Sun. Nov. 8 AM Long

Thank you to Sierra Foothill Conservancy for hosting us and please follow all directions such as not crossing fences (cross at gates.) Consider becoming a member (see their website ^), for $50 it supports a great cause of environmental protection and environmental education and recreation opportunities. I joined and love their newsletters!

Starts will be assigned at 2 minute intervals. Please check-in 15 minutes prior to your assigned start. After 10:15, starts will be assigned first come, first served.

Social Lunch afterwards nearby at Kilokabob, 2pm-ish.

Directions: There is no parking fee for this event.
GPS: 36.996586, -119.593466;
From Madera and North: Take CA Highway 99 to exit 155 for Cleveland Ave. It's a little tricky after you get off the freeway. Turn left onto Cleveland Ave., and then super soon, you're going to need make a right. Then super soon again, you're going to need to make a left to get onto Cleveland Ave. again. Go about 1.5 miles to the junction with Yosemite Ave. / CA Hwy 145. Turn left, and go about 18 miles. Turn right at Road 206, and go about 2 miles, it becomes North Fork Road, and hits a T-junction at North Friant Road / Millerton Road. Turn left onto Millerton Road and go 6 miles to Auberry Road. Turn left onto Auberry Road. After 3 miles on Auberry Road, turn left at the sign for the preserve.

From Fresno and South: Take CA Highway 41 to Friant Road and turn right onto Friant Road, then go about 3 miles to Copper Ave. and turn right onto Copper Ave. After 2.7 miles on Copper Ave., turn left onto Auberry Road. Go about 11.8 miles and turn left at the sign for the preserve.

Terrain: Rock features abound at Ruth McKenzie Table Mountain Preserve, which is covered mostly by oak savannah. There are a few meadows and a few forested patches. The trail network supports beginner courses. The hills are gentle in the bottom of the valley and get progressively steeper, towards near-vertical at the table tops.

Map: will be new for the event, ISOM, 1:7500 scale for all courses, 5m contours.  Green X = standing dead tree. Brown Triangle = rootstock.

Course setter: Vladimir Gusiatnikov

Course Stats:
Yellow 2.6 km, 50m climb, 11 controls
Orange 3.9 km, 135m climb, 14 controls
Brown 3.3 km, 110m climb, 16 controls
Green 5.8 km, 190m climb, 22 controls
Red 7.7 km, 285m climb, 29 controls, Map Flip

Fences - only cross at mapped crossing points! Do not cross fences except where there is an open gate.

Getting to the Start: 400m to the arena from parking then another 100m to the start; 200m from the finish to the arena and download.

Gear: Shoes with cleats or studs for all courses. Pants recommended for all courses. But doable in shorts. Poison oak is rare.

Vladimir's Course Setter's Notes

Fences are Uncrossable, Gates are Crossable: You are (a) not allowed to cross any fences other than at mapped crossing points, and (b) required to leave the gates at these points in the state you found them. This state is apriori unknown. On the day of the event park staff may need them open, or they may need them closed. If a gate is closed, carefully unclip the chain, open the gate, go through, close the gate and CLIP THE CHAIN BACK. You can do it. It takes a few seconds, true, but so does crossing a fence. The most important fence is highlighted in purple, but all of them are legally uncrossable. Each one you see on your map is. If you venture into the not-fieldchecked area, which is across a fence from the fieldchecked area, then go out through a mapped crossing point and get back through a mapped crossing point. See above for how you handle the gate.

This park has amazing terrain, of which we're only scratching the surface this weekend, and the park district has even more world-class terrain across its many holdings. Truly World Championships level. Maybe WMOC one day? and it would be really really bad to lose access to this terrain right away. Please.

2. There is a map issue point and a start triangle. The start triangle is 80 m from the map issue point along a marked route. There is no SPORTident at the start triangle. Eurostyle. Your time begins at the map issue point.

3. This is a small area and these are long courses. There are a lot of checkpoints on your map, circles, connection lines, all the plumbing. Track these carefully and check codes. If the CP isn't yours, there's a good chance it's on your course, you just misinterpreted the connection lines.

4. The map is to ISOM: a valid interpretation thereof. There are no distinct vegetation boundaries or other objects for which it would matter which version of ISOM. Some version after 2000.

5. There is no water on the courses other than at the map issue point (not at the start triangle, which is 80 m away). You will pass by the map issue point, possibly several times. For example, Red will pass by three times, so we're in compliance with water-every-2.5 km rule. There's no bucket shown on your map where the map issue point is, because it didn't fit. The map issue point is shown on both of the map-flip maps and it is close to the finish.

Vladimir