Calero County Park
Date: (Sun.) Sep. 9, 2007
Location: San Jose, CA
Event Directors: 
- 408.732.4818, - 408.688.4482
Course Setters: Tapio Karras, Jim Waite
Type: B; Regular 7-course BAOC event
Course Setters' Notes
Welcome to the Bay Area Orienteering Club's annual event at beautiful Calero Park. This year's event has the standard set of 7 courses with these details:
Course Distance Climb Navigation Terrain, Physical Effort
White 3.2 km 115 m Beginner Trails, Easy Yellow 2.9 km 130 m Adv. Beginner Mostly Trails, Easy Orange 3.4 km 230 m Intermediate Off-trail, Moderate Brown 3.2 km 280 m Advanced Off-trail, Moderate Green 4.3 km 310 m Advanced Off-trail, Hard Red 4.9 km 350 m Advanced Off-trail, Hard Blue 6.4 km 435 m Advanced Off-trail, Very Hard
Schedule
Course participants should expect the usual schedule for local events. That is, registration opens at 9:30 A.M., starts from 10:00 A.M. to 12:30 P.M., beginner's clinics from 9:30 A.M. to 10:30 A.M. Courses close at 2:00 P.M.
Important: Please remember that courses close at 2:00 P.M. And, even if you don't complete your course, please bc sure to download your e-punch card so that we know you have returned, and do not initiate a search for you.
Start and Finish Locations
The Start and Finish are both short walks from the parking and registration area. Proceed 450 meters following streamers on the trail that enters the park directly opposite the registration area, until you see the Start area next to a small pond.
E-Punch
All courses will use electronic punching. If you do not already own an e-punch card, you can rent one at registration. Please remember to check in at the e-punch station near registration before heading to the Start, and also remember to download your e-punch card after you complete your course. (Please download your e-punch card even if you do not complete your course. This will help us determine that everyone has finished.)
Warnings
With the dry weather, the matted grasses, fallen leaves, and loose soils can be slippery. Please be careful. We recommend O-shoes or cleats on the intermediate and advanced courses, and shoes with good traction for the Yellow course.
There is a moderate amount of poison oak in the park. It is very dry this time of year, which will reduce the risk of getting an allergic reaction, but without leaves, poison oak can be hard to identify. If you have doubts, we recommend that you wash with something like Tecnu after the event.
Because of the poison oak, as well as other assorted minor burrs and stickers, we recommend long pants for the off-trail courses.
Rattlesnakes are present in the park. In most cases they will avoid humans, so you should not have a problem. However, if you are bitten by a rattlesnake, sit down, blow your whistle, and let other orienteers help you.
Course Notes
Calero is very hilly and the course climb statistics are high. We have tried to compensate for this by making the courses shorter. Most of the courses have been test run, and we expect the winning times to be within the USOF standards.
The Blue course is very difficult, primarily due to the high climb. We expect the winning time to be less than 90 minutes, and this is slightly longer than the USOF standard for a Blue course (75 80 minutes). If you regularly have trouble finishing the Blue course in the 3 hours allowed, Red would be a better choice at this event. Also, please take into account the potentially hot weather.
All controls are on well-defined point features with emphasis on route choice and execution. The Blue course has one control on a metal post with a small sign. This man-made feature appears as a black X both on the map and on the control description.
The runnability this year is quite good as grasses are shorter than usual.
There are 2 water controls for the Blue, Red, and Green courses, and 1 for the Brown and Orange courses. There is no water available on the Yellow and White courses. Depending on the temperature, and your expected time on the course, you may consider carrying additional water.
Map
The maps are printed at a 1:10,000 scale with 25-foot (~7.5 m) contour intervals. Control descriptions are printed on the front of the maps.
Because the entire map has 25-foot contour intervals, there is some loss of detail in the contour information. Contours do not show the deeply eroded reentrants that can make contouring difficult, particularly on the lower portions of the hillsides.
The map uses a "green T" symbol to mark fallen trees. The symbol is oriented to point the direction of the fallen tree trunk. You will find this useful in identifying down trees. Note that the "green T" symbol has a fixed size, thus it only indicates the direction of the trunk, not its length.
For standing stumps and dead trees, the map uses a "green X" symbol. On the control description, both fallen trees ("green T") and standing dead trees/stumps ("green X") appear as a lone tree modified by the ruined symbol.
The Calero map also contains several instances of a standard IOF symbol that is not commonly used in the Bay Area: a line of small black dots in a white area. These lines of black dots mark a change in vegetation (e.g., transition in type of trees). BAOC orienteers are used to seeing these around patches of green, or in small circles marking a redwood circle, but not in more freeform lines in white areas, where they are easily confused with lines of brown dots that mark dry ditches.
We hope you enjoy the courses!
Your event organizers,
Dan Greene
Tapio Karras
Jim Waite