What is Orienteering?

Events

Maps

About Us

Bedwell Bayfront Park

Event #6 of 6 in the BAOC 2022 Summer Series

Date: (Sun.) Aug. 28, 2022
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Event Director: - 650.281.5280
Course Setter: Matthias Kohler
Type: C; This is the final event of the 2022 Summer Series. Beginners are welcome!

This will be the final event in the 2022 Summer Series. However, we want to emphasize that everyone is welcome to come out and do one (or more) of the courses, regardless of whether or not you attended a previous Summer Series event. Also, club membership is not required to participate.

For this final event of the 2022 Summer Series, we return to Bedwell Bayfront Park in Menlo Park. Bedwell Bayfront is a fairly small, open, flattish park near the western end of the Dumbarton Bridge, easy to get to and with great views.

It’s a great place to try orienteering for those new to the sport​—​beginners new to orienteering are encouraged to attend. And while easy compared to many of our larger, non-urban parks, navigation can still be challenging for more advanced orienteers, especially when you consider that the park’s extensive trail network will not be shown on the maps for the Short and Long courses.

We will offer three courses at this event: One for beginners, a Short course, and a Long course. The Short and Long courses will be the ranking courses for this final event of the 2022 Summer Series.

Notes to everyone:

• The assembly area is near the restrooms and drinking fountains.
• There will be no water on the courses, so you may want to bring your own.
• There is not much shade, so plan on lots of sun.

Notes to competitive orienteers:

• You should not be put off by the “easier” navigation​​—​​it will give you an opportunity to practice making faster decisions, and running faster, than your competition.
• This will be your last chance to increase your standing in the Summer Series!

We look forward to seeing everyone at what should be a fun event!

Schedule

The standard BAOC event schedule will be followed:

    9:00 AM – 11:59 AM: Registration open

    9:30 AM – 10:30 AM: Beginner clinic instruction (free)

   10:00 AM – 12:30 PM: Starts are open for all courses

                    2:00 PM: Courses close, checkpoint control 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/12KB)).

Note that you can register and start on the courses anytime during the open times above. Thus, for example, you do not need to be “punctual” at 9:00 (but you can if you want, but please don’t show up earlier and expect to be served).

Beginner clinics are 15–20 minute, repeating sessions that introduce the sport of orienteering, and provide enough instruction to be able to complete the Beginner (White) course.

Note that you must return to the Finish by 2:00 PM, and then go to the download tent, even if you have not finished your course. Please do not leave without checking in! If there are unaccounted people after 2:00, we must initiate a search for them.

Registration and Costs

The following fees apply at this event:

  $3 for each junior on the Beginner course

  $8 for each adult on the Beginner course

  $5 for each junior on the Short or Long course  

$15 for each adult member on the Short or Long course

$20 for each adult non-member on the Short or Long course

  $1 for a compass rental (optional)  

  $5 for an electronic fingerstick rental (optional, but each team will need one to complete the course)

$15 for the lowest-cost individual one-year BAOC membership (optional)  

More information about event pricing is available in the club FAQ. All the prices are also shown on the standard entry form (PDF/12KB), 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.)

Optional Online Registration

Online registration has closed, but you can still register at the event.

What To Bring

Bring your own water for the course(s). There will be no drinking water on the courses. There will be drinking water at the assembly area (near the Start and Finish).

Comfortable outdoors attire and walking shoes are fine for those who will walk their course.

For runners, any comfortable running shoes are appropriate. The courses will include some pavement, but mostly off-trail legs. You might want shoes with cleats or spikes for the off-trail legs.

You may encounter some annoying grass depending on your route choice, so you might consider wearing gaiters, long socks, or long pants.

It is sometimes quite windy at Bedwell Bayfront Park, so consider bringing a windbreaker​—​at least for before and after your course. However, it could also be 98° F!

A compass is not necessary, but can be helpful (especially on the Advanced courses). 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 (note that there’s a significant charge for a lost rental). (Use of the “E-punch” system is easy. You can learn how at the event, or read about it here.)

Venue Facilities

Running water and restrooms are available near the assembly area.

Courses

Matthias has designed three courses in the same format as the the previous Summer Series events:

    Course              Length    Climb   Controls
    Beginner (White)    2.4 km     35 m      15  
    Short               2.9 km     60 m      14  
    Long                4.9 km     90 m      24

As mentioned above, no water will be provided on the courses, so you may want to carry your own.

The Short and Long courses will be the ranking courses for the Summer Series.

Be sure to read the Park Hazards, Course Setter’s Notes, and Map Notes for more information.

Request for Volunteers

A number of our regular (hard-core?) volunteers will not be available for this event, so this is your chance to step in and make sure the event works.

Steve Haas, the Event Director, will find a spot for anyone who can help: setup, registration, beginner clinics, starts, control pickup, etc. If you can help (even for a short time), please email Steve at .

Park Hazards

The good news: You can’t get lost. There is very little poison oak. There is very little climb. The park is very runnable.

There is little shade, so wear a hat and use sunscreen.

Most of the park is mowed, but there are still some areas with taller grass, and the mowed areas have slippery, loose grass on the ground. So, leg coverings and shoes with good traction are advised on the Advanced courses. And be aware that there are numerous ground-squirrel holes (i.e., trip hazards) hidden under the grass. Exercise caution!

The park is likely to be fairly busy. Please be considerate of other park users.

Not really hazards, but be aware that flocks of Canada geese are visiting the park, and jackrabbits and a skunk have been spotted.

