By Matej Šebo

Morgan Territory is a beautiful park every spring, and this year is no exception. The grass is green, and the hillsides are beginning to sprout wildflowers. The terrain is generally fast, but deceptively tricky, with many places where mistakes can be made. A variety of terrain types occur in this park, from thick growths of manzanita, to rocky outcrops, to rolling open oak-covered hills, to steep hillsides.

Stage 2 is a highlight, with downhill courses that visit an area of the park that has never before been used for a Middle-distance course.

Start and Finish Locations ↑

There will be one, remote Start location' for all the Stage-2 courses. It is located 2.6 km (real, not straight-line, distance) from the Assembly Area. The route to the Start is along park trails, and will be clearly marked with pin flags. It will take about 30–45 minutes of walking to reach the Start.

There is also one remote Finish location for all the Stage-2 courses. Walking from the Finish back to the Assembly Area is not feasible, but we will be providing regular shuttle service between a pick-up location close to the Finish and the Assembly Area. The shuttle pick-up location is located 0.5 km from the Finish, on the main park road. The shuttle drop-off location will be at the main Assembly Area. (The estimate of the wait for the next shuttle and the ride is 10–15 minutes.)

Course Comments ↑

Participants on the Stage-2 Yellow course will follow a streamered, off-trail, marked route between two controls. The route will be clearly marked in the terrain with brightly-colored streamers, and on the map with a purple dashed line. Additionally, the control descriptions will clearly indicate which leg this is.

Participants on the Stage-2 Orange, Brown, Green, Red, and Blue courses will have to cross one or more barbed-wire fences. Crawling or rolling underneath the lowest, loose wire is recommended. Gates are indicated with the black crossing-point symbol, and mapped gaps in fence lines are accurate.

All runners should carefully read the map when approaching a control. In some areas of the park, controls have been placed very close together. The standard IOF rules for minimum distances between controls have been followed (30 meters apart if on different features; 60 m apart if on similar features). Remember that not all of the controls you see will be on your course, so remember to check each control code before punching.

Map Comments ↑

The Morgan Territory map, revised and updated for the U.S. Champs in 2016, and again for this event, is one of our club's finest. It is printed at a scale of 1:10,000 for all courses. The contour interval is 5 meters.

Most of the park is either open land (mapped orange) or open forest (mapped white). Vegetation boundaries are usually distinct and well-mapped.

Light- and medium-green areas are progressively slower than open forest, but still passable. Medium green is mostly manzanita. Areas mapped as dark green are usually manzanita or chaparral thickets (although they are sometimes massive poison oak bushes). It is a good idea to plan routes around dark green areas, as they are usually impenetrable.

Just about all rock features are accurately mapped, although they have been generalized in some places. Most mapped boulders are over 1 meter high. Stony ground consists of scattered rocks less than 1 meter high. Areas where multiple boulders (1 meter high) occur close together are mapped as boulder fields.

Lone trees are mapped with the hollow, green, circle symbol. Green ×s are dead trees that are still standing or dead, fallen trees (the map does not distinguish between these). On the control description sheet, both instances of these are marked with the "tree, ruined" symbol.

Hazards ↑

Poison oak is present, and the courses have been designed to avoid the worst areas. However, many of the rocky areas in the park contain large clumps of poison oak twigs. Most of these are avoidable if you recognize them. Long pants are recommended, as is washing with cold water and soap (or Tecnu) after the event.

Ticks might be present, so check your clothing and skin after you return from your course.

Footing can be slippery, especially if there is rain in the days leading up to the event. Shoes with good grip are advised, especially for competitors on Orange, Brown, Green, Red, or Blue.

There are a few locations in the park where small, unmapped clumps or strands of barbed wire have been left lying on the ground, likely the remnants of an old fence. I have tried to flag as many of these as possible with orange streamers to make them more visible, but there might be a few that I missed.

There are a lot of cows in the park, but they are generally docile if not antagonized. Please be careful not to come between a mother cow and her calf.