We return to Bedwell Bayfront Park in Menlo Park, but in the winter this time instead if in the summer. Bedwell Bayfront is a fairly small, open, flattish park near the western end of the Dumbarton Bridge — easy to get to, with fun orienteering and great views.

This park is a great place to try orienteering for those new to the sport — beginners new to orienteering are encouraged to attend. There will be a course intended for beginners, with easier navigation to give an introduction to the sport. (Beginners are welcome to try a more challenging second course.)

Beginners

Beginner clinics will be available to introduce orienteering. They are short, repeating sessions that explain orienteering maps and the process for completing a course. Of course, it's up to the participants to be able to read their map and navigate to the controls on their course. That should not be too difficult at this feature-rich venue.

"Advanced" Beginners

If you are in the early stages of learning orienteering, Bedwell Bayfront Park is a great venue to try a more-advanced course. The park is very open, so features are easy to see, and it's confined to a small area, so you cannot get far from the event center. However, to artificially make navigation harder, the maps for the Intermediate/Advanced course will have "special twists" (e.g., trails and roads could be omitted). Thus, that course will give you a chance to practice more-advanced skills such as following a bearing, using attack points, and reading contour lines and vegetation features.

2026 BAOC Youth Program Kick-Off

We will be having the kick-off of the 2026 BAOC Youth Program at this event. The Youth Program is free (except for the normal, junior course fees), and is open to all juniors (age 20 and under).

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.

More than 150 orienteers joined us for the first BAOC event of 2026, enjoying beautiful Bay Area January weather, with lush green grass and early wildflowers already in bloom.

Course setters Derek Maclean and Matthias Kohler created fun Beginner and Motala courses. The Motala courses had butterfly loops and varying control sequences to keep everyone thinking, with constant direction changes and up to three maps. It was complicated behind the scenes, but went pretty smoothly on the day.

Greg Khanlarov completed all three Motala loops (7.6 km) in 54 minutes, holding off Paul Roome by just over a minute. Tapio Karras was fastest over two loops by three minutes ahead of a pack of chasers. Peter Graham took clear honors for the 1-loop option with a speedy run. Brian Auchincloss, Quinten Williams, and Keira Graham led a field of 42 entrants on the Beginner course, which toured all seven hills of the park.

Nice work by Jeff Lanam got the event results published quickly despite the complicated format. Jeff, together with John Blakken and Phil Lacroute ably staffed E-punch at the event.

It was a particular pleasure for me to present the 2025 BAOC Service Award to Sarah Williams, our registrar extraordinaire. I'll share more details soon in a separate message.

I'm sure everyone noticed the strong turnout for the kickoff of our Juniors Program. Thanks to Julia Doubson and Petra Sundstrom for leading this. Please spread the word to any others who may wish to join. Julia and Petra have a series of other activities planned for the junior team — the next meetup will be at Point Pinole on February 8.

Thanks to the many volunteers who made the event possible:

• Steve Haas organized the permit at short notice in December.
• Chuck Spalding created all of the website information and the volunteers spreadsheet.
• Setup: Weichun Fong, John Blakken
• Registration and Welcome Team: Sarah Williams, Steve Haas, Chuck Spalding, Dennis Wildfogel
• Beginners Clinics: Nick Corsano, Sheila Cotter, Dan Greene
• Starts Crew: Graham Brew, Kat Lan, Derek Maclean, Michael Catambay
• Refreshments: Kat Lan organized a nice spread of fruit and snacks for the event.
• Control Pickup: Tom De Vre, Theo Verhoeven, Luc Poppe, Eric Rosenzweig, Tapio Karras, Lubomir Šebo
• Hope you all can make it to our next event at Coyote Lake–Harvey Bear Ranch County Park near Gilroy, just two weeks away on January 25.

