Sat. Nov. 7 PM Middle

Starts will be assigned at 1 minute intervals. Please be check-in 15 minutes prior to your assigned start. After 3:15, starts will be assigned first come, first served.

Directions to the Chowchilla Recreation Area Day Use shelter;
Parking Fee of $10 per vehicle, unless you are camping there. (America the Beautiful passes work too - put them upside down on your driver-side dash.) The pay station is like 2 miles away from our parking area on the road coming in! GPS of pay station: 37.198697, -120.003296. It's annoying to park, then have to go back there and buy that day pass.

GPS: 37.223262, -119.985127;
From the North, exit CA Highway 99 in Chowchilla at exit 170, CA Hwy 233/Robertson Blvd. Turn left, and take this road which becomes Avenue 26 all the way to a T-junction after almost 13 miles. Turn left onto Road 29. Make sure to stop along the way and buy your day pass where the pay station is signed, unless you're camping at Eastman Lake! After about 7 miles, turn left for the Chowchilla Recreation Area. Go about 1.5 miles, bearing right at each intersection, until you get to the parking area for the day-use area.

From the South, exit CA Highway 99 just north of Madera at exit 159 for Avenue 18 1/2, make a right turn, and you'll hit a T-junction quickly at Road 24, and turn left onto Road 24. After 7.5 miles, you'll hit a T-junction at Avenue 26, turn right onto Avenue 26. Go 5 miles to another T-junction at Road 29. Turn left onto Road 29. Make sure to stop along the way and buy your day pass where the pay station is signed, unless you're camping at Eastman Lake! After about 7 miles, turn left for the Chowchilla Recreation Area. Go about 1.5 miles, bearing right at each intersection, until you get to the parking area for the day-use area.

Gear: Shoes with cleats or studs for all courses. Pants recommended for all courses. But doable in shorts. Poison oak is hard to find in the areas we are exploring for the courses. 

Course Stats:
Yellow: 1.8 km, 75m climb, 8 controls
Orange: 3.0 km, 125m climb, 9 controls
Brown: 2.2 km, 95m climb, 13 controls
Green: 3.1 km, 150m climb, 19 controls
Red: 4.0 km, 195m climb, 23 controls

Walk to the Start: From check-in location, 600 meters, mostly downhill or flat and 80% paved unless you go cross country, 20% dirt trail. From the Finish back to check-in and download, 1 kilometer, with some uphill but mostly downhill. There is a water fountain and a bathroom very close to the Finish point and walking back is all on paved roads.

Terrain: Eastman Lake is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir fringed by gently rolling hills peppered with lots of rock features and savannah-like vegetation. There are hunters and you will probably hear gunfire in the distance. Poison oak is rare, and, if present, is usually sprouting from very dense fields of rocks and boulders. Courses have been designed to avoid the need to traverse through any of the poison oak.

Map: New for the event, ISOM, 1:5000 scale for all courses, 5m contours. Green X = standing dead tree. Brown Triangle = rootstock. Boulder clusters in the field can be small or quite large/expansive. So what you see can really vary in size for the Black Triangles on the map.