Lakeside Park Foot-O and Indian Gulch Bike-O
Date: (Sun.) Aug. 24, 2008
Location: Oakland, CA
Event Director: 
- 510.681.6181
Course Setters: Rex Winterbottom, Mark Manning
Type: C; Afternoon event: White, Yellow, Sprint, Bike-O, and Memory-O courses
Note: This is an afternoon event. See the schedule below.
A new map! Visit Oakland's scenic Lakeside Park, a vibrant jewel on the north shore of Lake Merritt. It's a great urban park that ranks up there with Central Park and Golden Gate Park. Neither of those parks can boast the same number of migratory birds who gather here. The botanical garden houses an eminent Japanese bonsai exhibit, and Children's Fairyland provides fun rides and activities for the little ones. Sailing, pedalboating, lawn bowling, and good-old-fashioned playground activities are all available. Monuments and large public art installations also dot the park, and educational opportunities are offered at the Junior Center for Arts and Science. This map is feature-packed, and will make for some exciting, short, and fun orienteering courses! There's plenty to do and see in the park to make it a fun family day.
In addition to the traditional Foot-O offerings, Mark Manning is designing fun and challenging Bike-O courses offered on the adjacent Indian Gulch map in Oakland and Piedmont, which we have used for urban street orienteering in the past. After you navigate to the area of the courses from Lake Merritt, you will find mostly quiet, residential neighborhood streets with spectacular houses, neighborhoods, landscaping, and hidden treasures.
Course Details
Here are the statistics for the courses:
Course Distance Climb Controls Comment
White 1.5 km 10 m 10 Junior sprint Yellow 2.9 20 17 Adult sprint Memory O 1.0 10 6 Mass start at 5:00 Short Bike 11.7 255 9 Long Bike 14.1 396 12
As a special bonus, the White, Yellow, and Memory courses do not share any controls with each other. So you can have up to 5.4 km of orienteering fun.
The new map, created by Rex Winterbottom, is at 1:5000 scale and drawn to the official IOF sprint standard. The contour interval is 10 ft (about 3 m). Courses will be printed at a scale of 1:5000 or less, perhaps 1:4000 or 1:2500. E-punching might be offered.
Be sure to read the Course Setters' Notes for more information.
Special Event Times!
- 2:30–4:30: Registration open
- 2:30–3:00: Beginner's clinics available
- 3:00–5:00: Starts available for White, Yellow, and Bike-O courses
- 5:00: Mass start for special-format Memory-O
- 6:00: Finish closes, awards, and special toast (see below)
Please note that everyone must check in at the Finish by 6:00, regardless of whether or not you complete your course.
Special Event Fees!
The normal course fees will apply to your first course. However, the maximum charge for the day will be $10 per person, for any number of courses you wish to do. [Editor's note: That's my understanding of the fees. It might not be exactly correct.]
Fees will not actually be collected at the event, because Oakland does not permit anyone to collect money in their parks. So, you will get an envelope addressed to the club to mail a check, and a slip of paper in it with the "IOU" charge for registration.
Special Park Rules!
Sorry, no dogs in the park!
Staging Areas
Registration will be at a circular monument with a waterfall inside, called (but not signed) "Cascade and Falls". If you hike diagonally into the park from the corner of Grand Ave. and Perkins St. about 100 m, you'll see it. It will be signed from that street corner. In this aerial photo (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=grand+%26+perkins,+oakland,+ca&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=79.379181,109.863281&ie=UTF8&ll=37.809072,-122.256117&spn=0.010053,0.013411&t=h&z=16), centered on Grand & Perkins, it's easy to see the white circle in the forest to the southwest.
Restrooms, water fountains, and the Start and Finish areas are all near the registration site.
Miscellaneous Notes
- Metered parking is free on Sunday, and there's no hourly limit anywhere. Parking on Grand Ave. and Perkins is free. Note: If you enter the park on Bellevue, you will have to pay a $3 fee.
- There will be a toast shortly after 6:00: root-beer floats courtesy of Rex—with very delicious microbrewed root beer and vanilla ice cream.
- The regular refreshments will be provided courtesy of BAOC.
- The 6:00 dinner (see the Course Setters' Notes) is about 1/2 full—there will be a sign-up sheet at the event if you want to go. Just so we don't exceed 30 people in the back room at Los Cantaros.
Help Needed!
Please contact if you can help in any capacity at the event—beginner's clinics, starts, finishes, control monitoring, control pickup.
Driving Directions
Take Interstate 580 to Oakland.
From Interstate 580 going east, exit at Grand Ave. Turn right, and drive about 0.4 miles to Perkins St. and find parking.
From Interstate 580 going west, exit at Grand Ave. This exit loops around, so you actually turn right on Grand Ave. Drive about 0.5 miles to Perkins St. and find parking.
Registration will be signed from the corner of Grand Ave. and Perkins St.
Since it's Sunday, all metered spaces are free along Grand Ave. and on Perkins. However, if you enter Lakeside Park at Bellevue Ave., you will be charged a $3 parking fee. There's also street parking in the neighborhoods along Grand.
Public Transit
AC Transit bus lines NL and 12 stop on Grand near Perkins. Line 57 stops at Grand and MacArthur if you're willing to walk 0.4 miles. If you take BART to 19th St. Oakland, you can catch the NL, or catch the 57 from MacArthur BART. Or to walk from 19th St. BART, head up Broadway to Grand Ave. (near where 24th St. would be), turn right on Grand, and walk about 1/2 mile to Perkins.