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Morgan Territory Regional Preserve

Date: (Sun.) Oct. 27, 2013
Location: Livermore, CA
Event Director: - 505.310.8645
Course Setters: Dan Greene, Bjorn Widerstrom
Type: B; Full-featured 7-course event (Note date changed from original announcement)

Please note that fees and time limits apply, unless otherwise mentioned below. Events are typically not canceled due to bad weather.


NOTE: The event date was initially announced as Oct. 20.


Morgan Territory, an East Bay Regional Park, is a regular favorite for BAOC events. The slopes of Mount Diablo glowing ebony in the northern sky, and the San Joaquin valley receding in the mists to the east, the rolling, grassy hills of Morgan Territory perch airily on their gentle plateau of Jurassic rocks, dissected by babbling streams¹ and punctuated by graceful woodland. While running any or all of the regular 7 courses, you will want to pause and drink in the cheerful song of the woodland birds, flitting amongst the dappled shadows of the rich, fall leaves, the graceful stalks of poison oak reaching eagerly toward the branches above, and the hum of insects dancing in the lazy, morning sun.² Even the recent Morgan wildfire halted at the boundary, hesitant to disturb this sylvan paradise.

Schedule for the day:

Important: Please remember that courses close at 2:00 PM. And, even if you don't complete your course, please be sure to check-in at the Finish and download your E-punch so that we know you have returned and do not initiate a search for you.

If this is your first time orienteering, mention that at registration, and they will direct you to a free beginners clinic to get you started. Come on out and join us!

Park admission is free.

Courses

This year we will provide the "standard 7" courses: White and Yellow courses at the beginner level, an Orange course for intermediate-level navigators, and the usual Brown, Green, Red, and Blue courses for advanced navigators.

Poison oak is fairly abundant in this area, but is almost all very short (usually no more than a foot or so off the ground). As usual, care has been taken to design courses that avoid most of this hazard.

Here are the course statistics:

   Course     Length     Climb   Controls
   White      1.8 km      40 m      14
   Yellow     2.6 km      85 m      11
   Orange     4.5 km     185 m      12
   Brown      3.1 km     145 m      11
   Green      4.5 km     245 m      18
   Red        5.5 km     310 m      24
   Blue       6.4 km     355 m      27

Course lengths are calculated as the straight-line distance. Climb is calculated for a plausible route.

There will be controls with water on the Orange and advanced courses, and at the Starts and Finish. The forecast is for Sunday to be warm: consider carrying water, too. There’s also a faucet in the registration area, and even a horse trough!

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

Start and Finish Locations

For the White (beginner), Yellow, and Orange (intermediate) courses, the Start is 300 meters into the park, a 5-minute walk. Follow the orange flagging beside the trail. The common Finish for all the courses is near this start.

For the advanced courses (Brown, Green, Red, Blue), the Start is 1.0 km, a 20-minute walk, into the park. You will pass by the Start for the White, Yellow, Orange, and the common Finish for all courses about ¼ of the way to the advanced-course Start. We recommend you leave extra clothing at the Finish as you pass by on your way to the Start​—​there will be no clothing return from the Start.

E-punch

All the courses will be using electronic punching. If you do not already own an E-punch stick, you can rent one at Registration. Please remember to check-in at the E-punch station near registration before you go to the Start, and also remember to download your E-punch stick after you complete your course. (Please download and return your rented E-stick even if you do not complete your course. This will help us determine that everyone has finished.)

Warnings

With the dry weather, the matted grasses and loose soils can be slippery. Please be careful. We recommend O-shoes or cleats on the intermediate and advanced courses, and shoes with good traction for the White and Yellow courses.

There is a moderate amount of poison oak in the park. At Morgan, it occurs almost entirely in deciduous woodland, particularly on north-facing slopes. It is very dry this time of year, which will reduce the risk of getting an allergic reaction, but without leaves poison oak can be hard to identify from the other leafless stalks under the trees. If you have doubts, we recommend that you wash with something like Tecnu after the event.

Request for Volunteers

The Event Directors request assistance with the various tasks required to make the event possible. Help is needed with parking, registration, clinics for beginners, starts, Finish, E-punch, social, and control pick-up.

Please let know if you can be of any assistance.

Driving Directions

Everyone is encouraged to carpool since parking at the park is somewhat limited.

Take I-580 east to the North Livermore Avenue exit in Livermore. To get to the park, head north on North Livermore Ave until forced to turn left onto Manning Road. Take the next right onto Morgan Territory Road, and continue 5.6 miles to the Morgan Territory Regional Preserve parking lot on the right. The road is very narrow with many sharp curves, so allow extra time and drive carefully. Parking and park admission are free. Parking on the road outside the park is not permitted.

There's a map here that shows the location of the event.

Carpool Site

Cars can be left in the Walmart parking lot, a short distance southeast of the exit from I-580. If you park there, please do not park away from the store entrance. Although this location is fairly close to the event, carpooling from here will reduce traffic on a narrow, twisty road, and will reduce our impact on a rather small parking lot.

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1 At the discretion of the water table. If you prefer babbling by water, as opposed to orienteers, please visit next spring.

2 These statements shall not be construed to form any binding contractual obligation on the part of the Bay Area Orienteering Club in respect of weather to be provided on the day of the event.