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Discover a new neighborhood... or one you thought you knew well!!

The complete results, checkpoint times, and RouteGadget are available. Use RouteGadget to see what paths other teams took! Please send us your tracks or post them on RouteGadget.

All photos from the event are on Facebook. Thanks to Ben Legg!

Introduction to RouteGadget. For this event, selecting "View routes" will show the team's checkpoint order even if no route or track has been entered. RouteGadget split-time analysis is enabled only for teams who used cellphone scoring and for those who wrote down the checkpoint times on their answer sheets, but all teams can add their GPS tracks to RouteGadget.

Berkeley and Oakland Hills Street Scramble start, 2011

Berkeley and Oakland Hills Street Scramble

It was great to see so many fresh new faces at this Street Scramble event... and the regulars, too. Some quotes:

"I enjoyed the event—while I've run/biked in most of that area, I got into new areas—and the navigation is always a challenge!"
"And thanks for putting on such a fun event, I had a blast!"
"... you put on a great event. I know it is a lot of work but you had a great turnout."

Look at that!One hundred forty-one participants enjoyed the grand tour of the neighborhood by Rex (who went to Cal in the times long gone, and now lives just south of the territory covered by the map). There were 52 teams. Competition was very very close in several categories... so close that we wrongly awarded several teams, usually second-place getters! After rechecking answer sheets and cellphone records, we mailed the prizes to the real winners.

Notable performances included: the overall winner, Alvin Chen, who biked the course as Team Wolfpack of One and got all but one checkpoint; Steve Gregg winning the 3 hour foot by just 10 points over Eric Rosenzweig; and a win in Open Women's 3 hour foot by Las Bonitas. Seattle Street Scramble veterans Four-Eyed Nerds, formerly known as the Whidbey Island Nerds and now hailing from Sebastopol, took the 3 hour foot Open Mixed win over first-time Street Scramble adventurers Desi Detectives. And in a nail-biting victory that necessitated three recounts, Team Kafka edged out all-Women's Hornettes by 20 points to take the Family category in the 3 hour foot competition.

Fueled by coffee

Fueled by coffee.

This event was made possible by—and sincere thanks go out to—our sponsors (we are especially grateful to TableTopics for stepping in so close to the event and providing their Cubes and Travel Packs as prizes); our volunteers, Werner Haag, Nancy Lindeman, Bruce Wolfe, and Shona Armstrong; and Sabrina at the Berkeley Office Depot and Sarah Moxon at College Avenue Presbyterian Church.

We have posted the Urban Adventure Hunt Series standings after two events... participate in at least three events and win a free entry to the 2012 Night & Day Challenge, with a chance for an expense-paid trip to the Seattle Night & Day! Your next chance to vie for Street Scramble points is the Los Gatos Street Scramble to be held on 07 January. We are also considering adding more San Francisco neighborhood events on top of our already announced schedule, potentially as early as late January.

We would love to see you again at one of our events—come explore neighborhoods near and far, venture into the wild, test your team's skills and make new friends! Our big Henry Coe event is coming up for those who love the wilderness. Or try "real orienteering" at Sprint the Golden Gate event in late November. Check out our plans for 2012... and go Get Lost!!
Bill Cusworth
Heidi Cusworth
Lani Schreibstein
Rex Winterbottom
Vladimir Gusiatnikov

Street Scramble preview in the East Bay Express.

Splendor in Oakland HillsLocation and Schedule

On Saturday, 24 September 2011, two event durations will be offered: 3 hours and 90 minutes. You can do either on foot or on bike. The headquarters will be at College Avenue Presbyterian Church.

This will be the inaugural Berkeley and Oakland Hills Street Scramble. Check out the description and our calendar of Street Scramble events!

This event is the second in the 2011/2012 Urban Adventure Hunt series, and your next chance to collect points and win a trip to the series Final, the San Francisco Night & Day Challenge.

Event schedule:

08:30  Registration and check-in
       open, College Avenue Church
09:00  Maps are available for
       route planning
09:40  Briefing and instructions
10:00  Start, 3 hour division,
       foot and bike
10:10  Briefing and instructions
10:30  Start, 90 minute division,
       foot and bike
12:00  Finish, 90 minute division
12:10  Light lunch service starts
12:15  Awards, 90 minute division
13:00  Finish, 3 hour division
13:20  Awards, 3 hour division
Google Map
View Larger Map

Transit directions: Rockridge BART. College Avenue Presbyterian Church is a 5 minute walk from the station.

