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Calero County Park

2011 BAOC Club Championships

Date: (Sun.) Sep. 25, 2011
Location: San Jose, CA
Event Director: - 650.248.9595
Course Setters: Tapio Karras, Toby Ferguson, Mark Rice
Type: B; The standard 7 courses, beginner through advanced. This event will be our 2011 Club Championships, with bragging rights to the victors in several categories.

Last year's Calero event was scheduled for the end of October, but had to be canceled due to rain. So this year we have moved it to the end of September in order to "guarantee" ideal weather.

In any case, we have a great team putting on the event and great courses, and when all of you reading this join us — great company and fun competition!

This event will offer the standard 7 courses, beginner through advanced. As a special feature, this event will be our 2011 Club Champs — with bragging rights to the victors. So come on out and enjoy a beautiful Fall day.

Note: The Calero rangers will force us to cancel if we receive heavy rain on, or a few days before, the event day. Please check here before the event to make sure it is still on.

Everyone is welcome (even first-timers) at the 2011 BAOC Club Championships in beautiful Calero County Park. Toby and Mark are stepping out for the second time as course setters, with Tapio as mentor. We will have the regular seven courses, including clinics and courses for beginners. Finish your course in time to attend the Club Championship award ceremony at 1:30 PM.

This event will determine the 2011 BAOC Club Champions, but you don't need to be a championship contender to participate — everyone is welcome, from first-timer to experienced orienteer. (Please note, however, that only current club members can receive Club Championship awards. Is it time to renew your membership?)

• Registration will be open from 9:30 AM until noon.
• Short Beginners Clinics will be offered as needed between 9:30 and 10:30 AM. These repeating sessions provide an introduction to orienteering, and enough information to complete a beginner course.
• Dan Greene will offer an Intermediate Skills Clinic from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM (see below).
• Starts will be available from 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM.
• Trail-O Demo 9:45 to 2:30 (3 controls) can be done on your way to or from your regular course.
• Annual Junior Training Day Camp from 9 AM to 4 PM. Contact for more info.
• The Club Champs Award Ceremony will be at 1:30 PM.
• The courses will close at 2:30 PM. Remember that you must report at the Finish by 2:30 PM whether or not you complete your course. (We don't want to have to go looking for you!)

Registration and Beginners Clinics will be in the main parking area. Both Start and Finish will be within a short walk from the parking area. Allow 15 minutes to reach the Start.

For more information about the typical costs and schedule at orienteering events, and more, please see our FAQ.

Electronic punching will be used on all the courses, including White and Yellow, so don't forget your e-sticks. You can rent an e-stick at Registration if you don't own one. See our User's Guide for information on how to use e-punch.

This event will have the usual seven courses. The final course statistics are as follows:

   Course    Length    Climb   Controls

   White     2.8 km    180 m      12
   Yellow    2.6 km    140 m      13
   Orange    3.7 km    180 m      14
   Brown     3.5 km    110 m      10
   Green     4.8 km    290 m      14
   Red       5.8 km    430 m      15
   Blue      6.9 km    500 m      20

Yes, that climb number for the White course is correct. Calero Park is a hilly place. The Yellow course is listed as having less climb because the optimum route on that course avoids some climb by going off trail.

In case you don't already know, the Length of a course is determined by simply adding up the straight-line distances between the controls. Of course, people seldom travel on those straight lines, so the actual distance covered will be longer. The Climb is determined by tracing the "optimum route" (i.e., in the opinion of the course setter) on the map, and counting the up-hill contour lines that are crossed. (No consideration is given to down-hill travel.) Thus, it is possible to complete the course with the stated amount of climb, but less-than-optimum routes and navigation errors will add climb.

Be sure to read the Course Setters' Notes below for more information about the courses.

Intermediate Skills Clinic

As mentioned previously, Dan Greene will be offering an intermediate clinic from 10 AM to 11 AM. Look for the clinic at a picnic table in the same parking lot as registration. This clinic is designed for orienteers wanting to either move from the beginning courses (White, Yellow) to the intermediate (Orange) course, or move from the intermediate course to the advanced courses (Brown through Blue). He will briefly review some basic navigation skills, such as the use of attack points, aiming off, reading contours, making route choices, and the "green-yellow-red" method of navigation. However, most of the time will be spent learning when to apply these techniques. He will use old course maps of Calero and other similar venues to learn how to spot opportunities to apply well-chosen orienteering navigation techniques.

Request for Helpers

If you are planning to attend this event, we could use your help!

