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Coyote Lake-Harvey Bear Ranch County Park

Date: (Sun.) Jan. 26, 2025
Location: Gilroy, CA
Event Directors: , - 707.567.3496
Course Setters: Tom De Vre, Theo Verhoeven
Type: B; Standard 7-course event for beginners through advanced; at the Coyote Lake side of the park as in previous years; everyone is welcome, including non-members and beginners, with free, brief, beginner instruction available (pending park approval)

Related Event Information

Last Year’s Event

Please note that fees and time limits apply. Events are typically not canceled due to bad weather.


The information below is preliminary, and subject to change. Check back here closer to the event date.


Everyone is welcome to attend this event. We especially love beginners. There will be free, short, beginner clinics at the event to get you started.

Coyote Lake Harvey Bear Ranch is a beautiful wilderness park near Gilroy with some wonderful views. In January the park will be green and lush. The terrain is typical oak woodland. It is interesting and somewhat steep. Course designers Theo Verhoeven and Tom de Vre will set the standard seven courses, plus an alternative Brown course.

The conditions in the park are perfect: emerald green hills, soft footing, and breathtaking views.

Important Note
We will be using the boat-launch parking lot at Coyote Lake — not the parking lot at Harvey Bear Ranch (off of San Martin Avenue) that we used for the 2022 event. That is, we will park at the boat launch accessed from the “Coyote Lake” entrance to the park (which we used last year and previous years). Driving directions are below.

The park’s website is here (http://parks.sccgov.org/santa-clara-county-parks/coyote-lake-harvey-bear-ranch-park).

What is Orienteering?

An adventure! Discover the outdoors and discover yourself! You can explore a course by yourself or go as a team with your friends. You will get a highly detailed orienteering map, probably unlike any map you have seen before. The map will have a lot of detail on it, such as fences, boulders, lone trees, vegetation boundaries, and anything else you might see. Your course will be printed on the map.

Orienteering is easy to learn, a challenge to master, and incredibly fun! You can read more about orienteering here.

Schedule

  9:00 AM – 11:59 AM: Registration open
  9:30 AM – 10:30 AM: Beginner clinics instruction (free)
 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM: Starts are open for all courses
                   2:00 PM: Everyone must have returned to the Finish
Note: At registration, all juniors (under age 21) must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, or bring with them a waiver signed by their parent or legal guardian (the registration form is available here [12KB PDF]).
Note: The Start is an 800 m, mostly flat, walk from the assembly area. Plan accordingly.

Note that you can register and start on the courses anytime during the open times above. Thus, for example, you do not need to be "punctual" at 9:00. (You can if you want, but please don’t show up earlier and expect to be served.)

Beginner clinics are 15–20 minute, repeating sessions that introduce the sport of orienteering, and provide enough instruction to be able to complete the Beginner (White) course.

Note: Beginners are given their White- or Yellow-course maps at registration. You should get your map before joining a beginner clinic.

Note that everyone must return to the Finish by 2:00 PM, and then promptly go to the download tent, even if they have not completed their course. Please do not leave without checking in! If there are unaccounted people after 2:00, we must initiate a search for them.

After you finish, stick around and socialize with other participants! Beginners should use this opportunity to ask any questions they have.

Costs and Registration

Optional online registration (and payment) is available as described below.

The following fees apply for this event:

  $3 for each junior on the beginner (White) and advanced beginner (Yellow) courses
  $8 for each adult on the beginner and advanced beginner courses
  $5 for each junior on the intermediate (Orange) and advanced (Brown, Green, Red, Blue) courses  
$15 for each member on the intermediate and advanced courses
$20 for each non-member on the intermediate and advanced courses
  $1 for a compass rental (optional)  
  $5 for an electronic fingerstick rental (if you don't own one; you'll need one to complete the course)
$15 for the lowest-cost individual one-year BAOC membership (optional)  
Notes:
  • Juniors are age 8 through 20. Youth under age 8 are free.
  • You can register at the event or online before the event (see below).
  • At the event, we can accept payment by cash, check, or credit/debit card (but no electronic payments — e.g., PayPal, Venmo).
  • There is no charge for a second course (but you must end up paying for the more expensive course — e.g., the Orange course after a beginner course).
  • Members of other orienteering clubs can pay the "member" fee. (We hope your club would do the same for our members. 🙂)

Note: In addition to the above costs, there is a $6 per-car park entrance fee. Pay at the entrance kiosk (cash or credit cards accepted). If the kiosk is not staffed, cash envelopes will be available for exact-change cash payment.

More information about event pricing is available in the club FAQ. All the prices are also shown on the standard entry form (PDF/12KB), which you can print and fill out in advance to save some time at the event. (You will need one entry form for each group of people going on a course together.)

Optional Online Registration

Optional online registration will be available closer to the event date.

Notes:
  • Online registration is not required​—​you can register at the event.

Park Rules

Please note that horses always have the right of way. If you encounter equestrians while running on a multi-use trail or road, please walk until you are clear of the horses. A startled horse could throw and injure the rider. Also be careful not to jump onto a trail when horses are nearby.

Venue Facilities

The assembly area (registration and E-punch) are on the south side of the parking lot. The driving directions are below.

There are restrooms in the parking lot, and a few picnic tables down by the lake. Water fountains are available in the parking area.

Cell phone service is spotty at best, but there is a pay phone(!) behind the restrooms, for outgoing calls only.

Food

Please bring your own lunch and beverages. Due to park restrictions, we will not serve snacks at this event.

What to Bring

For the beginner courses (White and Yellow), comfortable outdoors attire and shoes are fine.

For intermediate (Orange) and advanced (Brown through Blue) courses, leg cover or gaiters are recommended, as well as shoes with some extra grip on the sole.

