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Dimond Park

Date: (Sun.) Jul. 31, 2005
Location: Oakland, CA
Event Director: - 510.681.6181
Course Setter: Rex Winterbottom
Type: Short and Long courses, and "Urban Goat" combination

Experience a delightful mix of runnable streets, secret pathways and staircases, and small parks you never new existed in Piedmont and the Oakland Hills.

Be it fog or sunshine come out and enjoy a rollercoaster of orienteering fun Sunday, July 31 through the undulating hills of Oakland (Glenview, Crocker Highlands neighborhoods represent!) and Piedmont. Gardens, quaint houses, parks, monuments, and secret staircases are sure to delight you on your journey.

There are 3 courses using street signs as control markers.

See the Course Setter's Notes for more information about the courses.

The Start, Finish, and Registration will be near the entrance to the park at the end of Wellington Street (intersection with Cañon Avenue.)

Schedule -- Registation:   9 AM to noon
            Starts:       10 AM to 12:30
            Mass Start:   10 AM
            Courses close: 2 PM

Anyone on any course can join the mass start. All the maps will have all the courses on them, labeled appropriately so you can do any course you want.

You can even bail on the Urban Goat and do the Short course. If you're planning on doing the Short course, the mass start could be exciting for you, because there will be lots of action in the small area with the 8-control Score-O.

The map is in good shape. I scoped out the areas around the courses, added 1 footpath/staircase, and there are about 4 footpaths/staircases that will be reclassified as indistinct. Some are fenced at either end. (So how much does Steve Gregg owe me, then?)

Helpers needed! Please contact me (see above) if you can help out some time between 9:00 and 2:00 with Starts, Finishes, Registration, Results.

Regards, Rex

Driving Directions

From San Francisco and the North Bay, take the Fruitvale Avenue exit off the 580 freeway in Oakland. Turn left at the stoplight and continue north on Fruitvale under the freeway. Continue on Fruitvale past the stoplight at MacArthur Boulevard. Soon you will pass the Safeway on your right, and Dimond Park is about 200 meters past the Safeway on the left. The park has no parking lot so you will need to park wherever you can on the street. The Safeway parking lot should be fine too.

The directions are more confusing coming from the South Bay, as there is no freeway exit off of 580 that takes you directly to Fruitvale. You want to take the Coolidge Avenue/Fruitvale Avenue exit and at the stoplight, continue parallel to the freeway on Montana St. for 0.4 miles. You will go down a very steep hill and then go by a Longs Drug store on your right. The stoplight past the drug store is the intersection with Fruitvale. Turn right and follow the directions above to the park.