We have the following positions available:

Early Runners – 8:30

Registration – 9:00-11:00 (1 person)

Registration – 11:30-12:30 (1 person)

Starts – 9:30-11:00 (2 people)

Starts – 11:00-12:30 (2 people)

Finishes – 10:30-12:00 (1 person) (run early)

Finishes – 12:00-2:00 (1 person)

Beginner's clinics – 9:30-10:30 (1 person)

Control Pick-up Organizer – 1:30-4:00 (1 person)

Control Pick-up Crew – 2:00-4:00 (3+ people)

Please let know if you can help at any of these positions.

Course Setters' Notes

Please watch for horses on the trails. Above all, don't startle them. We don't want anyone to be thrown off a frightened horse and blame orienteers!

Here are some comments about the White, Yellow, and Orange courses:

• The Start for White and Yellow is near the advanced Start. The Orange course uses the advanced Start, and all three courses share the Finish with the advanced courses.
• The White course requires a lot of climb. Apologies for that. One section of White leaves the trail to follow a fence, but the navigation is easy.
• The Yellow course has legs that give you the option of leaving the trail, but choosing the off-trail option requires more difficult navigation. Another part of the Yellow course requires off-trail legs, but has easy navigation.
• The Orange course has most of the climb early in the course. Ridge tops are used to make navigation easier and reduce the climb. There is one water control on Orange.

For advanced courses, the emphasis this year was to set courses that included longer legs with surprising route choices. Only the competition on the day will tell us whether we've succeeded! Length and distance is a little above the 5-year Calero averages for Red and Blue, and a little below for Brown and Green.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Poison oak is, as always, prevalent. We have tried to avoid it, both in route choice and in bag placement. But take precautions and make sure to wash yourself properly after the race.
• The reservoir water level is noticeably lower than mapped. While this will not affect your route choices, it's something that Red and Blue runners should pay attention to.
• Ruined trees are mapped either with green-× or green-T symbols. A green-× might be a standing stump or a fallen tree. A green-T is always a fallen tree.
• A green-T indicates the location and direction of a fallen tree, but not its length.
• In the control descriptions, a ruined tree with height is used to indicate a standing stump, whereas a ruined tree with no height (and usually including an "end of" symbol) indicates a fallen tree.
• Red and Blue runners will encounter several barbed-wire fences, some of which are ruined and hard to see. When we have seen these fences, we have marked them with tape. But not all fences are marked. Please be vigilant and look for unmarked fences, and take care when crossing any fence.
• A black × on the map and a plain × on the control description stands for a man-made object.

Trail-O Demo

By Alex Finch

There will be a free, three-control Trail-O Demo/Training set up at Calero, open from 9:45 AM until 2:30 PM. Maps will be available near registration. You can either do the Trail-O on your walk to the Start, or you can do it after your course.

Trail-O is another form of orienteering. Think of it as an opportunity to look at a small piece of terrain in order to solve a puzzle the Course Setter has presented. No running, all mental, but not always as easy as it might seem. You will be given a map with a control circle and control description. You stand at a viewing point. In front of you will be 3–5 control bags in the field. All you have to do is decide which bag is the one in the center of the circle on the map. "None of the above" may also be the answer.

Honing your ability to compare your map to a piece of terrain in front of you can help you in regular Foot-O when you are searching for a control point, running through an area requiring fine navigation, trying to relocate, or selecting control sites as a course setter. Some of the best at Foot-O turn out to be the best at Trail-O. I don't think that is a coincidence.

The training is free, untimed, and unscored. This is your chance to start to get a feel for what Trail-O is about.

So improve your map/terrain reading skills, and have some fun at the same time.

Some things to keep in mind for Trail-O:

• Read the map and look at the terrain — determine which features are mapped and which are unmapped. What is not mapped is often as important as what is mapped. Features too small to be included by the mapper can make it harder to match up map with terrain. The solution may involve using vegetation, features, and/or contours to narrow down the answer.
• Look everywhere, not just at the control markers. Relative positions of some features, even at a distance from the markers, can provide valuable clues.
• Use your compass.
• While you choose the answer based on the positions of the markers as seen from the viewing station, that may not be the best vantage point from which to solve the puzzle. You are free to go back and forth along the trail, and any trail or road not specifically marked as out of bounds, in order to get better or different perspectives. However, you cannot walk off the trail or road — not even 1 meter.
• Determine the position of the viewing station as carefully as possible (it's not marked on the map).
• When you are ready to select an answer, stand at the viewing station (there will be a sign) and look at the bags from left to right. The left-most bag is "A", the next bag (left to right) is "B", etc. There will be 3–5 bags per control.
• If you feel that none of the bags represents the center of the control circle and the control description, then your answer is "Z". For a problem to have the answer "Z", you should be able to eliminate all of the other bags as being incorrect.

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