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Golden Gate Park

Date: (Sun.) Oct. 21, 2012
Location: San Francisco, CA
Event Director: - 415.378.6416
Course Setter: Deron van Hoff
Type: C; Beginner, advanced beginner, and intermediate Foot-O courses, and a (rare) Bike-O course


Course Setter's Notes

By

Are you ready for some orienteering in an extremely beautiful urban park?! Bob Cooley has slain the dragons on the far eastern end of the park (from when the map used to say "here be dragons"), so all of the courses are venturing into new terrain that hasn't been visited by BAOC in at least the past 13 years. We will use Bunny Meadow on the east end of the park for the Start and Finish, which was used for the first time in 2010. The offerings will consist of White, Yellow, Orange Foot-O courses, and a Mountain Bike (MTBO) course.

A special category will be offered for duathletes who want to compete in both the Orange Foot-O and MTBO courses. Duathletes will go out on the Orange Foot-O first, followed by the MTBO; the transition time will be on the clock. State your intention of competing in the duathlon at registration, and we will assist you in staging your bike at the Finish/transition area, watching your bike while you're out on the Foot-O, and making sure an MTBO map is available for you at the Finish/transition area.

Also, you may choose to compete in any combination of courses, in whichever order you want, including taking a break in between, but you will be not be listed in the duathlon results if you choose this option.

And welcome to the BAOC COOL (California Outdoor Orienteering League) orienteers! This is the first event in the BAOC COOL 2012–2013 season.

Pie-plate controls will be used to mark the control locations as in previous years. A pen or pencil will be needed to mark your answers on a control card.

White, Yellow, and Orange are entirely on the eastern end of the park where most of the visitors, activities and museums are. The eastern end of JFK Drive (near the assembly area) is closed to vehicle traffic on Sundays. As always, look both ways before crossing streets.

Bicycles are allowed on all the streets in the park. They are allowed on relatively few paths and trails in the eastern half of the park, although there are a few designated multi-use paths that allow bicycles, one of which is along the south side of JFK Drive. Forbidden routes that appear possible will somehow be designated on the MTBO maps. Therefore, after a few controls on the east end of the park, the MTBO course will cross U.S. Highway 1 (a.k.a. 19th Avenue, Crossover Drive, Park Presidio) to the western half, where there are many less restrictions on bicycles. The points to cross Highway 1 are at the far north boundary of the park at Fulton Street, the far south boundary of the park at Lincoln Way, and the two main east-west streets through the park — JFK Drive in the northern part and MLK Jr. Drive in the southern part. JFK Drive is an undercrossing under Highway 1. However, the other three crossings are at signalized intersections. You may wait up to about 1 minute for the right of way at these intersections.

There are a lot of controls out there (61), and some on similar features, so make sure you check control plate numbers before marking your answer.

The course statistics are as follows:

   Course     Length    Climb   Controls
   White      2.5 km     35 m     13
   Yellow     3.1 km     65 m     11
   Orange     5.9 km    125 m     18
   MTBO      15.5 km              24

The lengths for the White, Yellow, and Orange Foot-O courses are straight-line distances, while the MTBO course distance is the approximate distance of the optimal route.

Road Bike or Mountain Bike?

Q: What percentage of the trails would be really tough on a road bike?

A: Although that is very subjective, I have successfully ridden my road bike on many of the trails in Golden Gate Park, although I find the ride very rough. However, this is the most difficult time of year to ride the trails. As the trails dry out, the sand becomes more loose and more difficult to power through. Most trails have enough forest litter to make it possible to ride a mountain bike, but I am not as sure with a road bike. I had to dismount three times during a ride of the course on a mountain bike — two were obstacles and one deep, loose sand.

Rough estimates of the surfaces:

Hope you all have a good time!