redwood, intermixed with some meadows. The area was extensively used for mining. As a consequence, there are numerous rock features, pits, and small quarries which provide a lot of technical challenge for the orienteer.

The mapper has used a wide variety of symbols to try to depict the complex terrain in the mined areas. These include pits, steep banks, dot knolls, form-line knolls, small changes in contour lines (small reentrants), boulders, boulder fields, rocky ground, etc. As a consequence, it takes careful map reading to understand the terrain. There may be a fine line trying to distinguish between a pit, small quarry, or reentrant, but generally I think Kirkov has done a good job in depicting this complex and difficult terrain. Also, there is some variability in the mapping of certain features, depending on which is the dominant one. For example, there frequently is a small dot knoll beside a pit, indicating the dirt and rock that was excavated from the pit. Sometimes only the pit is shown, sometimes only the dot knoll, and sometimes both. Again, the mapper tried to depict the dominant feature, and where there are multiple pits and or knolls, may have left one or the other off the map to improve its readability. Sometimes excavations mapped as pits are not round or cylindrical, but may be quadrangular or irregular in shape.

Courses

I had originally planned on designing and setting the courses for this event. However, because of my prolonged knee injury, I have been unable to do any field checking. I have only been able to do the preliminary course design. Bob Cooley has graciously agreed to do the field checking, final course design, and control placement for this event.

 These are the tentative course statistics as of mid February 1998. However, they are subject to change prior to the event. See the next issue of the Bulletin or the BAOC Web Page for more current information.

Course   Length  Climb   Technical Difficulty   Physical Difficulty
White    2.5 km   70 m   Novice                 Easy
Yellow  2.85 km  100 m   Advanced Beginner      Moderately easy
Orange   3.0 km  100 m   Intermediate           Moderately easy
Brown    3.2 km   75 m   Advanced               Moderately easy
Green    4.6 km  145 m   Advanced               Moderate
Red     6.75 km  285 m   Advanced               Hard
Blue    8.25 km  360 m   Advanced               Very hard

Event Officials

Controls

On the advanced courses, the controls will be placed low, about knee high, on stands. However, they will not be hidden. If you are at the control location, you should have no problem seeing the control marker. If the control is a mapped rock or distinct tree, the control will usually be placed on the side opposite from the most common approach. The location will be indicated on the control description sheet. Punches will be attached to the control bags. If you pin your punch card on your shirt, it would be better to pin it closer to the waist than on your chest, so there will be no problem with the punch cords reaching. The control markers will be of two types. The 100 series will be standard orange and white Nexus (formerly Silva) markers. The 200 series will have an additional vertical blue stripe to help our color challenged orienteers. Controls for the white, yellow, and orange courses may be hung from trees.

Start

There will be a remote start for the orange, brown, green, red, and blue courses. It will be about 1.5 km with 110 m of climb, and take about a 20-30 minutes walk to reach the start. The start for the white and yellow courses will be near the assembly area. Start times for all courses will be between 10:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The finish for all courses will be near the assembly area.

Hazards

Some of the terrain is very steep, and care should be taken going down steep reentrants or paths, particularly when there is loose gravel. Cleated orienteering shoes, especially with metal spikes, are recommended on the advanced courses. If a reentrant looks too steep to go down for your physical ability and footwear, take an alternate route.

There are a lot of rocks in the park, and some of them may be covered with grass and difficult to see. As a consequence, take care when running through rocky areas, as it is easy to twist your ankle on a hidden rock.

There is a small to moderate amount of poison oak, but it can generally be avoided. Most of it is relatively low growing. The usual poison oak precautions should be observed, however. These include: avoidance of the plant whenever possible; changing your clothes as soon after completing the course as possible, putting them in a plastic bag, and not touching them again until after they have been washed; and cleansing your skin with Tecnu (a poison oak cleanser available in most drug stores), as soon as possible after the event, and again just before showering.

Directions

The assembly area and registration will be at the Oak Knolls Picnic Area in Spring Lake Park. This is NOT the same area as was used for the Western States Championships last October.

Take U.S. Highway 101 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, and 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. The park will collect a parking fee of about $4.00.

More Info

For further information, see the BAOC Web page at http://www.baoc.org, call the BAOC hotline at 408-255-8018, or contact me by e-mail at evancusteraol.com, or phone at 510-254-5628.

Evan Custer


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