What is Orienteering?

Events

Maps

About Us

Lake Herman Recreation Area

Date: (Sat.) Feb. 28, 2026
Location: Benicia, CA
Event Director: - 415.456.8118
Course Setter: Petra Sundstrom
Type: B; Event for beginners through advanced; beginners and non-members are welcome; free beginner instruction will be available

Course Setter's Notes

By Petra Sundstrom

Welcome to the beautiful hills around Lake Herman!

Here are a few notes and observations from your course setter to give you more information about the area and current conditions.

In general, the terrain is very open and runnable, and it has been made even more so by a herd of goats that have cleared much of the undergrowth. They have also made many of the scattered green areas more runnable than they appear on the map, and visibility in these areas has improved. On the downside, some of the distinct bushes and shrubs shown on the map have been nibbled on and can be a little tricky to spot — especially dry ones with few leaves. Overall, however, the map is mostly consistent with reality.

However, the dark-green areas in the reentrants and gullies are still impassable (except where otherwise marked on the map). Somewhat surprisingly, I found one large unmapped swath of green in a reentrant. It is possible to go around it, but it might be confusing.

Regarding vegetation, no significant amount of poison oak has been noted. There is some dry thistle, but new growth has not yet come up. The marshes are wet, and there are even some gullies that have streams not marked on the map. Although the terrain is hilly, it is not too demanding by Bay Area standards — however, the Green, Red, and Blue courses will include some climb.

Thanks to the goats, there are a few new animal trails not shown on the map. There are also a few faint trails on the map that are difficult to see on the ground, including one marked as a wide path that I chose to leave out of the courses for that reason. That "path" might still cause confusion, because it is hard to spot.

There are a few out-of-bounds areas. First, all the baseball fields are out of bounds. This is clearly marked by orange fencing around the fields and is also shown on the map. Second, there is a caravan parked at a road/path junction with a fence in front of it (likely used for goat-supply storage). I have marked the area around the caravan as out of bounds, but it is still possible to go around it to reach the path.

There is a disc-golf course around the baseball fields. None of the target baskets are marked on the map, but the starting tees are. They are marked as blue squares, even though this has nothing to do with water features. There are also faint paths leading from the tees to the baskets that are not shown on the map.

Please note that there will be many controls placed fairly close together. Most will be on different features, but be sure to check your control description numbers carefully.

I hope to see many of you out there on Saturday, and any help with control pickup would be greatly appreciated! 😊