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Joseph D. Grant County Park
Date: (Sun.) May. 13, 2012
Location: San Jose, CA
Event Director: 
- 408.878.5073
Course Setters: Rory Maclean, Derek Maclean
Type: B; Full-featured event among grassy hillsides covered in spring flowers
Course Setters' Notes
By Derek Maclean and Rory Maclean
Please join us this Mother’s Day at our annual meet in one of BAOC’s classic orienteering venues. Joe Grant Park is in the foothills of Mount Hamilton above San Jose, and offers interesting terrain for all levels of orienteer, as well as beautiful views, spring sunshine, and fields of blooming wildflowers. What could be better for the mother in your life!
Courses
The course statistics are as follows:
Physical Technical Course Distance Climb Controls Difficulty Difficulty
White 2.4 km 30 m 8 Very Easy Easy Yellow 3.3 km 90 m 14 Easy Less easy Orange 4.1 km 130 m 15 Intermediate Intermediate Brown 4.0 km 125 m 12 Intermediate Advanced Green 5.0 km 175 m 11 Hard Advanced Red 5.8 km 245 m 16 Harder Advanced Blue 7.0 km 300 m 13 Very Hard Advanced
Beginners should keep in mind that the distances listed represent the total of the straight-line distances between controls. The actual distance traveled on a course will always be longer — how much longer will depend on route choices and errors.
General
All the courses start and finish within 200 m of the parking area. The White course is stroller-friendly and all controls are on, or very close to trails. Yellow is slightly longer than usual, but takes advantage of a new trail to access some nice areas — controls are close to, but not on the trails, and some cross-country routes may be attractive. Orange is almost all cross-country, but not too far from the trails. Brown through Blue are as technically challenging as can be achieved in this terrain.
Hazards
All the advanced courses will have to cross at least one fence. These can usually be climbed over (easiest at a large fence post) or under, but take care, and report any damage to the organizers. The White, Yellow, and Orange courses do not have to cross any fences. Please close all gates behind you — this is an active cattle-grazing area.
Joe Grant has plenty of poison oak, and this year is no exception. Your risk of exposure increases with the course difficulty. Green, Red, and Blue visit areas where it is fairly widespread, but it should be avoidable with care. Other courses will see much less, although you should be aware of it, especially in shady areas. Know what it looks like, and wash yourself and all exposed clothes.
There seem to be more ticks than usual this year. Full leg cover is recommended, especially on the Orange through Blue courses.
The terrain is very steep in sections. Suitable cleated shoes are strongly recommended for competitors on Green through Blue. Quite a bit of contouring is required.
It looks like it could be hot this weekend. While there will be water on the courses, but please hydrate thoroughly before you start.
Cattle have not been observed in the competition areas in recent weeks, but it is possible that they may be present on Sunday. They appear to be quite docile.
Horses always have the right of way on all trails. Also, avoid startling them by fast, unexpected movements such as jumping suddenly onto a trail from behind forest cover. If you encounter a horseback rider on the trail, stop moving, stand on the downhill side, and speak calmly to the rider asking for instructions on what he/she would like you to do.
Watch out for mountain bikers.
Notes on the Map and Terrain
The grass in the park is very high this year, and there will undoubtedly be lots of elephant trails generated in the open meadows. To mitigate this we have placed groups of controls in some areas, and in these areas no two courses will share more than one consecutive leg. So check carefully before simply following a trail through the grass. This also means that some controls are quite close together — be sure to check the control codes carefully. Neighbouring¹ controls are usually on different features.
The map is generally quite good, having been updated in much of the competition area for an A-meet just a few years ago. Lone trees may be difficult to distinguish from small areas of white forest. Where two or more trees form a continuous canopy, they are mapped as white. On the advanced courses, controls on a lone tree will often be placed quite close to the trunk. Controls on vegetation boundaries will usually be hung at the edges of the trees. You may encounter small cattle trails that are not mapped. Some mapped intermittent trails may be somewhat hidden in the tall grass.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Saturday, May 12, Update
Things are looking good for the Joe Grant event tomorrow. We hope that you are planning to be there. Here are a few additional notes for the meet.
It was very warm today, forecast for slightly cooler tomorrow, but will certainly feel warm on the courses. The Blue and Red courses have two water stops, White has no water stop, all the other courses have one water stop. There is not enough water in the field to refill CamelBaks or containers, please be considerate of others. There is water available at the restrooms near the Start — you should hydrate well before your run.
The cows have indeed been moved into the competition area, and you will likely encounter them on all courses except White. They are completely docile, and while they seem to be slightly interested in what is going on, they will move away if you go near them. Waving arms and saying "Whoa" seems to help clear them out of the way. Hopefully they will stay away from the controls after a few people have gone through. On the positive side, the cows have beaten down the grass in some sections, and have made tracks through the long grass that will make orienteer-generated elephant trails a bit less significant, hopefully improving the navigation.
The advanced courses will encounter several gullies that are marked on the map. Where the map shows a solid brown line, these are steep and deep, and may be considered uncrossable.
On the advanced courses we have hung the controls as low and tight to the feature as possible, compatible with fairness. Controls on lone trees will be tight to the trunk on the side indicated. In some areas, the long grass helps reduce the visibility near the controls, and increases the effective technical difficulty. As much as possible, we have tried to make you navigate to the indicated feature before seeing the control.
For the White, Yellow, and Orange courses, the controls will be much more visible. Controls on lone trees will be hung higher, typically on an outlying branch on the side indicated. However, Orange does share some controls with advanced courses. In these cases, the controls will be hung low and tight, but much more visible from the route of approach for Orange than for the advanced courses.
See you there! Bring your mother!
Derek, Rory, and Peter
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¹ Ed: Scottish spelling in deference to the course setters. ☺