A compass is not necessary, but can be helpful. We have compasses available for a $1 rental fee.

We time the courses with the SPORTident system, so each entry/team needs to have a SPORTident fingerstick. If you don’t have your own, you can rent one at registration for $5. (Use of the E-punch system is easy. You can learn how at the event, or read about it here.)

Courses

The standard set of courses, from beginner to advanced, will be available at this event. The preliminary course details are below. 

    Course       Distance      Climb      Controls  Navigation
    White         3.0 km    100 m (3.3%)     10     Beginner      
    Yellow        2.8 km    110 m (3.8%)     10     Adv. Beginner
    Orange        3.4 km    210 m (6.2%)     13     Intermediate  
    Short Brown   2.4 km    130 m (5.3%)      9     Advanced      
    Brown         3.5 km    190 m (5.4%)     12     Advanced
    Green         5.1 km    225 m (4.4%)     13     Advanced
    Red           6.5 km    380 m (5.8%)     17     Advanced
    Blue          8.1 km    300 m (3.6%)     21     Advanced

Notes:
  • The Start for all the courses is an 800 m, mostly flat, walk from the assembly area. Please follow the streamers to the Start area.
  • Orange is a challenging intermediate course at this event. You don't need to use a compass (though it might be handy), but it might be a challenge to step up from Yellow to Orange at this event.
  • Everyone who will do either the Short Brown or Brown course should register for the Brown course. The Short Brown and Brown courses will share a map, and orienteers can decide in the field whether they want to finish after doing the Short Brown course or continue on for a few more controls to complete the Brown course.
  • Maps for the Beginner courses (White and Yellow) are given out at registration, and can be looked at before starting the course.
  • Maps for the Intermediate course (Orange) and Advanced courses (Brown through Blue) are provided at the Start, and must not be looked at before starting the course.
  • Beginners should be aware that the course lengths shown are the cumulative straight-line distances between controls. Your actual distance will be somewhat longer, even if you don't make any errors. The climb numbers represent the amount of ascending that would be done on the "optimum route" (in the Course Setters’ opinion), without regard for any descending.

The map contour interval is 5 m. Note that the magnetic-north lines on all the maps are not parallel to the edge of the paper — they are at approximately a 15° angle.

The White course is a bit longer than usual, because there are not many available trails. But the Start is within a few minutes walk from the registration area.

As noted above, horses always have the right of way. If you encounter a horse, you must stop running and respond to the rider’s direction.

Hazards

Deer ticks are found in this area and may carry Lyme disease. For prevention and treatment of tick bites, see this webpage (http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/avoid/on_people.html).

For participants on the intermediate and advanced courses, the park has some poison oak which you will want to avoid. It looks like this when it has leaves. Washing clothes and shoes, and bathing with dishwashing soap or a commercial product such as Tecnu, is recommended to remove the irritant oil. (Note that you can be exposed through clothing, and that stalks without leaves are still a risk.)

In some areas of the park, and for all the intermediate and advanced courses, you will go through terrain with scattered small rocks that can cause a fall or twisted ankle if one is not paying attention or is going at very high speeds.

Most of the wildlife, such as wild pigs, turkeys and deer, that roam these hillsides will not pose a problem, as they will most likely run away when they hear or see you. There are also cows that graze in this park, so please run around groups of cows as to not startle them (and never get between a calf and its mother!).

Request for Volunteers

Here is a list of volunteer tasks we are seeking to fill in order to produce this event.

Set-up: 8:30–9:30
Beginner Clinics: 9:30–10:30
Starts: 2 shifts, 9:30–11:00 and 11:00–12:30
Breakdown: 1:30–2:30
Control Pickup: after 2:00

All volunteers will be able to run a course!

By volunteering you will alleviate the amount of time and effort expended by the other volunteers who are working to make this event a success. Please do not be shy — email Event Director Kat Lan () today.

Your help will be appreciated.

Driving Directions

The event headquarters will be at the boat launch accessed from the "Coyote Lake" entrance to the park — the same place as last year. Do not go to the "Harvey Bear Ranch" entrance to the park — that is, do not go to where we were in 2022!

The approximate coordinates are 37.0926,-121.5425.

From San Jose, go south on highway 101. Allow at least 50 minutes from the junction of 101-280-680. Take exit 357, Leavesley Road/CA-152W (which is before the CA-152E exit), and go east on Leavesley Rd 1.8 miles. Turn left onto New Avenue, and go 0.6 miles to Roop Rd. Turn right onto Roop Rd.

Alternative: You can save about 2 miles (but possibly not much time) by exiting 101 at San Martin Avenue, heading east, following it around the bends until it becomes New Avenue, and going south to the junction with Roop Rd. Turn left onto Roop Rd and continue with the directions below.

Go 3.2 miles to Coyote Reservoir Rd (named Coyote Lake Rd in some navigation systems) and the park entrance (with a sign "Coyote Lake / Harvey Bear Ranch / County Park / Coyote Lake Entrance"). (Note: At approximately 2.8 miles along Roop Rd there is a park entrance on the left​—​do not take that entrance​—​instead, continue on to Coyote Reservoir Rd [Coyote Lake Rd].) Once you turn onto Coyote Reservoir Rd (Coyote Lake Rd), go 1 mile to the entrance kiosk.

Pay the $6 entrance fee (by cash or credit card if the kiosk is staffed, otherwise cash only), and then continue 1.3 miles on the main road to the boat-launch parking area.

Parking is in the boat launch parking area. The parking spaces are designed for vehicles with boat trailers. There will not be any boat trailers present, so please park two cars in each of these parking spaces.