LOCATION: Sunol Regional Wilderness, East Bay Area, CA
CHALLENGE: 
DATE/NUMBER: 25-Oct-2001/41
MAP:
The map segment shown is from an orienteering map of Sunol Regional
Wilderness, produced by the Bay Area
Orienteering Club. This map
was the training area used for the IOF sanctioned World Ranking Event
held in the East Bay Area on Oct 27, 2001. I fell in love with the
area, so I decided to place a letterbox here, and in honor of the
event, decided to give the clues an orienteering theme.
For those who don't know, orienteering maps are extremely detailed;
the one shown is scale 1:15000 with a contour interval of 7.5 meters
(though typically the contour interval is 5m, and often the scale is
1:10000). The detail is such that individual boulders are mapped
(that is what the black dots are on this map). Orienteering itself
is an off-trail running race where competitors attempt to find objects
circled on the map as fast as possible -- reading the map and planning
routes between the circles on the fly.
In this case, the object circled is the easternmost of 2 boulders, and
that is the goal of the hunt. If you navigate successfully to the
specified boulder, look under a rock 5 paces to the east for the box.
Then plan to spend the afternoon here, enjoying the view and the
solitude.
Two ways to approach this problem come to mind. The obvious approach
seems to be to buy the Sunol map from BAOC, and use it to navigate
to the box, after learning the necessary orienteering skills (I
cannot scan the entire map due to copyright rules).
Another possible approach would be to note that the boulder, as
measured off the full map, is 1583m at 42 degrees from a circle at
the end of the road. (This refers to the road many people use to
enter the park, the one with the entry kiosk). For those who feel
this information is valuable, I will note that the map was produced
in 1991.
But there is a twist to the usual letterboxing rules. Since the
original stamp is lame, visitors are encouraged to carve their own
and replace the one that is there. There is one rule -- the new
stamp must contain the word "Sunol" somehow in the image. (Keep in
mind, of course, that the new stamp may be replaced by the next
visitor ...).
