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Joaquin Miller Park

Event #1 of 6 in the BAOC 2022 Summer Series

Date: (Sun.) Jun. 5, 2022
Location: Oakland, CA
Event Director: - 510.407.1876
Course Setters: Tom de Vre, Theo Verhoeven
Type: C; This is the first event of the 2022 Summer Series. Beginners are welcome!


Course Setters’ Notes

By Tom de Vre and Theo Verhoeven

Joaquin Miller Park is comprised of mixed oak and redwood forested areas with open grass and more developed areas for mixed use. It is heavily visited by hikers, joggers, bicyclists, equestrians, and picnickers. Be especially careful with mountain bikers who will come from behind and whizz you by at great speeds. Trails are abundant, including many indistinct animal tracks.

The terrain is very steep in certain areas. Poison oak can be encountered, but can be easily avoided if you know what it looks like. Long pants or gaiters are recommended for the Short and Long courses.

Restrictions

You must observe the out-of-bounds areas that are hashed in purple on the map. This includes steep streambeds and the Fern Ravine nature area. Please stay on trails and bridges in or near these restricted areas.

Skyline Blvd and Joaquin Miller Road are prohibited, and can’t be used while running a course.

Map Comments

Unfortunately, the map is in need of some serious updating. Much of the vast trail system, especially in the upper section of Joaquin Miller Park, is no longer up to date. Some of the mapped small or indistinct trails have now almost completely disappeared, while others have been transformed into major trails (mainly due to heavy mountain biking), indistinguishable from the mapped major paths. The major trails that are mapped are correct though.

On the map, the symbol × (man-made object) can indicate any of a number of objects: bench, picnic table, signage board, or permanent orienteering marker. But again, we have noticed that some of these objects are not consistently or accurately mapped, with some mapped objects no longer present in the field, and some objects such as benches or tables not being mapped.

The best advice we can give is to not rely on a single feature, especially with man-made objects and small or indistinct trails.

All the maps are printed on regular 8.5x11 sheets, with a map scale of 1:5000 for the White and Short courses, and 1:7500 for the Long course. The contour interval is 5 m.

Course Comments

Here are the course details:

    Course             Distance    Climb   Controls   Navigation
    Beginner (White)    1.7 km      60 m     10       Beginner      
    Short               3.1 km     150 m     13       Intermediate  
    Long                5.2 km     320 m     18       Intermediate

Beginners should be aware that the distances shown are the cumulative straight-line distances between controls. The climb numbers represent the amount of ascending that would be done on the “optimum route” (in the Course Setters’ opinion), without regard for any descending. Because you won’t travel in straight lines, and might not follow the optimum routes, your actual distance and climb will be somewhat more than what is shown above, and will depend on your route choices (and any errors you make).

There will be a single water control on the Long course; none on the other courses. There is a functioning water fountain near the Start.

Note: The Short and Long courses will have advanced technical difficulty. (The ranking courses at the other Summer Series events will most likely have intermediate technical difficulty, because the other venues do not support advanced courses.)

Editor’s Note: Here’s how one of the course setters assesses the courses: "I would say most of the controls are intermediate (and not that far from a mapped trail), but the quality of the map (especially trail network and mapped/unmapped features as mentioned in the Course Setters’ notes) might make the course more difficult, requiring more advanced skills to not get confused and to locate the controls easily. As such, Orange runners might find the course challenging​—​however, I think many should still be able to find the controls."

Finally, some additional, course-specific notes:

White Course

At some point along the course there is a steeper section along a beautiful trail that traverses over some rocky ground. Be careful, especially for groups with very young children or older individuals.

Part of the course is heavily used by mountain bikers. Please use extra caution.

There will be no water along the course, so consider bringing some along for yourself if it’s a hot day and/or if you think you might take a long time.

Control #10 is marked with a blue × on the map and an × on the clue sheet (i.e., the control description). The feature is a water fountain/spigot.

Short Course

This will be the "ranking course" for the Summer Series of Short courses.

The course stays in the upper section of Joaquin Miller and is relatively flat. There will be no water along the course, so consider bringing some along for yourself.

Control #1 is marked as an × on the map and on the clue sheet. The feature is a permanent orienteering marker.

Long Course

This will be the "ranking course" for the Summer Series of Long courses.

The course takes you to both the upper and lower sections of Joaquin Miller, which means that there is some considerable amount of ascending. Keep this in mind when deciding which course to run.

There will be a single water stop along the course.

We used two different control-description symbols for special features: an × (control #11) when the feature is marked on the map with an ×, and a full circle (control #10) when the feature is not marked on the map with an ×. In both cases, the feature should be obvious when you get there.

You can use mapped trails and bridges to cross the marked out-of-bounds streambeds.