Orienteering

Jon and I spent a beautiful, chilly Sunday afternoon trying something new.  At the lake that is just 3 miles from our place a group was hosting an orienteering course.  We didn't know anything about orienteering except that it was at our hiking trails where we spend so much time every week.  

We arrived and met the two people hosting the event and they were so nice.  They gave us a map of the course and gave us a little intro on the goals and ways to make it easier or harder, our choice.  We decided to take the short, beginners course.  Especially, since my ortho doctor said I could hike just 3 days before.  

Here I'm putting the little stick into the check-in spot.  It tracks when we check in to each location and when it is all done you can see your time from each location throughout the course.  

Here Jon was deciding that we should abandon our trail and head across country to save time.  I'm not sure how much time it saved since our speed was much slower through the brush.

We had so much fun with this and will definitely do this again.  It was fun to try and keep ourselves oriented to where we were and not just enjoying the scenery.  We tend to worry less about getting lost since these trails are very familiar to us.  Some of the orienteering courses are in new places that we have never been and that will be a great challenge.  It will give us some practice using our compass and help us to notice the land more.  

If you have a chance to participate in an orienteering course…..go do it!!!!