You will score checkpoint visits by texting us the answer to the question on your scorecard. Checkpoint visits will be instantly tabulated, and scores available upon the teams' return. If you'd rather not use the cellphone for any reason, you can instead circle answers on the paper scorecard. More details are here...

This is a sample map that was used for this year's Santa Cruz Street Scramble:

Santa Cruz Street Scramble 2011 map

Our Sponsors!!

This event has been made possible by the following businesses and organizations. We are delighted to offer a sampling of their products as prizes for this event. Please patronize their offerings and services, and contribute to their programs:

The mission of Road ID is twofold: One, to educate outdoor enthusiasts about the importance of wearing ID. Two, to provide these athletes with innovative identification products that they will want to include as part of their gear. The dream of Road ID is to see the day where wearing ID is as common among athletes as wearing a seatbelt is among motorists.

Road ID
TableTopics

TableTopics is a collection of conversation starters meant to spark fun, interesting, and meaningful discussions around the dinner table, at parties, on dates, on road trips—wherever!

Road Runner Sports' Third Thursday Adventure Fun Runs, held at the San Carlos store, are a total blast!

RRS 3rd Thursday Adventure Fun Run
terraloco

Oakland's terraloco organizes urban and wild map trek adventures!

The idea behind Hint is simple: pure water, nature's original refreshment, accented with a hint of natural flavor. No sugar, no artificial sweeteners: Hint is a refreshing alternative to sodas, juice and other sweetened drinks and it tastes great. Sound good? It tastes even better.

hint
Orienteer.com

Scarborough Orienteering, aka Orienteer.com, is a leading vendor of equipment. They carry compasses, SPORTident cards, Inov-8™ shoes, and other gear and produce their own line of o21e suits, club uniforms, and gaiters. Orienteer.com also offers map and compass instruction and group outings, including orienteering and team-building training, as corporate offsites.

Seattle's Meridian Geographics is an active outdoor lifestyle company. It produces the Street Scramble, Northwest Trail Runs, and BEAST Adventure Race series. Its showcase events are the annual Seattle and San Francisco Night and Day challenges, and the Three15er and Big Tahoma rogaines.

MerGeo
Qstarz

Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, Qstarz International Co., Ltd. brings GPS & Bluetooth technology to the consumer mainstream. The mission of Qstarz is to accelerate widespread consumer application of GPS & Bluetooth technology by delivering high-performance, leading-edge solutions that power GPS-enabled devices.

o21e makes a line of clothing for the map sport in Los Angeles, California.

o21e.com
SPORTident.us

The best deal on SPORTident equipment!

The Street Scramble Experience

Street Scramble races can be enjoyed by anyone who (a) can travel under their own power for 90 minutes—walking, running, biking, or moving in a wheelchair; (b) can follow a street map; and (c) likes to explore.

(Strollers and power wheelchairs are OK for those who need them. If you can't read a map, you can be on a team with someone who can.)

When you arrive at a Street Scramble event, you will check in (some events don't sell out and allow onsite registration). Then, a half hour before the start time, you will receive a map with thirty-one checkpoint locations circled. Each circle has a number between 10 and 99. The point value of the checkpoint is equal to its number rounded down to the tens; for example, Checkpoint 35 is worth 30 points; Checkpoint 12 is worth 10 points. You will also receive a scorecard with a description of a feature to be found at each checkpoint, such as "Statue of woman" or "Public pier".

You (together with your team, if you have a team) will then plan which checkpoints you will try to visit, and in what order. You can visit as many or as few checkpoints as you want, and in any order. Your team will need to stay together at all times. You can change your plan as you go along, but it's very helpful to at least start with some kind of plan.

A few minutes before the start there will be a pre-Scramble-race briefing, at which the event director will review rules and safety. There will be a countdown to the start, after which you will head out to visit checkpoints. Again, your team must stay together at all times. Checkpoints are found at the precise centers of the circles on the map. When you arrive at a checkpoint location, look for the feature described on the scorecard.

At most locations, you will need to answer a simple multiple-choice question, found on your scorecard, to prove you were there. Example:

35   Statue of woman: What is the last word on the plaque next to the statue?
(A) Arts   (B) Commission   (C) Space

If you are not using the electronic scoring system, circle the correct answer on the scorecard and proceed to another checkpoint. Also write down the time of your checkpoint visit.