Beginner Course

(2.6 km, 75 m climb, 16 controls)

Pl  Name(s)                     Club      Time     Behind    Lost
    1  Brian Auchincloss                     24:28              0:53  
    2  Quinten Williams                      27:47     3:19     2:44
    3  Keira Graham                          28:13     3:45     2:48
    4  Ashley Graham                         28:40     4:12     3:51
    5  Leonija                               29:12     4:44     2:34
    6  Bicycle Repair Team         BAOC      29:22     4:54     2:15
    7  Sheep Tech                            31:45     7:17     2:26
    8  Team Bergstedt                        33:05     8:37     5:36
    9  Zach Jasensky                         33:51     9:23     5:58
   10  Jenner La Fave                        33:55     9:27     5:29
   11  Tatiana Fedyk               BAOC      37:19    12:51     2:37
   12  Pancakes                              38:27    13:59     3:03
   13  Sebastian Fedyk             BAOC      39:55    15:27     8:12
   14  Shoes                                 41:13    16:45     9:51
   15  John Blakkan                BAOC      42:26    17:58     3:39
   16  Dawn Sakurai                          44:53    20:25     9:58
   17  Kalyan Garapaty                       46:13    21:45    11:56
   18  Nataliya Bondarenko                   46:19    21:51     5:08
   19  Kosti-Timor family                    46:22    21:54    10:18
   20  Team Bird                             46:43    22:15     6:15
   21  Bobcats                               47:58    23:30     6:14
   22  Valerie Lacroute                      48:34    24:06    16:01
   23  Maya & Friends                        51:12    26:44     4:10
   24  Jared & Evan                          52:14    27:46    11:33
   25  Jussi Tahtinen              BAOC      53:30    29:02     9:27
   26  Anja Tahtinen                         53:31    29:03     9:41
   27  Sumegha's                             55:31    31:03    10:22
   28  Usanmaz                               56:18    31:50    11:03
   29  Team Perkins                          57:04    32:36    11:55
   30  Mark Schmidt, Yu-Chen Shen            58:18    33:50    12:41
   31  Team Dukart                           59:37    35:09    14:44
   32  Kautz                               1:01:16    36:48    13:58
   33  Passinsky & Family                  1:01:56    37:28    12:38
   34  The Squaky Birdys                   1:04:18    39:50    16:51
   35  Blud on the Calculator              1:05:08    40:40    20:05
   36  Cecilia Roome               BAOC    1:07:11    42:43    27:45
   37  Hao                         BAOC    1:37:57    73:29    33:35
   38  Banana Slugs                BAOC    1:38:49    74:21    33:08
   39  Team Everly                 BAOC    2:23:18   111:50    42:48
       Gan                                   DNF                     
       Harry & Tom                 BAOC      DNF
       Liv Sundstrom               BAOC      DNF

Motala Single (1 loop)

(3.4 km, 75 m climb, 16 controls)

   Pl  Name(s)                     Club      Time     Behind    Lost
    1  Peter Graham                          26:35              0:00  
    2  Dennis Wildfogel            BAOC      40:34    13:59     4:14
    3  Sarah Williams              BAOC      41:36    15:01     1:06
    4  Adam Gross                            42:00    15:25     3:51
    5  George Minarik              BAOC      42:01    15:26     3:00
    6  Sheila Cotter               BAOC      49:43    23:08     8:45
    7  Sue Roome South          Ribble OC    52:16    25:41     9:44
    8  Evan Custer                 BAOC      54:35    28:00     1:39
    9  Anna Staats                 BAOC      57:01    30:26    16:47
   10  Dan Greene (vettor)         BAOC    1:02:40    36:05     4:14
   11  Neville Fernandes,
         Rucha Bedarkar            BAOC    1:15:02    48:27    27:43
   12  Jeff Lanam                  BAOC    1:15:21    48:46    17:02
   13  Shoes                               1:19:39    53:04    19:26  (2nd course)
   14  Clara Staats                BAOC    1:21:00    54:25    29:10
   15  Melinda Gottesman           BAOC    1:29:24    62:49    32:59
   16  Leslie Minarik              BAOC    1:35:28    68:53    28:23
       Jay Hann                    BAOC      MSP                     
       T  Sundstrom                BAOC      DNF

Motala Double (2 loops)

(4.8 km, 100 m climb, 23 controls)

