Golden Goat & Golden Kid

24th “Annual” Golden Goat & Golden Kid

Las Trampas Regional Wilderness

Date: (Sat.) Oct. 22, 2022
Location: San Ramon, CA
Event Director:
Course Setter: Yurii Konovalenko
Type: 2022 Golden Goat & Golden Kid—after a 2-year absence from the schedule, we have the return of an extra-long "Goat" course, and a long "Kid" course, with a shared mass start; and regular beginner courses with separated starts

Related Event Information

Event Results Event Announcement Previous Golden Goat (2019) Attackpoint Event Page (https://www.attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_54337)


Course Setter’s Notes

By Yurii Konovalenko

Our Golden Goat event is known for it’s physically challenging courses, and this year’s event is no exception! The technical difficulty is limited by the terrain and the map, but there should be a good amount of route choice and places to read the map carefully.

The competition area is open and runnable: about 60% of the map is “open land”. The forest is clean. The courses are designed to avoid thick vegetation on reasonable route choices.

To obey park rules, do not jump over, roll under, or squeeze through a fence​—​go around or use a gate. All the courses are designed to avoid fence crossing on reasonable route choices.

Courses

Here are the details for the courses: 

    Course          Length       Climb     Controls
    Golden Goat    11.0 km    750 m  6.8%     20 (*)  
    Golden Kid      5.8 km    325 m  5.6%     12 (*)
    White           2.9 km     67 m  2.3%      9  
    Yellow          3.6 km    100 m  2.7%     11

(*) See the Special Rules below.
Beginners should be aware that the distances shown are the cumulative straight-line distances between controls. Your actual distance will be longer. 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.

Special Rules for the Goat and Kid

The Golden Goat and Golden Kid courses have these special rules that are different than normal orienteering courses:

Note to Beginners: Those exceptions to the normal rules do not apply to the White and Yellow courses. On those courses you must visit all the controls on the course (and you must visit them in the given order). You are not supposed to follow somebody else. If you find yourself in the vicinity of another orienteer, make your own decisions about where to go (realize that the other person might be lost or going in the wrong direction).

Map

The map scale is 1:10,000 for the Golden Goat and Golden Kid courses. The map scale is 1:7,500 for the White and Yellow courses. The contour interval is 7.5 m.

The quality of the map varies. I tried to update it around the courses. However, there are some unmapped cow trails, which I did not add since they tend to come and go. The contours and vegetation are generally accurate.

Special Map Symbols

× = Standalone tree with a prominent crown. This feature is used for controls, with the control placed near the tree trunk.
o = Small standalone tree. This feature is used for controls.

Start

The Start for the Golden Goat and Golden Kid courses is located next to the assembly area.

The Start for the White and Yellow courses is located 1.2 km from the assembly area, with 110 m of climb. It takes 20–30 minutes to walk there.

The assembly area will be located next to the main Las Trampas Parking lot at the end of Bollinger Canyon Rd (Google map) (https://goo.gl/maps/xgSohCFZHLvDerFB9). However, please do not park in that parking lot.

Finish

The Finish for all the courses is located near the assembly area.

Water

Water will be available near the assembly area.

There will be two controls with water on the Goat course; one control with water on the Kid course. But the question is: Will you decide to skip a control with water? 😉

Hazards

Be extra cautious and careful on steep terrain, and anticipate that the dried grass or wet mud can be very slippery. Shoes with spikes are strongly recommended for the Golden Goat and Golden Kid courses. Shoes with good traction are recommended for the White and Yellow courses (e.g., trail shoes).

There is little to no poison oak; rare patches of poison oak can easily be avoided.

There are some cows with their young ones. Try to not startle the cows​—​run around groups of cows rather than through them. Never get between a calf and its mother!