Sunol Regional Wilderness
Date: (Sun.) Apr. 22, 2007
Location: Sunol, CA
Event Director: 
- 408.262.3457
Course Setter: Gary Carpenter
Type: B; All seven courses--White through Blue--plus Long Orange
Course Setter's Notes
By Gary Carpenter
Welcome to Sunol Regional Wilderness!! Eight point-to-point courses are offered today: White, Yellow, Orange, Long Orange, Brown, Green, Red, and Blue.
Course Statistics
Technical Physical Course Length Climb Controls Difficulty Difficulty
White 2.4 km 80 m 12 Novice Easy Yellow 2.8 km 140 m 12 Beginner Easy Orange 4.4 km 150 m 10 Intermediate Moderate Long Orange 5.1 km 220 m 10 Intermediate Hard Brown 4.3 km 165 m 12 Advanced Moderate Green 5.2 km 260 m 13 Advanced Hard Red 6.2 km 310 m 16 Advanced Harder Blue 7.1 km 410 m 17 Advanced Hardest
All course maps are pre-printed from OCAD. White and Yellow maps are printed at 1:7500 scale. All other maps are scaled at 1:10,000. Electronic punching (e-punch) will be used on all courses.
Start Areas
The White, Yellow, and Orange Courses will start in the clearing near registration. Long Orange, Brown, Green, Red, and Blue have a remote Start (plan on a 20- to 30-minute hike). There will be water at the remote Start area. There are no toilet facilities near the remote Start area. You can leave warm-ups at the remote Start, and we will arrange to transport them back to the registration/e-punch download area. However, the timeliness of their return will depend on the availability of volunteers for this task.
All courses have the same Finish.
Beginners
If you've never tried orienteering before, we recommend that you do the White course first. If you like it, you may have time for the Yellow course too. There will be informal clinics for beginners between 9:30 and 10:30 A.M. near the registration area.
Terrain
The terrain at Sunol is steep. The contour interval is 7.5 meters. Two closely-spaced 7.5-meter contours can mean an uncrossable reentrant. In most cases contouring around reentrants is advised. The footing is generally pretty good. Last Saturday's rain softened up the ground somewhat, which is preferable to the hard, baked, summer conditions. Cleats are strongly recommended on the Orange and advanced courses. The Long Orange, Green, Red, and Blue courses each have one steep downhill leg. The terrain is steep enough that Kelly and I decided to streamer the lowest-angle route on the Long Orange course. If you're uncomfortable negotiating steep downhill terrain, we suggest running the regular Orange or Brown course.
Map
A portion of the map parallel to and south of Welch Creek Road was re-mapped by Vladimir Zherdev last year. This year all of the advanced courses will utilize portions of this re-mapped area. The remainder of the map is basically a direct conversion to OCAD of the old Sunol map (George Kirkov, 1991), and doesn't reflect all of the changes that have occurred in the last 16 years. It does reflect changes that have been made over the past few years by Mark Blair and Bob Cooley, as well as some new changes this year (mostly in the immediate area of controls). There is a difference in the mapping style, most notably, Vladimir shows many "distinct vegetation boundaries" (dotted lines)—similar vegetation boundaries on the old portion of the map are not shown dotted.
Some map items of note: The reentrant parallel to the western half of Welch Creek Road is very steep and overgrown; there are no good crossing areas. As a result, this area has been marked "out of bounds" on all advanced course maps. There are many unmapped animal trails—primarily the result of cattle grazing. Some of the mapped trails and vehicle tracks are overgrown and indistinct. Cattle trails in particular can be surprisingly well defined and confusing in areas of mapped trails. Be careful not to mistake an unmapped trail for a mapped one. There are also many unmapped dead/fallen trees (root stocks). Some of the vegetation has spread and thickened since it was mapped. Much of the "green" (even the very light green) is poison oak. The courses have been designed to avoid the worst of the poison oak, but you'll still encounter some on the courses. Full body covering and the use of Tecnu is recommended.
Black X's: Black X's signify "special man-made features". These include (but are not limited to) picnic tables, signs, power poles (often cut-off several feet above the ground), and 5-foot diameter circular concrete man-hole structures.
Blue X's: Blue X's signify man-made water features such as watering troughs for cattle.
Green Circles: Green circles are used to map a variety of vegetation features including single trees, bushes, and small thickets.
Control Markers
Most of the control markers for the advanced courses will be on stands about knee high. Where the control is a point feature (such as a boulder), the control bag is typically placed on the side of the feature opposite the expected direction of approach.
Hazards
Sunol Park has the usual wilderness hazards, which include poison oak, ticks carrying Lyme disease, rattlesnakes, and steep loose terrain. There are several fence crossings on the intermediate and advanced courses. Some of the fences have been repaired recently, and are more difficult to scrooch under than in the past. Choose your crossing point carefully and beware of the barbed wire. There will be a First Aid Kit at the registration area.
Wildlife: Sunol Park has a variety of wildlife including turkey, bobcat, deer, rattlesnakes, and mountain lion. The wild pigs have been thinned out significantly by the Park District, and the course setter has not encountered any in the last two years.
Cows: The Orange and advanced courses will all cross an area with a large herd of cattle. It's best to avoid the cattle if possible. I found that if you make some noise (e.g., clap your hands loudly), they will move out of the way. Hopefully after the first few runners pass through the grazing area, the cattle will have moved on. One word of caution: Avoid getting between a mother and her calf!! There are a few bulls as well as cows. Bulls have the right of way—give them a wide berth!
Equestrians: Sunol Park conducts trail rides near the beginning of the White and Yellow courses. Please note that the equestrians, as always, have the right-of-way. IF YOU ARE NEAR EQUESTRIANS, PLEASE WALK TO AVOID SPOOKING THE HORSES.
Safety
Every participant (or group) on every course must carry a whistle. Whistles will be available at registration for participants that don't have one. Whistles should be used only in an emergency. Blow three short blasts at 1- to 2-minute intervals to signal that you need help. The safety bearing is south to Alameda creek, which runs through the park near the registration area.
The courses close at 2:00 P.M. Every participant must check in at the Finish by 2 P.M., whether or not you finish your course. If you do not check in by 2 P.M., we will assume you are lost or injured, and a search party will be organized. If you think you may take a long time to finish a course, please start before 11 A.M. so you'll have the full 3 hours to finish.