Course Setter’s Notes

• The Start and Finish are the same for all the courses. Assembly to Start is 300 m; Finish back to assembly is 150 m.
• Warm up on the W side of the trail to the Start (i.e., towards the marsh); basically the area NW of the assembly area.
• There are many controls out there, and some are relatively close together. Be sure to check the ID number and make sure it is “your” control.
• All the maps have the scale 1:5000, with 2 m contour intervals. Blue magnetic-north lines are parallel to the map edge.
• Short and Long courses (Advanced courses): no trails or roads on the map.
• Short and Long have some controls in common, but approaches are mostly different.
• The Long course consists of two maps, which will be back-to-back in one map case or will be printed double-sided. There will not be a map exchange. Side 1: Start to control #X; Side 2: Control #X to Finish.
• It is okay to cross fences within the park (they are wooden).
• Most of the grass is mowed, but the mowed grass left on the ground is very slippery.
• Shoes with good traction are strongly recommended for the Advanced courses.
• Visibility is great, and the run-ability is unlimited, but watch out for ground-squirrel holes.
• There are flocks of Canada geese out there.
• Bring your own water, just in case the water fountain at the restroom does not work. Also, if you will want water on your course, you must bring your own, because none will be provided.

Map Notes

The map is not in compliance with Sprint-O standards. It is not a Sprint-O map.

The map scale for all the courses is 1:5000 with a (LiDAR-based) 2-meter contour interval.

The map is generally very good. Some very small knolls are no longer apparent, and vegetation​—​both grass and thickets​—​is less dense than in previous years, as a result of mowing and drought conditions.

Grass and Knolls

Most of the tall grass in the park has been mowed, which makes the courses very runnable and the visibility very good.

Even if not used as control locations on the Short and Long advanced courses, you will encounter many “knolls”, and the map uses three different “knoll” symbols: “Brown dot” for normal knoll (ISOM 109, small knoll); “Grey dot” for a small mound of gravel; and “Brown solid triangle” for a small man-made mound covered with a lid, usually overgrown with grass, and often with a post with a streamer next to it. The latter is by far the most frequent type of “knoll” the map shows. They are not always significantly elevated above the surrounding land surface, and some are not mapped. Most of the knolls are less than 0.5 m in height.

The tall-vegetation map markings (green parallel lines, ISOM 409) are minimal and represent current conditions in the park. However, where present, running will be very slow or impossible.

Yellow “open land” (ISOM 401) is generally very runnable as the grass was mowed down, except for some “forested” (white) areas where the machine could not get in, and thus some tall grass remains. Most of the ground is covered with “straw”. Be careful with the footing (especially when you are reading the map while running)​—​there will be some unexpected ground-squirrel holes!

The map uses a dark-yellow, non-ISOM symbol for “bare earth/sandy area” that may help with navigation.

Boulders and Cairns

The map uses boulder (ISOM 204), big boulder (205), and boulder cluster (207) symbols. Generally these features are smaller than what would normally be mapped, and what we usually encounter at other BAOC events. Only a few boulders are significantly large. Most “boulders” on the map are rocks of about 0.5 m in size; some boulders and clusters are not easily visible because of overgrowing vegetation.

The “cairn” symbol (ISOM 526) is used to denote the park’s sequences of rock sculptures (i.e., man-made rocks). These are not used as control features.

Other Symbols

The “Green O” symbol (ISOM 417, “prominent large tree”) sometimes represents a quite small, lone tree or a small copse. The distinction between several “single” trees close together and a small patch of “white forest” is not clear. “White forest” often consists of a group of Eucalyptus trees.

The “Green T” symbol (not ISOM) represents a fallen tree (can be dead or still green, usually a few meters long). Not all “Green T” symbols have been removed from the map where there is no longer a fallen tree (e.g., you may find traces of a decayed tree or the remaining rootstock).

Rootstocks as small as 0.5 m diameter are indicated with “Brown ×” (not ISOM).

Generally, thickets are mapped accurately. Two levels of green are used: dark green usually represents thick bushes of various sizes (from as small as about 2 m to several tens of meters in diameter), while light green is very often a dense group of short pines.

The map shows man-made features with “Black ×” symbols (e.g., utility boxes, benches, and wells of some kind) and “Blue ×” symbols (for gas wells, often with a lid labeled “GAS”).

For Competitors on the Advanced Courses

All the trails and roads have been removed from the Advanced course maps.

In case there's any question, Sprint rules will not apply at this event.

As mentioned above, the map has some symbols that are not in compliance with the ISOM standard (PDF/2.0MB).

There are a few fences (ISOM 516) along some of the bigger trails and roads in the park. Competitors are allowed to cross those fences (i.e., they are mapped as crossable).

You will not encounter any out-of-bounds areas on your courses. There is a wetland restoration project on the eastern edge of the map that is marked out-of-bounds. The only other out-of-bounds area is the sewage treatment plant at the northwest corner of the map (which is fenced off by the “impassable-fence” symbol [ISOM 518]).

2022 Summer Series

This is the final event of the BAOC 2022 Summer Series. The Series consists of six events, each of which has two “ranking courses” for the two overall Summer Series results. At this event, points will be awarded to all the individuals (but not groups or teams) who complete the Short or Long course.

Details of the Summer Series scoring system are available here. (Note that we need your birth year if you want to be scored properly. Also, to be eligible for Summer Series ranking and awards [assuming there are any 🙂], you must be a BAOC member in good standing as of this event.)

The current Summer Series standings are here.

Driving Directions

The approximate coordinates are 37.4909,-122.1773.

From the Peninsula, North, and South, take Highway 101 to the exit for Marsh Rd/CA-84E (#406). Head east on Marsh Rd (toward Dumbarton Bridge or the Bay). Stay to the left so you can drive straight ahead into the park at the traffic signal where Marsh turns right onto Bayfront Expressway.

From the East Bay, cross the Dumbarton Bridge (Hwy 84). Go to the seventh traffic light after the bridge (at Marsh Rd), and turn right into the park.