Photo gallery image (click to enlarge)

Joseph D. Grant County Park

Date: (Sun.) Jan. 29, 2017 CANCELED
Location: San Jose, CA
Event Director: - 408.878.5073
Course Setters: Derek Maclean, Kim van Berkel
Type: B; Standard "B-meet" with courses for beginners, intermediate, and advanced

Related Event Information

2014 "B-meet" at Joe Grant 2015 "A-meet" at Joe Grant

Please note that fees and time limits apply. Events are typically not canceled due to bad weather.


January 26th Update:

This event has been rescheduled to be on April 9th.

January 10th Update:

Our permit application has been denied by the Santa Clara Parks and Recreation Department due to "soil erosion concerns".
Thus, this event has been cancelled.


What is Orienteering

An adventure! Discover the outdoors and discover yourself! Navigate to checkpoints in Joe Grant Park using a specially-produced map. Participants may enter individually or in teams of up to five people.

Schedule

  9:00 AM – Registration opens (closes at noon)
  9:30 AM – Beginner's clinic instruction available (free)
10:00 AM – Starts open (no early starts, please)
12:30 PM – Starts close
  2:00 PM – Courses close; checkpoint pick-up begins

At registration, all juniors must be accompanied by parents or legal guardians, or bring with them a waiver signed by their parent or legal guardian (the registration form is available here (PDF/100KB)).

Beginner's clinics are repeating sessions that provide an introduction to orienteering and enough instruction to be able to complete a beginner (White) course. The sessions will continue until 10:30–11:00 (they could stop earlier if there is no more demand).

Please note that everyone must return to the Finish by 2:00 PM, and check in at E-punch, even if you don't complete your course. We need to account for all participants, because otherwise we must organize a search party for you.

After you finish, enjoy free snacks and refreshments, and socialize with other participants!

Courses

There will be courses for first-time beginners through advanced. Information about the courses will be available closer to the event date.

What to Bring

For beginners' courses, comfortable outdoors attire and shoes are fine.

For intermediate and advanced courses, leg cover or gaiters are recommended, as well shoes with some extra grip on the sole.

A compass is not necessary, but can be helpful. We have compasses available for a $1 rental fee.

We time the courses with the SPORTident system, so each entry/team needs to have a SPORTident fingerstick. If you don't have your own, you can rent one at registration for $5. (Use of the "E-punch" system is easy. You can learn how at the event, or read about it here.)

Venue Facilities

Picnic tables, piped water, and flush toilets are available, so please feel free to bring along a picnic lunch to enjoy after you finish your course.

Hazards

For participants on the intermediate and advanced courses, the park has some poison oak which you will want to avoid. It looks like this. Washing clothes and shoes, and bathing exposed areas with dishwashing soap (which removes the irritant oil) or a commercial product such as Tecnu is recommended.

Costs

The following fees apply at this event.

  $3 for juniors on beginner's and advanced beginner's courses
  $8 for adults on beginner's and advanced beginner's courses
  $5 for juniors on intermediate and advanced courses  
$12 member price for intermediate and advanced courses
$18 non-member price for intermediate and advanced courses
  $1 for a compass rental (optional)  
  $5 for an electronic fingerstick rental (if you don't own one; you'll need one to complete the course)
$15 for the lowest-cost individual one-year BAOC membership (optional)  

For extra people on a team, add $7 per adult for intermediate and advanced courses or $5 per adult on beginners' courses (with lower prices for juniors).

More information about event pricing is available in the club FAQ. All the prices are also shown on the standard entry form (PDF/100KB), which you can print and fill out in advance to save some time at the event. (You will need one entry form for each group of people going on a course together.) Please note that the form has a second page for signatures of group members.

Driving Directions

To reach the park, take I-680 to the Alum Rock Avenue exit in San Jose. (From southbound 101, it's easiest to go past Alum Rock Ave, exit onto I-680, and then exit to Alum Rock Ave.) Head east on Alum Rock to Mt. Hamilton Road. Take a right onto Mt. Hamilton Rd and proceed about 7.5 miles to the park entrance to your right. After paying the $6 park entry fee, go about 0.6 miles to the parking area designated by the O' signs.

Here's an alternative route choice (after all, orienteering is all about route choice): Quimby Road is believed to be much faster, with a shorter (but steeper) windy road, than Mt. Hamilton Rd from Alum Rock. Some people recommend this route even for those coming from the north on 280 or 101. In that case, exit 101 south at Tully Rd, and head east (toward the hills). Turn right onto Quimby Rd (just before East Ridge Shopping Center); take this up and over the hill until it meets Mt Hamilton Road. Turn right and go a few hundred yards to the park entrance.

From the south, coming up 101, take the Capitol Expy exit and head east (toward the hills). Go about 1.5 miles, turn right onto Quimby Road, and follow the directions just above.

There's a map here that shows the location of the event.

Carpool Sites

People sometimes meet at the junction of Alum Rock Ave and Mt. Hamilton Rd, where there is plenty of parking. That might seem so near the park as to be not helpful, but it does save the twisty drive up Mt. Hamilton Rd and the park entrance fee for the cars that are left below.

Similarly, people taking the Quimby Rd route could meet at East Ridge Shopping Center (at Tully and Quimby).