Orienteering! You know… using a map and compass in the woods.

Jenn and I took the Outdoor Adventure Club orienteering today. And by the club, I mean Julian, the one lone member who braved the misty fog to compete in a meet run by The New England Orienteering Club. Because it was just the three of us, and everyone’s first time, we decided to compete as a team. (Technically there were four of us, as Addie rode in her pack on my back, but since she snored through most of the competition, she wasn’t much help navigating through the woods.)

We arrived at Harold Parker State Forest not knowing what to expect. The members of The New England Orienteering Club were friendly, and took the time to teach us how to use an orienteering map and a compass, as well as relate a bit of orienteering history. (It started in Sweden in 1886 as an offshoot of military training.)

Julian checking us in to a control with our finger stick.

Our first stop was registration, where we filled out waiver forms and picked up our safety card, maps, a list of the controls for our course (checkpoints) and a finger stick. Similar to an electronic punch card, we inserted the finger stick into readers at the start, finish, and each control and it recorded our split times between markers and total course time. The controls were marked with orange and white fabric, and often located off of the trail on a boulder or a hill. For the more advanced courses, they are always located off of the trails, and the fastest route between each control often involves navigating through the woods and not using the existing trails.

Because Orienteering is a sport (who knew?), a lot of people competing were decked out in spiffy gear and running to each control. We choose a more leisurely pace, yet still managed to place 23rd out of 32 with a time of 57:29 over the 2.6k advanced beginner yellow course. Not too shabby! 😉 It was a lot of fun, and I will be definitely doing it again!