As an option, we will offer two electronic ways to record your checkpoint visits. One option will only be available at select checkpoints that are at locations of participating businesses, and only to those entrants who have a smartphone capable of recognizing QR codes, and the necessary phone app. Simply snap a picture of the code and get on your way!
If you don't have the hardware or the app, just answer the multiple-choice question.

The other electronic option is available at all checkpoints, and involves sending us, the organizers, a text message with your answer to the question on the scorecard. For example, suppose you are Team 191 and the correct answer to the question at Checkpoint 35 is (A), "Arts". You will send, to the phone number we provide at registration, a message with the text

An all-Women's team!
35 A
—or—
35A
—or—
a35

and you will get back a confirmation message that says

Team 191 Checkpoint 35 Answer A at 10:31:23.

To participate in the 90 minute division, you must return to the event center within 90 minutes. To participate in the 3 hour option, return within 3 hours. You can decide which option you want while you're out there. Returning on time requires planning!

The map is usually an improved USGS topographic map; we also use information from other sources. The map will have only a few street names on it, so it will be important for you to keep track of where you are on the map.

It is perfectly fine to utilize other maps you may bring, or to look at a map on your smartphone. You can also use the phone's GPS; any GPS units, altimeters, and pedometers are all fair game—but please don't get so distracted by the gadgets as to lose track of vehicle traffic!

When you return, you will turn in your scorecard; if you used electronic scoring, your score will be ready and waiting for you. (In case your phone turns out to be less sweat-resistant than you thought, we can handle answers that are partially submitted electronically and partially handwritten.) It is important to be on time because you will lose points for each minute you are late. We will keep your scorecard, but you get to take your map home with you. If your answers are handwritten, we will tally your score while you enjoy refreshments, included in your entry fee. After refreshments, awards will be given out for those with the highest scores in different divisions and categories.

As a minimum, we will award the best men, women, and mixed teams in the following categories: Juniors (each team member must be 20 years of age or younger on 01 January 2011), Masters (40 or older on 31 December 2011), and Open. Awards will also be given to the best family teams; a family team is one that has anyone 20 years of age or younger, and also someone 21 years of age or older.

If you have further questions, you may be able to find answers to them on the Equipment and Detailed Rules pages.

Entry and Registration

Street Scramble shirt designAs of 11:45:00 PDT, Monday 17 September 2011, complimentary event shirts are sold out. The system will automatically apply the no-shirt discount to subsequent registrants. At most a handful of shirts will be available on site for $15.00, in random leftover sizes. The event itself is not yet sold out and we will post a note here when it is within 20 participants of selling out.

Pre-registration is open. Team members may enter together (be entered by the same person), or separately. If you would like to go with a team, but don't know your teammates' names yet, you can enter yourself and other members can join the team at a later time.

As with all events by Get Lost!!, fees for teams, including families, are capped. Three, four, or five people enter at the team price; each team member gets a map. The fees are:
90 minute event Individual Team        Cal-ARA Team
Enter and pay on or before Monday 12 September $25.00 $45.00 $40.50
Enter and pay on or before Tuesday 20 September $35.00 $65.00 $58.50
Enter and pay on or after Wednesday 21 September $45.00 $85.00 $76.50
 
3 hour event Individual Team        Cal-ARA Team
Enter and pay on or before Monday 12 September $25.00 $45.00 $40.50
Enter and pay on or before Tuesday 20 September $35.00 $65.00 $58.50
Enter and pay on or after Wednesday 21 September $45.00 $85.00 $76.50
 

Discounts!!

On top of these prices, we offer the following discounts:

Bay Area OC member registering her/himself $5.00
No shirt(s) $5.00 individual, $10.00 team
Family (at least one participant age 20 or under) $10.00 per team
Scoring by text message $3.00 per team
Use of safety vests $2.00 per team

The BAOC discount only applies to individuals, not teams. That is, a registration for two people who are both BAOC members will cost less than the team price. A three-person team is always best off taking the team deal.

Examples:

  • BAOC member going solo, early registration, no shirt, uses a cell phone and a safety vest: $10.00
  • California ARA team of 4, standard registration including shirts, uses a cell phone and safety vests: $13.38 per person
  • Family of 3, day-of-event registration, no shirts, uses a cell phone and safety vests: $20.00 per person

These discounts are taken and combined automatically by the registration system. Make sure to indicate the team association, individual participant's club membership, and the correct (or at least approximately correct) ages for the team members.