   Pl  Name(s)                     Club      Time     Behind    Lost
    1  Tapio Karras                BAOC      40:35              1:30  
    2  Werner Haag                 BAOC      43:30     2:55     2:45
    3  Boyuan Zhang                BAOC      43:43     3:08     7:18
    4  Steve Gregg                 BAOC      44:12     3:37     2:54
    5  Quinten Williams                      47:05     6:30     8:01  (2nd Course)
    6  Chuck Spalding              BAOC      50:16     9:41     3:51
    7  Martyn Roome South       Ribble OC    50:17     9:42    11:20
    8  Phil Lacroute               BAOC      51:44    11:09     5:22
    9  Ginny Wailes                BAOC      53:18    12:43     8:11
   10  Parrots                     BAOC      58:10    17:35    11:04
   11  Olga Boiarynova             BAOC      58:47    18:12     4:21
   12  Nick Corsano                BAOC    1:01:29    20:54     3:13
   13  Enxun Wei                   BAOC    1:05:58    25:23    18:14
   14  Aleksandr Rabinovich                1:13:00    32:25    15:17
   15  Bay-Wei Chang               BAOC    1:13:18    32:43    17:00
   16  Kat Lan                     BAOC    1:24:22    43:47     6:48
   17  Marie De Vre                BAOC    1:24:26    43:51    21:12
   18  Miroslav Trubelja           BAOC    1:26:51    46:16    11:44
   19  Rhonda Stieber              BAOC    1:26:55    46:20    11:20
   20  Zach Jasensky                       1:30:08    49:33    23:38
   21  QBS                         BAOC    1:31:08    50:33     9:36
   22  Yunying Chiu                BAOC    1:36:52    56:17    31:37
   23  John Quintrell              BAOC    1:55:09    74:34    23:50
   24  Jonathan Seder                      2:16:06    75:31    41:45
       Misha Kreslavsky            BAOC      DNF                     
       Sasha Sidorov                         DNF

Motala Triple (3 loops)

(7.6 km, 160 m climb, 39 controls)

   Pl  Name(s)                     Club      Time     Behind    Lost
    1  Greg Khanlarov              BAOC      54:18              0:46  
    2  Paul Roome                  BAOC      55:49     1:31     4:46
    3  Graham Brew                 BAOC      58:26     4:08     0:37
    4  Ouri Karni                  BAOC      58:32     4:14     5:42
    5  Wayne Staats                BAOC      58:45     4:27     3:54
    6  Lubomir Sebo                BAOC    1:00:01     5:43     1:29
    7  Roman Roshchin              MSU     1:00:16     5:58     1:25
    8  John Richardson             BAOC    1:02:25     8:07     1:59
    9  Rex Winterbottom            BAOC    1:06:54    12:36     1:29
   10  Weichun Fong                BAOC    1:09:09    14:51     9:00
   11  Sean Robinson               BAOC    1:09:10    14:52     3:52
   12  Jussi Tahtinen              BAOC    1:09:46    15:28     4:10
   13  Andrej Masalkov             BAOC    1:11:41    17:23     6:05
   14  Tom De Vre                  BAOC    1:12:26    18:08     4:24
   15  Josh Munic                  BAOC    1:13:17    18:59     6:08
   16  Mattias Mattsson            BAOC    1:13:46    19:28     4:14
   17  Eric Rosenzweig             BAOC    1:14:03    19:45     2:51
   18  Matteo Guareschi            BAOC    1:14:51    20:33    11:30
   19  David Colman                BAOC    1:18:01    23:43     5:14
   20  BFC                         BAOC    1:19:45    25:27     9:44
   21  Theo Verhoeven              BAOC    1:21:19    27:01     5:48
   22  Nathan Curtis               BAOC    1:22:03    27:45     8:24
   23  Tac Sugiyama                BAOC    1:23:13    28:55     3:56
   24  Michael Robinson            BAOC    1:34:16    39:58     1:37
   25  Luc Poppe                   BAOC    1:38:45    44:27     7:33
   26  Steve Haas                  BAOC    1:40:48    46:30     2:24
   27  Jumping Rabbits             BAOC    1:42:20    48:02     4:10
   28  Steve Rodrigues             BAOC    2:20:21    86:03    23:58
   29  Shengye Wang                BAOC    2:30:35    96:17    22:48
       Jenner La Fave                        MSP                     
       Mirjana Spasojevic                    DNF                     
       Puppy LIC                   BAOC      DNF
       Zander & Lia                BAOC      DNF
       Oliver Conradi              BAOC      DNS                     
       Steve Beuerman              BAOC      DNS
       Taylor Pospisil             BAOC      DNS