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Viva Calle SJ at Lake Cunningham
Date: (Sun.) Jun. 9, 2024
Location: San Jose, CA
Event Director: - 408.313.3753
Course Setter: Rex Winterbottom
Type: A single Sprint course in this small park as part of the Viva Calle SJ event, where BAOC will promote orienteering; please join us
Event Announcement
BAOC will have a booth at the second Viva Calle SJ event on Sunday, June 9, at Lake Cunningham Park in San Jose. We had a lot of interest at our booth at the last event in April, and we are turning things up a notch this time. We hope to have E-punch and a challenging course in this new location for us.
We do need people to help at the booth, and with setup and teardown of the booth and course.
We also invite BAOC and friends to come try our course, even if you can't commit to an hour or so at the booth. Wear your club uniform or an orienteering T-shirt.
The event starts at 10 AM and goes until 3 PM. We will need to start setting up around 8 AM. Note that White Road will be closed to vehicles from Alum Rock Ave south to the park entrance.
Please let me know if you are coming to help — send me a text at 408.313.3753 or reply by .
Information about Viva Calle SJ is available here (https://www.vivacallesj.org). Directions to the event are below.
Thanks,
Jeff Lanam
Ever done one of George Minarik's entertaining Yellow courses after doing your Advanced course, as a sort of orienteering dessert/cool-down/leg-stretcher?
The event at Lake Cunningham it will be your "Main Course."
Pun fully intended, but I promise, this course will not "Pun"-ish you...
Unless you choose to always go straight, you could pick up a couple of stickers.
It's the Lake Cunningham Orienteering Mile,
aka a Yellow course,
aka a "Try It" course for newcomers,
with a brand new map, 1:7500 scale, 5 m contours, ISOM (not ISSprOM as demosntrated in the mapping workshop.)
Bring your e-Punch stick (unless you need to borrow one) to enjoy:
- 7 checkpoints,
- 1.7 km as the crow flies, but around the mapped-as-uncrossable marsh,
- 15 meters climb,
- A large plain with a marsh surrounded by trails, picnic areas, small hills, another lake, shelters, and man-made objects.
The course is about as interesting as you can make it for advanced orienteers, while still being appropriate for newcomers, as all checkpoints are trail accessible, but off-trail routes abound. That's what a Yellow course is.
At the very least, go and do the course. It's free. Just show up at the BAOC booth at Lake Cunningham at Viva Calle San Jose. I'm aware that Jeff Lanam, Brian Ritchkin, and Dan Greene will be there early to set up.
Having staffed our booth in the last Viva Calle San Jose in April, I can say that it would behoove all of us to do the outreach and staff the booth. Especially if you're a woman, person of color, or younger. We need enthusiasm at our spot to welcome people into what we do. I understand that many of us are introverted types, but this is a truly special opportunity to bolster our attendance and membership and volunteer base with people who can help us carry on the mission of our club. Do it for the team.
The weather will be nice, not hot, so what's to stop you? I certainly hope to see BAOC represent strongly in the e-Punch results listing, and I will be looking with interest at the splits. Who can break 10 minutes on an "orienteering mile?" And I also hope to see some chatter and hear good stories about our event.
Yours truly,
Rex Winterbottom, Mapper and Course Setter
P.S. Thanks to Jeff Lanam for being the event director and getting us the booth space.
P.P.S. I suggest that we make the Orienteering Mile an annual tradition, like the Golden Goat. So don't miss out on attending the first one.
Directions
Approach Lake Cunningham from Tully Road in east San Jose. The Tully Road entrance will be open, and people can park in the lots nearby. Watch for signs posted for the event.
Bicycle, skate, or walk to the park from anywhere on the Viva Calle SJ route, which starts at City Hall, runs east on Santa Clara St, continuing on Alum Rock Ave to Alum Rock Village, and then on White Rd to the park. (A map of the route is on the Viva Calle SJ website (https://www.vivacallesj.org).)
You can also park at the transit center at the northeast corner of Eastridge Mall.
The approximate location of the BAOC booth is 37.33786,-121.80406.
Event Write-Up
By Jeff Lanam
It would be fair to say that the response was disappointing. We had a few people try the sample course, none for the first time. We did present orienteering to quite a few other people, and gave out a lot of Rex's excellent flyers. Most people had biked to Lake Cunningham in east San Jose from Alum Rock Village or San Jose City Hall, and had to ride back, so they didn't feel like doing a 1.7 km course.
When I arrived Sunday morning to set up our booth, I wanted to be close to the Finish, but as far as possible from the DJ booth. As a result, we were somewhat separated from the main flow of pedestrian traffic. We did get one young woman who had seen orienteering flags while running the trails and came to our booth very excited, as she had done orienteering in China. I'm sure we'll see her soon, but she had plans to run a 10K later in the day.
Thank you to Rex Winterbottom for mapping the park, planning the course, and producing the flyers. Thanks to Brian Ritchkin, Parag Gupta, Tak Sugiyami, Steve Haas, Emily Ellsworth, Dan Greene, and Tapio Karras for helping with the booth. Brian put out the controls, and Tapio picked them up. Thanks also to the Viva Calle SJ staff: Yadira IbaƱez and Victoria Lopez.
I think if we have a booth again at this event, we won't have a course, just a booth.
Results
Also see control-by-control timing in the WinSplits results (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=98240).
Try It Course
Pl Name Time Behind 1 Emily Ellsworth 9:04 2 Tapio Karras 9:45 0:41 3 Tak Sugiyama 11:16 2:12 4 Werner Haag 11:21 2:17 5 Joshua Zhanson 12:52 3:48 6 Ray Rosenbaum 16:31 7:27 7 Steve Haas 17:27 8:23 8 Jaxon 29:34 20:30
All of these are regular BAOC participants except for Jaxon, who had come to a BAOC event with the Boy Scouts and did the course with his family.