We accept VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and DiscoverWe accept credit cards online through Google Checkout, and cash, checks, and credit cards on site.

Go register!!

Event-Day InformationThe Campanille

1. Schedule change

We have a large turnout for this event. To spread out the check-in rush, we are going to start 90 minute division participants at 10:30, and will ask that they arrive no earlier than 09:00, preferably between 09:00 and 09:30. The 3 hour event starts at 10:00 as announced earlier. You will still be able to change your mind about which course you would like to do; if you start at 10:00 and finish by 11:30, we'll put you down for the 90 minute division, and if you start at 10:30, you will have until 13:30 (1:30 pm) to complete the 3 hour course.

2. Parking

Please use street parking (not free), or take BART to Rockridge station.

3. Safety

Safety is our first priority. All cyclists must wear a helmet and stop at all stop signs and red lights.

There are only certain places in which you can cross Highway 24 (a freeway). These are shown on your map with purple dashed lines. Ashby Avenue/Tunnel Road (Highway 13) has a lot of traffic. It is dangerous to cross it anywhere east of Domingo Avenue and it impossible to cross it between The Uplands and Hiller Drive (the impassable wall in the median is shown on your maps). You can run and bike along Tunnel Road but it is either dangerous or impossible to cross it in these places.

We strongly encourage you to wear a Street Scramble safety vest to enhance your visibility.

4. Registration

If you have a coupon or a voucher, the coupon/voucher is your proof of payment. You should enter all of your team members, but you do not need to pay on our website. We will collect your coupon or voucher at the event.

If you haven't paid yet, please do so before the fees go up on the early morning of Wednesday 21 September.

Each team should have at least one member. If your team's entry shows a team with no members, please sign on and add yourself to the team by using the Join Team!! or Add a Member button, and pay.

If your team has more than 5 people, and all of them are planning to attend, we would like to ask that you please split the team in two. We have found out that it is very hard for teams of more than 5 people to stay together throughout the event, and we would like to maintain the five-person maximum for all of our events.

5. T shirts

Shirts for this event are completely sold out. We will have enough for the 50 teams who entered first, according to the sizes stated in the registration. We have three different shirt designs: a small number of Unisex round neck in grey, a large number of Unisex round neck in cardinal color, and an even larger number of Women's V-neck in grey. Please arrive early to guarantee that your preferred design is available (but not too early if you are in the 90 minute division).

6. Urban Adventure Hunt series 2011/2012

This event is the second one in the series. Here is the complete announcement, but in brief, it works this way: Each Street Scramble event is worth a maximum of 1000 points. We will add together the points from Mill Valley, Berkeley and Oakland Hills, Los Gatos, Millbrae, and Santa Cruz events. If your team participates in the 90 minute division, we will multiply its points by 1.5. In order for event scores to count for the series, your team should keep the same name and at least one common member for the Street Scramble events it participates in.

Prizes: In each category (foot and bike; Open, Masters, and Juniors; Men, Women, and Mixed; and Family), there is a single first-place award to the best team, and it is a free entry to San Francisco Night & Day Challenge in 2012. A team has to participate in at least three Street Scramble events in order to be eligible for the award. But furthermore, we'll combine your points from the Street Scramble events and SFND, and a few very lucky—or fast—teams will win an expense-paid trip to the Seattle Night & Day, which occurs about a month after SFND!! We will showcase one or two categories for this award.

7. Event rules

Each team must stay together throughout the event. It is not allowed to split up to cover more ground.

Travel under your own power only. It is not allowed to take buses or cabs.

It is not allowed to look up answers to checkpoint questions without actually going to the checkpoint; in particular, you cannot use Street View, Panoramio, or the likes. Using Street View would be just like driving past everyone in a car at a running race! At select checkpoints we will have monitors recording team numbers and if we find a team that claims credit for a checkpoint that it hasn't been to, the team will get a zero score for the whole event. The monitors may not be immediately obvious, they may look just like regular public.

You can, however, use the map on your smartphone, and GPS. You are welcome to use any and all maps of the area you may bring.

Please stay off private property.

8. Bikes

A road bike is definitely recommended for this event. All checkpoints are immediately reachable on bike and the course does not force you off the road. There are a few stairs that are not traversable on bike, but you can go around on city streets.

There are no bikes allowed in Claremont Canyon. Going through the Canyon is an option on foot but not on bike. Also, bikes are only allowed on certain parts of UC Berkeley campuses. You can assume you can bike on the wider mapped streets and roads on campus.

