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Almaden Quicksilver County Park

Date: (Sun.) Oct. 20, 2013
Location: San Jose, CA
Event Director: - 408.599.9709
Course Setter: Misha Kreslavsky
Type: B; We're returning to this popular park, after missing it for several years, for a full 7-course event


Course Setter's Notes

By Misha Kreslavsky

Map & Terrain

This beautiful, partly forested terrain with magnificent vistas, is a former mining site. All the structures and tunnels left after mining are old and dangerous. Some of them are marked on the map as out of bounds, some are not marked, but avoid them anyway. No meaningful route goes through them. There are some other areas marked as out of bounds on the map. Please, do not enter these areas. Again, no meaningful route goes through them. Mining left behind unnatural topographic features that are difficult to show with contours. In some places the mapper depicted them quite successfully, in others he just ignored them.

The map (1:10,000 scale, 5 m contour interval) is rather old. There are many changes, mostly grown and overgrown vegetation. I made significant corrections where fine map reading is needed, but you may see inaccuracies elsewhere. Open terrain (yellow), and forest shown with white and pale green, are runnable (although to me some "white" should be mapped as "pale green"). Avoid other kinds of "green" vegetation, including "open terrain with undergrowth" (green-hatched yellow)​—​only in rare cases is it runnable brush, usually it is very dense bushes with poison oak, especially in the NW part of the map (Red and Blue courses).

Several former roads are seen now as terraces and passages through thick vegetation with no or almost no trail on them. The most prominent of them are shown as "footpath" on the map. Such mapped former roads are possible route choices on all courses except White. Deer paths are abundant and not shown on the map. Some roads and trails have signs "not a trail". Ignore them​—​we have permission to use them for this event.

Hazards

There is poison oak. It is mostly leafless this time of the year, and not easy to recognize. The usual precautions are needed. I tried to keep you out of it; you do not need to fight through poison oak thickets, but gentle touches are hard to avoid on all the courses except White.

Some trees under the electric power line were cut recently, and there are plenty of cut twigs, branches and chopped wood on the openings under the power line. These are crossable.

There is an old crossable barbed wire fence (shown on the map). Advanced courses cross it once (Brown) or twice (Green, Red, Blue). On Yellow and Orange you may choose to cross it or to go around. Please, slow down and be cautious, especially on Yellow and Orange.

The ground is dry, and the steepest slopes are difficult to run in any direction.

Horses are fairly common in this park. If you encounter them on the trail, slow down to a walk, give them right-of-way and ask the rider for instructions on where and when to pass or cross.

As always, check for ticks after your course, although they are not common this time of year.

Courses

The Start is about 0.8 km from the parking lot​—​about a 10-minute walk. Follow streamers along Wood Road to the East. Use the right (southern) side of the road for warming up, if you need. The Start is on the left (northern) side of the road. The Finish is by the parking lot and the E-punch center.

   Course    Length    Climb   Controls   Technical Difficulty
   White     1.6 km     60 m       8      Beginner
   Yellow    2.5 km    150 m       9      Adv. Beginner
   Orange    4.5 km    310 m      10      Intermediate
   Brown     3.1 km    230 m       9      Advanced
   Green     4.6 km    360 m      12      Advanced
   Red       6.1 km    510 m      14      Advanced
   Blue      8.2 km    690 m      22      Advanced

The climb listed above corresponds to the greatest-climb route choices (among those I consider reasonable). Other, still reasonable, routes can save you 30–50 m of climb on the Red and Blue courses.

The White Course is a little challenging this time. You will go through the steep forested terrain exactly the way elite orienteerers run! Long pants and closed footwear with good traction are desirable. You cannot do this course in flip-flops. From the second to third, and from the third to fourth control points you go off trail. Your way on these two legs is marked with bright pink/red streamers. You must follow the streamers on these legs. (There are no streamers on the rest of the course​—​you follow trails and use your map to pick the right trail and anticipate the control location.) There will be at least one water stop on the course, but you might want to take your own if it's a hot day or if you think you'll take a long time.

Yellow Course: From the sixth to seventh control point you follow the marked route (the same as 3–4 on the White course). You must follow the streamers on this leg. Pay special attention to the fence and the former roads in the information above. The former road you will use is overgrown with bushes (with some poison oak), but it is easily visible and gives you the only possible passage through a thicket. There will be at least one water stop on the course, but you might want to take your own if it's a hot day or if you think you'll take a long time.

For the advanced and intermediate courses I combined forested and open terrain, short and long legs, fine map reading and fast trail runs. Unfortunately, overgrown thickets and poison oak killed my original plan with modest climb​—​sorry about that. I was badly disappointed.

Red and Blue Courses: A passage through poison-oak-rich "intermediate green" on one of the possible routes on the longest leg (6–7 on Red, 8–9 on Blue) is marked with streamers and shown with a purple dash on the map. You do not need to go there​—​there are other route choices. One deer trail is shown on the map. It is very distinctive and will show you the place to fight through a strip of dense bushes.