Camp Tamarancho
Date: (Sun.) Nov. 13, 2016
Location: Fairfax, CA
Event Director: 
- 415.456.8118
Course Setter: Graham Brew
Type: B; We return to this open space after skipping several years
Course Setter's Notes
By Graham Brew
Camp Tamarancho provides a variety of orienteering terrain, and the seven courses offer something for everyone. The recent rain has softened things up nicely, and currently the forecast for next weekend is sunny and clear. So come out and enjoy the fun on one of our lesser-used maps. The course statistics are at the bottom of these notes.
I look forward to seeing you all out there!
Logistics
The Start is a short (5-minute) walk from the Registration area. The Finish is also close to Registration and parking.
There will be water on the longer courses.
Map
The map is at 1:10,000 scale with 5-meter contours.
The map accuracy is generally good. As usual, vegetation may have grown up a bit since it was mapped, and undergrowth in the woods may be a little thicker than mapped in some places. This is a heavily-used location, so casual trails tend to come and go, especially in grassy areas. The map has been updated in key areas, but don't be too surprised if you find small casual trails that are unmapped. One area in the far northwest of the map has been heavily altered with downhill mountain bike trails. This was not remapped—for this, and mainly safety reasons, this area is marked out of bounds.
Many fallen trees in the woods are unmapped. Prominent dead standing trees in the woods are marked with a green ×. Although some of these, while having "dead" lower branches, are certainly still alive if you look high into the canopy. Distinct live trees are indicated by the typical green O.
The black × symbol indicates man-made objects such as signs, picnic tables, or a cluster of picnic tables. There tends to be a lot of these around the numerous camp sites, and they move somewhat frequently, so it is possible not all are marked. The blue × symbol indicates manmade water objects such as faucets and water troughs. The black O symbols denotes special man-made items, including totem poles, carvings, and, in one case, an aircraft engine!
Terrain
The longer courses traverse grassland and many hillsides, so shoes with good grip and gaiters are recommended.
Hazards
Poison oak is present in some places off trail, but generally easy to avoid. Take the usual precautions if you are going off trail.
This is not actually a hazard, but keep in mind that this is a busy area. We know that several Scout groups will be present while we are there. Please avoid running through populated camp sites.
This is a very popular mountain biking area. The further you are from the Start/Finish area, the more likely you are to encounter bikers on the trails. They can move very quietly and very quickly, and on twisty forest trails you may not see them coming. Please use caution!
Courses
Here are the course details:
Course Distance Climb Controls Nav. Difficulty Physical Difficulty
White 1.5 km 70 m 10 Easy Very Easy
Yellow 2.3 km 125 m 11 Easy/intermediate Easy
Orange 4.0 km 255 m 13 Intermediate Moderate
Brown 3.0 km 165 m 12 Advanced Moderate
Green 4.3 km 270 m 13 Advanced Hard
Red 5.0 km 335 m 18 Advanced Hard
Blue 6.2 km 410 m 21 Advanced Very Hard