9. Course notes

The map for this event will not be an augmented off-the-shelf topo map nor a specially prepared rogaining map, but will look more like what you'd get on your smartphone. It will have most street names, and in addition it will have elevation contours. The map is at 1:15,000 scale with 20 ft. contours.

The course has been designed entirely by Rex. There are 33 checkpoints worth the usual 1000 points. The optimum straight-line distance to get all of them is 21.1 km. It is definitely possible to get all checkpoints on bike, but most likely not on foot. The late penalty is 10 points for each minute, or fraction thereof. Remember, you can switch from the 90 minute division to the 3 hour division at any time, even while you are on the course.

Please don't go through Claremont Hotel! The map doesn't suggest that you can, and you shouldn't.

The upper entrance to Claremont Canyon looks like a gate across a public street, beyond which there is someone's driveway. That's probably true, but we believe it's a legal park entrance. Bikes are not allowed past this point.

10. Cellphone scoring

Cellphone scoring will be offered for this event, and here's a short tutorial.

T commandOur receiving phone number is +1 503 567 8924. (It spells out LOST X24. Hope you aren't.)

Start with registering your team's cell phone number. You can send us answers from more than one cell phone. We don't pull the phone number information from your registration, so this step must be done for at least one phone. From this phone, send us a text message that says T followed by your team number. You will find out your team number at check-in, or if you would like to complete this step early, e-mail us and we'll let you know your team number. For example, if your team number is 142, text

T 142

You will receive a short confirmatory message. It may take a few seconds for the system to issue a confirmation to each of your commands and answers, sometimes up to about half a minute, more if your phone moves in and out of coverage.

Q commandAfter you have registered your team number, you're clear to head out on the course! One of the neat features is the ability to retrieve checkpoint questions and answer choices as you go. Just say Q? followed by the checkpoint number, like this:

Q? 42

Checkpoint answerAnd now to the most important part—sending us answers to checkpoint questions! Just send us the checkpoint number and the answer choice, in this order or answer first, with or without a space; the answer (as all commands) is case-insensitive. For each answer, you get a short confirmatory message.

Please take care in answering the questions. Sometimes, teams give a literal answer, for example if the answer choices are (A) 1; (B) 2; (C) 3, a team can text 2. This answer will not count as a wrong answer and the system will simply ask you to try again. Only the first valid answer choice counts. If you send in a wrong answer choice, for example if the correct answer is B and you say A, the mistake cannot be corrected.

S commandYou can find out how many checkpoints you have visited, and how many points they are worth, by texting S?. This score is not graded; that is, the points are calculated without take into account whether your answers are correct or not.

The full command set is

Q?  R?  S?  T/T?  U

We already went over most of those. The remaining commands are: R? tells you how long your team has been on the course; T? replies with your team number on record; and U is used to unsubsribe the phone number.

The system is currently on Eastern time. We may or may not be able to fix that before the event. Finally, if you encounter an error message, please let us know after the event.

Please do not send praise, comments, blame, bug reports, missing checkpoint notes, or status updates to this number—they are all quite welcome, but use +1 971 998 0321 instead. They will all be read and acted upon.

We will not be using QR codes at this event.

11. Pen-and-paper scoring

When you mark your answer, please also make sure to write down the time you visited each checkpoint. Doing this is not mandatory, but allows for some entertaining post-event route analysis. Your finish time will be taken when you hand in your score sheet.

12. Newest sponsors

Please welcome Table Topics as our newest sponsor. Table Topics is excited to provide several prizes for the winning teams at the Berkeley and Oakland Hills Street Scramble.

The slate of prizes is provided by Road ID, Orienteer.com, Table Topics, and Get Lost!!.

13. Volunteers

We can use one or two additional volunteers for this event. All of our volunteers receive free entries for future events. These entries are transferrable, so if a friend or a family member is going to come along but not run, they can help and you or they can enjoy the next Street Scramble for free!

Event staff:
Bill, Heidi, Lani, Rex, and Vladimir

We maintain a discussion board for all our events on Attackpoint. Popular among map and adventure-sports athletes in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries, the site is the one to go to for the latest navigation-sport news, schedules, discussion, and gossip.

Forum for the Berkeley and Oakland Hills Street Scramble.

Created: 21 July 2011
Last updated: 16 February 2012, ver. 014

© 2011, 2012 Get Lost!! Running, Racing, Inc.
Street Scramble® is a registered trademark of Meridian Geographics.

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