Discussion: 10 Reasons Why Orienteering is the Best Sport Ever

cool.

You won't believe #6!!!

Number 10 is absolutely the best reason. To say I thank "Bingie" for introducing us to orienteering would be a vast understatement, and for us to have the determination to get our daughters out there has lead to some wonderful times as a family.

There are two other reasons I would add to that list:
11) Orienteering greatly enhances decision making skills. In orienteering you are given a map with a lot of information on it. Only a small fraction of that information is useful at any one time to get you from one point to another. Sifting out the unimportant information, concentrating on the important information and making the best decision is important in orienteering and in life.
12) Orienteering is the second most fun you can have in the woods.

It's a treasure hunt for grown-ups (that kids can enjoy too, as long as their parents don't know they like it).

13) You can meet all sorts of cute animals, such as grizzly bear, mountain lion,
tasmanian devil, wild hog, cottonmouth, armadillo, possum, skunk, etc---depending on your luck.

Yurets... you missed the Australian list. And the Tassie Devil isn't on it as its struggling to survive a transmissible facial tumour.
1. Spiders. Especially the Golden Orb. Our season starting event in a month will require us ti run through countless spider webs. In the middle of most will be the Golden Orb. About the size of your palm.
2. Eastern Brown Snakes. As their colour matches colour of dried grasses, you generally don't see them. which is the worrying bit. Let me quote from a site that lists the 10 most venomous snakes... "This type of snake is among the few which are actually aggressive. It is commonly found in Australia, and may be found in populated areas like cities, not just remote locations. If it perceives someone as a threat, it will actually chase that person out of its territory. If the snake is not confident of its safety, it may decide to bite. If it does so, it may bite many times during a single attack. Less than half contain venom, but those that do can cause paralysis or death. Because of its proximity to population centers and its aggression, you could argue the Eastern Brown Snake is the most dangerous snake in the world."
3 Crocodiles. Generally a risk in Nortthern Territory park events in the wet season.
http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/only-in-the-territor...
We love our sport over here. Its a guarantee of an exciting run.

In 36 years of doing this, I haven't encountered any of the animals on yurets's list. Opossum? Who cares about that one? I have seen porcupines (entertaining), plenty of deer (which always makes me concerned that there may be ticks around), some harmless snakes, and on two occasions, black bears (one of those was a mother with a couple of cubs). A few cool birds.

I am sorry to hear about the devils. I like them very much. I forgot about porcupine, saw one. Also saw opossums a few times --they are real scary, that is why orienteering in Kansas/Oklahoma is close to impossible.
Saw cottonmouth, whose character is similar to brown snake, lots of vipers.A few cute vultures, in GA.

Opossums are scary? Really? They're famous for pretending to be dead when they perceive danger.

I've seen cattle and moose as well. I even helped one that managed to straddle itself across a fallen tree. If I include practice, I've seen elk (wapiti). The bison only wandered through the finish area after I finished. The black bear I didn't see, but heard as it shuffled (barely) out of my way under the ground cover. A friend on a trail below saw it. Although I've been in woods with large spiders and webs, or grasslands with rattlesnakes, I agree with JJ that I worry more about deer ticks, knowing several people who've contacted Lyme disease, and only one slight acquaintance eaten by a bear (not while orienteering).

Oh, right, cattle, elk, and pronghorns. Horses being ridden by people. And domestic dogs. Maybe squirrels, chipmunks, or raccoons, don't remember.

Scariest of all, hunters in stands...

Agree with dlevine. I had one point his gun at me once and accuse me of trespassing on private land. I was hanging controls for a meet the following day and knew exactly where we were and that it was on state land.

Also I did see a herd of wild pigs once during a US Champs meet. Didn't seem particularly concerning and the organizers had mentioned their presence in the meet notes. Some of the western US vegetation is more dangerous than most of the animals mentioned.

I've seen mountain lions and rattlesnakes. Haven't met a bear yet, but a few of our course setters have. But it's those ravens that scare me. They can get nasty.

Seen most of the above, except the mt lions thought we do have a lot of mt laurel. Did have a flock of roos hop by during a race in Oz and later on flushed a little joey. Have seen a couple of hunters, one up in a tree stand and another hunkered down behind a log but right by a control. Apologized for the disturbance but he smiled and poured himself some coffee.

Disturbance of hunters? My boyhood club found out that hunters were subscribing to our newsletter in order to come to the edge of the forest during an event and watch for the running animals. :-S

It's their woods also, unless it's Sunday, so no reason to antagonize.

No reason to antagonize, but I wonder if the reason that the hunter smiled was that you were helping flush game...

It's their woods also, unless it's Sunday
Just so you're aware, this is not universal. New York State began allowing Sunday hunting about 35 years ago.

Yes CT is special, so far. Must not let our guard down though as they think it's their right.

MA also has no hunting on Sundays (and that's where I assume Jim's story is from).

Magpies. Deadly swooping creatures they are.

Add Wild Pigs, Coyotes and Turkeys infesting the SF Bay Area hills. No human hunters though.

That's a relief. No human hunters around here, either, that would be terrifying. We have mostly deer hunters.

Human hunting seems reserved for Florida where the Stand Your Ground law pretty well provides a year-round open season for anyone who can claim to FEEL threatened.

All this talk of human hunters has given me an idea for new orienteering format:
Human Hunter-O: basic idea - You have a mass start score-o but everyone is armed with a Nerf gun and tries to take out the other runners.

To make it more effective I think the nerf guns would need to be out on the course somewhere, so you had to navigate to go get one before you could start shooting. Or maybe have a cornucopia, a la Hunger Games, with compasses and map cases and better maps as well as Nerf guns...

Nerf gun:
https://youtu.be/57MKxz4pJKE

If you're out there with a nerf gun, you'll probably raise the ire of the scruffy-looking nerf herders.

And it all started innocently with this :)
http://www.windsweptwriting.com/10-reasons-oriente...

Hunger Games-O! Limitless possibilities!

We have done exactly what Cristina has suggested with our Adventure Running Kids program. Complete with our own Arena and Panem map.The map was circular with quadrants that were 'unlocked' at different times. The cornucopia was at the middle of the map. The kids loved it and i gotta say it is way for fun than a race. I'll try and dig up the map when time permits.

Hah! Awesome. I want to do that. I made a Karttapullautin + OCAD map of the paintball arena where my work team played one time. It was good advanced intel:

Here is our map used in our first Hunger Games Reaping with our Adventure Running X group. The different quadrants represent H-hills, P-plateau, R-ridge and V-village. They were used to make sure there was enough interaction between teams. the map is NOT oriented to north. It was rotated to make it more interesting. Teams had to figure that out early on. I can send people the rules we used if interested (jmw at dontgetlost dot ca)

Awesome! I'm sure it was a big hit. Will you do it again?

What was in the Cornucopia?