University of California
Date: (Sun.) Aug. 16, 2015
Location: Berkeley, CA
Event Directors: 
- 510.525.1574, - 510.525.1574
Course Setter: George Minarik
Type: C; Beginner’s, Sprint, Middle, and Long Courses on the beautiful Cal Campus
Course Setter's Notes
By
Today, the campus has an air of calmness. Summer school has ended, and the Fall semester has yet to begin at Cal. Except for a few solitary figures, all is quiet on Faculty Glade. But wait. What are those orange and white kites that seem to be appearing on stairways, behind trees, and in the crevasses of lecture halls? Could they signal the annual appearance of that rare and threatened species called the orienteer? We must wait until Sunday, August 16th, to see what comes to pass.
Details of the courses are in the event announcement.
Here are some course notes and guidelines to follow while on your courses:
- We are guests on campus, and need to insure our presence is as unobtrusive as possible.
- You may encounter weddings, parties, large touring groups of prospective students, and sports games (organized and unorganized). Please give these activities a wide berth as to not disturb them.
- Fast-moving bikes, and slower-moving cars and trucks, have the right of way. Pedestrians here tend to not look where they are going, with attention focused down on their hands. You need to be looking for them!
- Stay out of garden areas and the bark mulch areas. Any area mapped as olive or dark green is prohibited to enter. Grassy areas (mapped as yellow) and forested areas (mapped as white) are okay to cross.
- Any walls or fences marked as uncrossable (thick black line) are not to be crossed, even if you are physically able to cross them (it's an official orienteering rule). Short fence segments can appear to be mapped as walls. This can be confusing.
- Stay out of buildings, except for the mapped passageways.
- Stay out of the numerous construction areas. Most are mapped with purple hatching. Note, however, that new construction tends to crop up overnight, so some might not be marked on the map.
- The two branches of Strawberry Creek are still flowing in August and can be crossed, but there is usually an alternative route with a bridge if you want to keep your feet dry and avoid the steep creek sides.
- Good news ... no poison oak has been seen.
- Running shoes and rubber dobbed shoes are okay. No metal spikes or metal dobbs are allowed.
The map was produced by Ben Legg in 2011. It is mapped to ISSOM standards. The map scale is 1:3750. Why? Because it makes the symbols large enough to read. (Think 25% of 1:15000.) The contours are mapped at 2.5-meter intervals, and are difficult to read on the run.
The Start and Finish are adjacent to Barrows Hall courtyard.
Courses run through, around, and on top of some multilevel buildings. An attempt has been made to set controls in these areas in a way to minimize confusion.
I hope your experience equals the enjoyment that I gleaned from the production of this event.
Let me know if you have any questions?