Letter from America
Tom Errington’s report on his orienteering in Silicon Valley, Sunday 14th September
On a recent family visit to the USA the dates aligned and I was pleased to discover a local orienteering fixture in the area famously known as Silicon Valley close to the South of San Francisco. A great opportunity to visit this iconic tech neighbourhood and enjoy some orienteering in a different country, something I have enjoyed doing in the past in Europe but previously I had never attended an event in the USA.
I signed up to enter as did my older brother Mark who also has good experience of the sport and the event details stated to gather and assemble at Huddart County Park.
The park is named in honour of James Huddart who was a wealthy San Francisco lumberman and long-time resident of Woodside. Before his death in 1935, he deeded 900 acres of his property to the County of San Francisco with the provision that it would be accepted and developed into a public park.
The park was beautiful with an abundance of meadows, hiking and riding trails, 'Huddart Park makes a great place to have a picnic or explore a redwood forest'.
The event was quite similar in set up to events back home, I guess there’s an established procedure the world over for all orienteering. It was well attended and facilities were superb with all of the park facilities available, shelters, picnic tables and an abundance of information on hand.
Both my brother and I entered the Green course (4km on a 1:5000 map) which used a good section of the park with notable features including contour features, winding roadways, a ravine and numerous changes in vegetation.
We were warned to ‘cover up’ with full length trousers and shirts although this did not really catch on with the local orienteers. The reason for this requirement was the potential for exposure to poison oak!
I guess the competitor numbers were in the low hundreds and we saw a wide range of abilities with scout groups (who seemed to be going around together whilst singing scouting songs!), school groups and athletics clubs made for a wide range of ages and all were welcomed.
The course was definitely tricky but great fun and it was very special to be orienteering in the California sunshine surrounded by this great landscape. At the end of the races there was a stash of welcome refreshments.. waters, snack bars, nuts and protein!
We each finished our courses separately and then we had some time to chat to a few of the officials then it was off to catch a flight from the nearby San Jose Airport.