“Corona” training course in San Francisco

Table of contents

Presidio of San Francisco, Fort Scott

Dates: May 16, 2020 to ??
Location: San Francisco, CA
Course Setter:
Type: Training; One streamered course for practice/exercise during the shutdown

Photo gallery image (click to enlarge)


February 28, 2021 Update

This course is considered to be "closed".

General Notes


Another do-it-yourself Pink Streamer training course, at Fort Scott in the Presidio of San Francisco (https://www.presidio.gov/presidio-at-home) in San Francisco.

I used really small portions of pink streamer tape​—​to make them less likely to be yanked​—​and because I used the last of my streamer tape, and rationed it. Since it has been a week since I put them out on Sunday, May 10th, I can't tell you if all of them are still there.

I call the course “Baker-Lobos”. There is a BAOC map of the area, but what you’re getting is not a BAOC map. It's a 1:4000-scale, LIDAR-generated map with crude OpenStreetMap additions. Read the course notes on the map carefully.

I was good in shorts and flat-soled shoes, but if I was being competitive, I would have opted for some traction on my shoes.

Course details: 3.4 km, 170 m climb, 9 checkpoints. The map scale is 1:4000, with 5 m contours.

Read the course notes, download the PDF map(s), and get travel directions here: S.F. Presidio Training Course (https://sites.google.com/view/terraloco-training/2020-05-10-baker-lobos). You can also report your results on that webpage.

Miscellaneous Notes

Enjoy!

(May 16, 2020)


Status Update

I've discovered that for some reason when you Publish a Sheet with Google, it defaults to “only those who you’ve shared it with.” So I had to go through another step to fix the “results” page for this event. You should now be able to see what happened, with stats and GPS tracks, here (https://sites.google.com/view/terraloco-training/2020-05-10-baker-lobos).

Apparently pink streamer #2 is missing. It should be right on a trail. The other streamers are present.


(May 22, 2020)


Course Comments

I ran Rex’s course at the Presidio today. I saw Olga Kraght finishing the course at the same time as I was pulling into a parking space. I also saw a fair number of vehicles, hikers, and runners, and a whole lot of bicyclists. You will definitely want to take care when crossing the paved roads.

Our usual paid parking area at the north side of Fort Scott was closed. So I continued south on Funston along the west side of the post buildings, and discovered another small paid parking area within a few meters of the start triangle. Or you could be brave and just park between the buildings, and not pay.

I found all of the streamers but one (#2), although for many of them, I spent time looking around before finally spotting it. Several are lying flat on the ground, so look down if you don’t see a streamer tied to a bush or tree. I am notoriously bad at spotting those little pink streamers, but Rex did say that #2 was previously reported missing. So I tied a new streamer to a bush, at the bend of the unmapped paved trail, right next to the unmapped amphitheater.

I “cheated” by bringing along an old BAOC map of the area. I think it has been over 10 years since we have set courses that have gone to the very southwest part of the map, as the map I found was from 2009. I used the old map a few times, although I think it might have done as much harm as good, since things have changed a lot in that area since 2009.

Thanks Rex! I’m looking forward to the Oakland course.

Steve Gregg
(May 23, 2020)


Course is on RouteGadget

The S.F. Presidio “Corona” training course is now on RouteGadget. Visit RouteGadget for an introduction or go directly here (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi) to draw your route.

Since there was no E-punch, I set up the event using the "no results" mode, which requires a bit more effort to enter your route.

Drawing Your Route Manually

You need to enter your name, total time, and optionally any cumulative splits that you might have taken. Both splits and total time need to be in MMMSS format. For example, 0:57 is entered as "57", 5 min 43 sec as "543", and 1:12:32 as "7232". That's easy.

Uploading Your GPS Track

You need to enter only your name (please include your time after your name)​—​total time and splits are not required as with manual entry. (RouteGadget automatically adds "GPS" ahead of your name.)

Since there are no E-punch splits, it's very challenging for RouteGadget to fit GPS tracks to the course automatically, especially as our maps are not georeferenced. Thus, you will need to adjust your track manually more than usual.

When you upload your GPS track, there are three blue adjustment points that you can move to adjust your track. There are typically points at the start and finish of the track, and a third one somewhere in the middle of the track.

The trick is to add more blue adjustment points by right-clicking the track anywhere you would like to add a new point. I typically add a blue dot at every control location on my track, as those are easy to identify because of the notable direction change. Then I drag the blue dots to the corresponding control locations on the course. Note that you can remove a blue dot by right-clicking on it.

To see other RouteGadget events worldwide, visit http://www.routegadget.net (http://www.routegadget.net).

Happy Routes,

(May 31, 2020)