Joseph D. Grant County Park
Date: (Sun.) Mar. 14, 2010
Location: San Jose, CA
Event Director: 
- 408.878.5073
Course Setters: Jim Fish, Kelly Wells
Type: B; This will be the second day of an exciting weekend of orienteering in conjunction with the Western Region Interscholastic Championships. The first day will be Saturday at McLaren Park.
Remember that Daylight Saving Time begins on this date.
Course Setters' Notes
By and
Welcome to Joe Grant 2010. Joe Grant has been one of the BAOCs most popular venues for many years. It has hosted A-meets, B-meets, as well as the Astrogaine a few years ago. We hope to see you there on one of the 8 courses listed below. The park is really beautiful this time of year, and the grass is still relatively short in the open areas.
Courses
Here are the preliminary details of the courses:
Technical Physical Course Length Climb Controls Difficulty Difficulty White 2.5 km 65 m 13 Beginner Trails Yellow 3.7 km 155 m 16 Adv. Beginner Mostly Trails Orange 3.9 km 195 m 15 Intermediate Intermediate Long Orange 6.4 km 375 m 21 Intermediate Adventure Racer Tough Brown 4.2 km 230 m 11 Advanced Hard Green 5.3 km 285 m 13 Advanced Harder Red 5.9 km 315 m 14 Advanced Very Hard Blue 7.1 km 360 m 16 Advanced Mantracker Hard
Note: Check your control codes carefully. Some controls are shared between courses. A few controls on non-similar features may be as close as 50 m. Other controls on similar features are exactly 100 m apart.
Hazards
Driving to the park – Many cyclists can be on Mount Hamilton road early Sunday morning. The sun can be in the driver's eyes and the road is winding. Allow yourself plenty of time for a safe drive, and pass bicyclists with care.
Ticks – Both course setters have been bit on separate occasions while field checking. Wear appropriate clothing, and check yourself carefully after your run.
Poison oak – It is prevalent throughout the park, and can be found in any of the colors represented on the map: yellow, white, light green, and dark green. It is just starting to leaf out and is mostly avoidable. Wear full-body covering, and take suitable precautions. Orienteers will typically use Technu to wash after a run — it is available at REI and many drug stores.
Fences – The Yellow course will pass through fence openings and gates. There is one mandatory fence crossing for Yellow — it is indicated as "C1" on the map. Water will be located there, and intermediate and advanced courses may use this crossing or climb over, under, or through any other fence locations of their choosing.
Pigs – Generally the medium and small pigs will run away if you bark at them from a distance. The rangers have warned us of some really big pigs who have been digging large pits in search of burrowing rodents, and mentioned that they won't run away. We have not seen any of these super pigs in our visits to the park since December, but there is a large pit near the parking area where you can check out their latest unmapped excavation.
Rattlesnakes – They might be out if the weather leading up to the event is favorable.
Map
Portions of the map covering the courses were revised by Vladimir Zherdev in 2009. Much of the vegetation has new, updated boundaries. These revisions can all be identified with the dotted vegetation-boundary symbols on the map. Older, original vegetation boundaries will not have this distinction. There may also be unmapped seasonal animal trails on some portions of the courses.
New This Year For Adventure Racers
The Long Orange course has been set with you in mind. Bring your team, stay together (orienteering rules require that team members stay within a short distance from each other), and work together. There are 21 controls in 6.4 km, with lots of distractions and intermediate navigational challenges. Its a good physical shakedown for the Muddy Buddy, or come to work on your navigation skills. We may even place a couple water stations out on your course, but we know how independent and prepared you are. Only 10 maps are being printed for the first 10 teams, at one map per team. Let us know if you think there will be more of your peers coming, and we will be sure to have extra maps.
Welcome COOL
Good luck to all the COOL competitors who will be at McClaren Park on Saturday. We hope you do well and also come out to Joe Grant on Sunday.
There are lots of picnic tables in our area, and we encourage all competitors to bring their lunches and hang out after the event.
Memory Lane Stuff
I remember laying on an earth bank under a leaky tarp at Joe Grant during a rain storm trying to draw my course in purple, back when we had to copy our maps. The dang pens wouldn't work, we were on the clock and I ripped a big hole in my map. We didn't have Epunch in those days and it was a challenge to keep your control card from shredding itself while you ran. Well, we don't have to worry about those fun things anymore and I look forward to seeing everybody (old timers and newcomers alike) on Sunday.