Bayfront Park Event Poster
(click on it to enlarge)
Bedwell Bayfront Park
Date: (Sun.) Jan. 11, 2026
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Event Director: 
- 415.309.1853
Course Setters: Derek Maclean, Matthias Kohler
Type: C; A chance to see one of our popular parks in a different (cooler) season; beginners and non-members are welcome, with free beginner instruction available; kickoff event for the 2026 BAOC Youth Program; presentation of the 2025 BAOC Service Award
Related Event Information
Course Setters' Notes
By Derek Maclean
General
Bedwell Bayfront park is a former landfill that has been overfilled to become a pleasant, grassy peninsula extending into San Francisco Bay, with small groves of trees and bushy thickets across a number of small hills (not more than 30–40 m elevation).
In January, the park is lush and green, but the grass is not too high. Running conditions underfoot should be perfect, although care should be taken to avoid the many ground-squirrel holes, often quite large, which are a trip hazard. There is little underbrush and no poison oak.
There will be many controls out there. Make sure you punch the correct one by checking the control ID. (Controls on similar/same features might be closer than 50 m!)
Map Information
The map was updated in 2024 by Matej Šebo with additional corrections by Emily Ellsworth in 2025, and is holding up well. The scale is 1:5000, with a 2 m contour interval. Some bushes have grown, some have died back; some mapped fallen trees are slowly decaying and becoming less visible.
Many controls are on thickets, which might have slightly changed in shape since they were mapped, but should not significantly affect navigation.
Vegetation is mapped consistently according to different plant types. White areas are typically small eucalyptus groves. Most of the dark green areas are thickets of dense brush. Smaller dark green areas might be palmettos. Intermediate green is typically scrub pine.
There are many "landfill-gas" vent pipes (about 3 ft tall) throughout the park, which are marked on the map by a small blue star.
Beginner Course
The Beginner course is 2.6 km with 16 controls and 75 m of climb (see the main event webpage for an explanation), and gives a "grand tour" of the multiple small hills in the park. All the controls are on, or quite close to, one of the many trails that criss-cross the area.
Intermediate/Advanced Course
A Motala course is offered, with up to three loops, each of average 2.5 km distance. See the main event webpage for details.
Runners can decide if they wish to do 1, 2, or 3 loops (see below), effectively comprising Short, Middle, and Long course options.
All the roads and trails have been removed from the Motala course maps, so navigation is based only on topographic and vegetation features.
Runners who wish to do only one loop should indicate this to the Start volunteer, and will receive a map showing their single course from Start to Finish.
Runners wishing to do 2 or 3 loops can decide to stop after 2 loops, or continue to complete all 3 loops. At the Start, they will receive a double-sided map with the first two loops on the two sides. After completing two loops, they can either proceed to the Finish, or pick up their final, Loop 3 map from a tray at the "map exchange" control at the end of Loop 2.
The Loop 2 map might not show a line from the final control to the Finish, but this route will be obvious for those ending their run after 2 loops.
The map received by each runner for any loop might not necessarily be the same as for another runner. Some doing 2 or 3 loops will do "Loop A" then "Loop B", others will do the opposite. There is also a "butterfly" section on one loop, where runners will complete either section 1 then 2, or vice versa. Runners should simply complete the controls in the order specified on their map, and not just follow someone else — the other runner might be going to a quite different control than yours, even if they previously went to the same controls as you.