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Tilden Regional Park

Date: (Sun.) Feb. 18, 2018
Location: Berkeley, CA
Event Director: - 925.934.6567
Course Setters: Gavin Wyatt-Mair, Jay Hann
Type: B; Full-featured, 7-course event for beginners through advanced; note new assembly area location

Related Event Information

Event Announcement


Event Director's and Course Setters’ Notes

By

Note: These notes were updated on Saturday, February 17th.

Tilden Park is Springing already!! It’s a great opportunity to train before the big COW next month. The weather forecast is good, 56 degrees high, and partly cloudy.

Please come to a meeting near the finish at 1:30 to discuss plans for the 2020 North American Orienteering Championships and World Rogaining Championships near Tahoe.

Courses

Here are the details of the courses (updated Feb. 17): 

                                                Navigational   Physical  
    Course        Distance   Climb   Controls   Difficulty     Difficulty
    White(1)       2.5 km    100 m      13      Easy           Easy  
    Yellow(2)      3.2 km    140 m      11      Easy           Easy
    Orange(4)      3.4 km    140 m      14      Moderate       Moderate
    Short Brown    3.2 km    140 m      11      Moderate       Moderate
    Brown          4.1 km    190 m      16      Hard           Moderate
    Green          5.8 km    325 m      18      Hard           Hard
    Red            6.6 km    360 m      18      Hard           Tough!    
    Blue           7.5 km    420 m      23      Hard           Tough!

Beginners should be aware that the distances shown are the cumulative straight-line distances between controls. Your actual distance will be somewhat longer. To estimate how far you might actually go, mentally change "km" to "mi" (e.g., for a "2 km" course, you might travel up to 2 mi). The climb numbers represent the amount of ascending that would be done on the "optimum route" (in the Course Setter's opinion), without regard for any descending.

Course Comments

White, Yellow, Orange, and Brown courses: Map: 1:7,500 with 5 m contours. There are route choices and fine-navigation challenges on all these courses.

Green, Red and Blue courses: Map: 1:10,000 with 5 m contours. These courses boldly go where no one has gone before! We will use part of the map that has seen almost no use in the past. This new area is tricky​—​it is important to read ahead carefully and pick a good route. The courses emphasize route choice in the first half, and fine navigation in the second half.

All courses: Although there are no star thistles, long pants and shoes or boots with cleats or a good grip are recommended on Orange and above. Dark green on the map is horrible to go through​—​even for short distances!! Footing is soft but firm, the grass is fresh and reasonably short, and undergrowth is down due to winter. Poison oak exists, primarily as stalks since it hasn’t come out of hibernation yet.

The Start for Green, Red, and Blue is a flat 250 m walk NE along Wildcat Canyon road; it takes less than 5 minutes to walk there. This Start may or may not be staffed, so be prepared to self-start if necessary. There will not be a clothing return.

The Start for all other courses is at the assembly area. The Finish for all courses is at the assembly area.

Map

The contour interval is 5 meters. The scale is 1:10,000 for the Green, Red, and Blue courses. The scale for all the other courses is 1:7,500.

Vegetation has grown a lot​—​in some areas it is denser than you may expect from the map.

There are a number of unmapped fences, but these should not affect the courses.

There are two symbols used for man-made objects. The blue O represents a water feature, typically a drinking fountain, while the black × represents some other man-made object. It can be difficult to distinguish between the blue drinking-fountain symbol and the green distinct-tree symbol.

General Comments

Registration will be open from about 9:00. Earliest start is at 10:00, latest start at 12:30. The courses close at 2:00.

Wildlife we have seen include deer, eagles, owls, a fox, coyote, ticks (ugh), orienteers, turkeys, salamanders, and frogs.

Parking is limited at Quarry Picnic Area. If the parking area is full, please park along Wildcat Canyon Road in designated parking off the road. If the road is full, there is parking available at Lake View picnic area (125 m SSW) and also at Mineral Springs picnic area (400 m SE).

Driving Directions

The approximate coordinates of the parking lot are 37.9009,-122.2500.

Directions to Tilden Park: 
There are many ways to get to Tilden Park. Here is one: From Highway 24, take the Fish Ranch Road exit (this exit is just east of the Caldecott Tunnel). Go northwest up Fish Ranch Road for 1 km (0.6 mi), to the top of the hill. Turn right onto Grizzly Peak Blvd. Wind around on Grizzly Peak for about 6.5 km (4 mi) until you reach Shasta Road, where there is a sign to Tilden Park (do not take the steam trains entrance, nor the South Park Drive entrance, which is closed anyway).
Directions to Quarry Picnic Area: 
Follow Shasta Road northeast for 1 km, past the Brazil building, and merge right onto Wildcat Canyon Road. Follow Wildcat Canyon Road right to the intersection with South Park Drive. Stay on Wildcat Canyon Road by going left (northwest), and proceed on Wildcat Canyon Road for 1.5 km toward Inspiration Point. The Quarry Picnic Area will be on your right when Wildcat Canyon Road turns northeast. If you reach Inspiration Point, you are 1 km too far northeast.