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Huddart Park

Date: (Sat.) Nov. 27, 2010
Location: Woodside, CA
Event Director: - 650.906.9672
Course Setters: Matthias Kohler, Greg Favor, Nick Corsano
Type: C; Long-awaited return to this beautiful park with White through Green courses (limited participation on Orange through Green)

Related Event Information

Course Setters' Notes 2006 Event at This Park

Please note that fees and time limits apply, unless otherwise mentioned below. Events are typically not canceled due to bad weather.


Friday (11/26) Update:

You may have noticed that the weather forecast for Saturday is very simple: rain.
Huddart Park — one of the most beautiful places on the Peninsula in any weather — is spectacular in the rain. The colors of the landscape, especially the redwoods, are vivid. All the creeks are running. The trails are in very good condition.
But if you are one of the people confirmed for Orange, Brown, or Green and your plans have changed, whether it is due to the weather or not, please let know as soon as you can. I have people on the waiting list who are eager to run.
Remember that only those who have pre-registered and have been confirmed (except for Juniors who can still sign up for their COOL courses) can run on Orange, Brown, or Green. (If there are no-shows, I will give away their spots beginning at 11:30 Saturday.)

Note:

Advance reservations are required for the Orange through Green courses, as described below.
We have filled the spaces allowed for the Orange, Brown, and Green courses on Saturday. I sent confirmation messages to everybody who signed up through this afternoon. If you wrote to me and didn't get a confirmation message, please contact me again.
Juniors in COOL may still sign up for Course 3 (Orange) or Course 4 (Brown), even on Saturday, but it would be helpful to know beforehand if we will have any juniors other than those who have already signed up.
For adults who have missed out, you may request a spot on the waiting list, or else come see me around 11:30 on Saturday to see if there have been any no-shows.
– Nick


Work off that Thanksgiving feast with a run in the beautiful redwood forests of Huddart County Park on the Peninsula. This will be the season's third COOL event, combined with a standard BAOC "C" event.

We will offer five courses:

Beginner level, entirely on trails
Advanced beginner, largely follows trails and other distinct features
Intermediate level, combination of trail running and off-trail navigation
Advanced level, primarily off-trail navigation
Advanced level, primarily off-trail navigation

See the Course Setters' Notes for more information about the courses.

Please be aware that Huddart is a steep park, and all the courses will involve a considerable amount of climb. In particular, the White course may be too tough for very small children. To compensate for the climb, the Orange, Brown, and Green courses are relatively short.

People new to orienteering should be aware that the distances shown above are the sums of the straight-line distances between controls. The actual distances people will cover on the courses will definitely be longer.

Electronic punching will be used. For those who do not own one, rental e-sticks will be available at registration for a small fee.

This is the first time in several years we are being allowed off-trail at Huddart, and the Park officials have asked us to limit combined entries on the Orange, Brown, and Green courses to 30 people. For that reason, anyone who wishes to run either of these courses should pre-register by emailing the . Some places will be reserved for event volunteers (hint, hint) and COOL participants. The rest of the places will be assigned randomly from among requests received by 6:00 PM on Sunday, November 21. People who pre-register must check in at the event by 11:00. After that, their starts will be made available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The club map, produced in 1992, was one of the last of our offset-printed maps, and one of the last to be converted to OCAD. Because of the map's usage in recent years, some parts of the map show plentiful detail, while in other parts the detail is quite sparse. It also exhibits some of the contour imprecision typical of redwood forests. Most of the map background is white, and while there are areas of delightfully runnable redwood and Douglas fir forest, there are many other areas that might just as accurately have been mapped as light green.

Poison oak occurs throughout Huddart, and while it is less potent in late autumn, it is also less detectable, as many stalks have lost their leaves. The course setters are attempting to keep encounters to a minimum.

Huddart is popular with equestrians, and it is very important that all runners yield the right of way to horses. If you encounter a horse, you must stand to the side of the trail and let it go by. Also, if you are emerge from the woods onto a trail, stop and look for horses first.

There is a $5 per-car fee to enter the park. No dogs are allowed. We will be using the Zwierlein Group Picnic Area as our base. Parking, registration, start, finish, e-punch, picnic tables, water, and restrooms are all within a stone's throw of each other.

For more information, or to volunteer to help, please contact the .

Driving Directions

From the Bayshore Freeway (US 101) or Interstate 280 on the Peninsula, go west on Highway 84 (Woodside Road). About a mile past 280, you will come to a stop sign at the intersection of Mountain Home, Cañada Road, and Woodside Road (near Roberts Market). (Heed the 25 mph speed limit in Woodside!) Continue straight for 0.7 miles to Kings Mountain Road. Turn right (northwest) and follow Kings Mountain Road for 2.1 miles to the park entrance. Pay your fee at the entrance station and follow the park signs to the Zwierlein Group Area. Park in any of the designated areas along the road.

There's a map here that shows the location of the event.