Saturday Notes

By Bruce Wolfe

There was a movie a few years back that featured the tag line, There will be blood! For the Spooner Lake courses, let's change that to There will be climb!-well, except for the White and Yellow courses that stay fairly close to the Lake itself. In the nearly 170 years of western development at Spooner, this area has been logged, grazed, mined, dammed, flumed, fenced, railroaded, mountain biked, Rim Trailed, teepee'd (see below), and (since the â€˜90s) orienteered. But none of those activities has diminished the steepness of Spooner's terrain.

Climb

To account for the climb (and the elevation), I've tried to keep the courses a bit short and avoid climb that doesn't feature route choice or get you to less-steep terrain. Nonetheless, per kilometer times will be slower than usual.

Vegetation

The map has been only minorly updated since its first use for the 1999 U.S. Champs. As such, some vegetation has changed: vegetation nearer the lake and in wet reentrants tends to a bit thicker, while in other areas it has been thinned. This is where teepee'd comes in: there is a lot of forest work underway to remove fallen trees and dense vegetation. That removed vegetation has been stacked into teepees in many areas, awaiting burning when the teepees are sufficiently dried out. For now, runnablility is improved, but visibility may be limited. I've tried to place controls in locations that won't be hard to see through the teepees; however, the forest work has continued throughout the time I've planned and set the courses, so there may be some limited visibility.

Rock Features

While I don't always agree with how the mapper shows the rock features, I've found that, in general, rocks under 0.5 meter aren't individually mapped even if distinct. A rock over 1.0 meter may be mapped even it is in an area of stony ground but not if it is in a boulder field. Most rock features are accurate enough that they can serve as attack points.

Trails

I've tried to keep you off Highway 50 or the North Canyon Trail that is the mountain bike highway to/from the renowned Flume Trail. Nonetheless, you can use them if desired, just keep your eye open! The trail around Spooner Lake and the Rim Trail should be part of your route choice, but please be courteous to hikers and horses you meet on the trails.

Hazards

I have yet to see any bears at Spooner this year, but I expect they're around. They'll generally run away from you or climb a tree-you should go the opposite way from them, too. Past that, the biggest hazards are rocks and downed logs-and mountain bikers at speed on the North Canyon Trail.

In sum, everyone gets to go around the lake-and most everyone gets to climb! The smoke may limit the views, but, even so, this remains spectacular orienteering terrain!

Errata

Water is not shown on the control descriptions, but is at controls 50 and 51. Control 78 on some of the advanced courses is shown as a 1 x 1 thicket on the control description, but it should be shown as 5 x 5.

Course Details

    Course    Length   Climb  Controls
    White     2.7 km    30 m      8  
    Yellow    2.6 km    50 m      9
    Orange    3.4 km   165 m     10
    Brown     3.3 km   165 m      9
    Green     5.2 km   280 m     13
    Red       6.0 km   310 m     16
    Blue      7.1 km   420 m     16

Note that the course Length is simply the sum of the straight-line distances between controls. Your actual distance will be somewhat longer, and will depend on your route choices (and any errors you make). (A rough rule of thumb is to mentally replace "km" with "mi", so a "2.7 km" course might cover about 2.7 miles.)

Climb is an estimate of the cumulative "up" that would be encountered on the optimum route, with no regard for any "down" along the way. As with course length, the actual climb you encounter will depend on your route choices (and errors).

Sunday notes

By Paul Carson

Join us for a little summer orienteering in this beautiful park near the North Shore of Lake Tahoe. Sorry to say that some of the more interesting terrain/features were posted as out of bounds by park officials, but otherwise courses have been designed to experience a diversity of terrain and navigational challenges.

Registration will be open from 9:30 to noon. The earliest start is at 10:00; the latest start at 12:30. The courses close at 2:00. See the event announcement page for details.

Courses

Here are the details of the courses:

                                        Navigational  Physical
    Course    Length   Climb  Controls  Difficulty    Difficulty
    White     1.8 km    20 m     10     Easy          Easy  
    Yellow    3.3 km    70 m     11     Easy          Easy
    Orange    4.5 km   100 m     12     Moderate      Moderate
    Brown     3.9 km    70 m     13     Hard          Moderate
    Green     5.9 km   105 m     17     Hard          Hard
    Red       7.5 km   100 m     18     Hard          Hard
    Blue     10.0 km   205 m     22     Hard          Very Hard

Course Comments

The Start for the all the courses is close to the assembly area.

The Finish for all the courses is near the assembly area.

The White (beginner) course is mostly well-surfaced trails, and is likely suitable for rugged strollers.

The Yellow (advanced beginner) course is mostly on trails with some off-trail options. Controls are near, but typically not on, trails.

The White and Yellow courses share some areas, but are mostly different, so if you have time and energy, enjoy trying a second course.

The Orange (intermediate) course is mostly off-trail, but uses large features for navigation and well-established trails for handrails if needed. This course is located in some of the same areas as the advanced courses, and should provide participants an experience similar to doing an advanced course (and maybe will inspire you to move up to the next level!).

The Brown, Green, Red, and Blue (advanced) courses are as technically difficult as possible in this terrain. They are almost entirely off-trail, and have some challenging control locations.

Map and Terrain

The map scale is 1:10,000 with 5 m contours. The map could use a little updating, as I noticed a few single-track trails not shown while scouting the Red and Blue courses.

The terrain is a mix of meadow, open forest, and somewhat thicker forest with occasional dense bushes and deadfall. White areas on the map are a bit denser than the map implies in some places.

The entire area is relatively flat when compared with some of the parks in the Bay Area.

Poison oak (PO) is non-existent!!!

There are areas of manzanita and other stiff vegetation (I also found a little barbed wire—did not require stitches, just lost a bit of blood). Shin guards are recommended for all competitors who will go off-trail, particularly for the advanced courses with substantially off-trail routes.

Boulders over 0.5 m high are usually mapped. In generally rocky areas, only the more prominent rock features may be shown.

Wildlife

No wildlife (other than the occasional mountain biker) was spotted while planning, though bear scat was noticed in one area. I have never encountered a bear in this area—I think they hang out around our house in Reno, as we have had one in the backyard three times this year that we know about.

Driving Directions The approximate coordinates for the assembly area at North Tahoe High School are 39.1940,–120.1193

From Tahoe City: Take CA Route 28 northeast for ~3.7 kilometers (Hey, weâ€™re orienteers and should know metric! OK, if I must, ~2.3 miles.), and turn left onto Old Mill Road. Head north on Old Mill Road for ~600 meters (0.4 miles) until reaching the three-way stop at Polaris Road. Turn left and proceed ~800 meters (0.5 miles) to the school on the right. Turn in at the first driveway. (If you miss Old Mill Road, just keep going on Highway 28, and look for signs at Fabian Way pointing to cross-country skiing—see below.)

From Kings Beach: Take CA Route 28 west for ~10.8 kilometers (~6.7 miles), and turn right onto Fabian Way (across from the 7-Eleven). Turn right onto Village Road (first intersection: ~130 meters, ~400 feet). Head north on Village Road for ~300 meters (0.2 miles), and turn left onto Polaris Road. Proceed ~1.1 kilometers (0.7 miles) to the school on the right. Turn in at the first driveway. (If you miss Fabian Way, just keep going on Highway 28, and look for signs for Old Mill Road—see above.)

Tahoe Weekend 2018