Photo gallery image (click to enlarge)

Camp Tamarancho

Date: (Sun.) Jul. 15, 2007
Location: Fairfax, CA
Event Director: - 510.407.1876
Course Setters: Rex Winterbottom, Greg Ehrensing
Type: B; Standard seven courses--White (easy beginner) through Blue (strenuous advanced)

Course Setter's Notes

By

[Ed. note: These notes are for the advanced courses.]

I tried to set courses that would keep you moving and thinking and not slowing down too much or fending off too much vegetation, or at least that option would be there. By avoiding the control sites that would require "long thoughtless slogs", and using the best possible areas for technical navigation, I wound up with less-than-standard-length courses, so I'm billing this as what would be called "Medium Distance" at an A-meet.

The terrain is "typical Bay Area" but more Bon Tempe than Morgan Territory... particularly the white-colored "open forest" which sometimes includes the redwood tree circles. The redwood tree circles are not mapped with special symbols as they are at Bon Tempe. Distinct trees in the white-colored open forest are tall, wide in girth, kind of sequoia-like... and not all of them are mapped. Aside from deadfall and thick areas of trees in "runnable" white forest here and there, some expanded thick vegetation here and there, and some minor inconsistencies in the bushes mapped out in the open areas, the map is generally accurate. That's a lot of qualifiers. But if you simplify, follow your bearing or your contour, and pick out what's going to be solid (usually rocks, reentrants, man-made objects—there are plenty in the forest) and don't get thrown off by some imperfect veggies, you should be okay. And one more thing: some of the minor trails have indistinct stretches, but only on the advanced courses, right Greg? (Greg Ehrensing, course setter for WYO, could not be reached for comment.)

While this is an attempt at "Tame-a-rancho" with "medium length" courses, and I believe it has nearly achieved that, there are some steep slopes to contend with. Most of the time, you can take a runnable choice to your control, or bash up a steep slope if that's your call. The usual battle gear will help, especially cleated shoes, so you can step like you mean it whether you're going up, down, or contouring the steep slopes.

Poison oak? Not nearly as bad as Indian Valley, but it may not be as visible. I didn't see too much of it.

Ben Legg, vetter, concurs:

Your notes looked fine to me. Except for the mysterious disappearing contours, I agree that the map was pretty reliable. I really like the variety of terrain. There's lots of fun forest running: redwood, douglas-fir, oaks, etc... I think the key to really doing well with these courses will be to adjust your running technique for the different vegetation. Very little PO, but still plenty of reasons to wear O-pants.

[Ed. note: There are disappearing contours? Does this mean we now have an answer to the long-standing mystery of the disappearing contours on the Big Basin map: There is a space warp between Big Basin and Tamarancho?]