It has now been a year and a half since we held a regular meet at Calero. The meet was moved to the late fall to minimize the impact of elephant tracks. The ground will be harder and drier than in the past when the event was held in the rainy season.
Both White and Yellow courses have streamered sections that go off trail through an open hillside; long pants are recommended unless it is a rather warm day. Orange runners should have leg protection as there are some sections of thistles and tall grass. Poison Oak is dispersed throughout the park; the leaves are all gone, so if you are sensitive you should know how to recognize it without foilage as it can still cause a reaction. White, Yellow and Orange courses should have almost no Poison Oak exposure, but the advanced courses offer possible route choices through one or two sparsely covered hillsides. We plan to supply enough water on the courses that it won't be necessary to carry any yourself.
Courses will be on premarked maps. The map quality varies, and advanced runners will enter a section where the quality improves towards the end of the courses. We will use a few larger, not-quite-point features as control sites; these will be hung more prominently than most other controls to reduce the luck factor.
There will be a remote start and finish except for the Start-O, which is in the parking area. Plan for a 5-15 minute walk/run to and from the start/finish areas. Courses close at 2:30 PM.
Final Course Stats:
Number of Nominal Minimum Technical
Course Controls Distance(km) Climb (m) Difficulty
Start-O 10 0.6 5 Early Beginner
White 10 2.5 165 Beginner
Yellow 12 3.4 175 Advanced Beginner
Orange 11 3.5 210 Intermediate
Brown 11 3.2 170 Mostly Advanced
Green 10 3.8 230 Advanced
Red 14 4.7 260 Advanced
Blue 19 6.0 360 Advanced
Caution: Use Tecnu and check for ticks.
Thanks to Dan Greene and Dean French for an immense amount of help.
From the East Bay, take Highway 101 south past San Jose and exit at Bernal Road west. Immediately turn south on Monterey Highway (bear right, then make a left turn). Go south 3.4 miles and turn right at the traffic light onto Bailey Avenue. After going 2.9 miles west, Bailey ends at McKean. Turn left and go south 0.7 miles to the park entrance.