Discussion: Learning the Basics

First, I'm not too sure if I'm even in the right forum. I know this forum tends to focus more towards orienteering athletic events, which I'm very interested in, however, my first objective is just to solidify basic orienteering skills. The problem is, I am not sure how to do that when I live in a city, and while they're I get outdoors a lot its a beach town, so most outdoor adventures involve the water or coast, and there do not seem to be any preset orienteering courses nearby (I live on the southern tip of FL, west coast).

So does anyone have any tips for way to learn and practice orienteering in an urban environment? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

First, anything you do with a map is a form of orienteering. So start with a city or subdivision map, or an aerial photo of your city. Plot a few places you've never visited before, and try to use the map to quickly and efficiently visit them.

Look at the photo or city map for example and pick out things that look interesting. Then go find them. What's that green space? Is it a little park I never knew about? Or maybe it's a cemetery or golf course or just vacant land. Be curious and let the map or photo direct your travels.

I'm not sure how much activity Florida Orienteering Club (FLO) has in your immediate area, but if you have an opportunity to get to one of their events, you'll find a warm welcome and some good instruction for a first timer to try a course. I'm sure Gord Hunter will chime in with some contact info and details on FLO.

Great (and fast) response! Thanks!

You could also try Catching Features.

Wow, superpacker, great first thread. I'm also a newcomer to this and will use all the advice you get for myself!

And, as a marathon swimmer, let me be the first to tell you how jealous I am of where you're living!

Phew, what a relief. Not to be presumptuous, but I wasn't sure such a newbie inquiry would be welcome. I have just always been facinated with orienteering and wanted to learn. I love to take a class or do events, and there just doesn't seem to be any of that handy, so I wanted to "poll the audience" and collect any practical advice. Glad this thread has the potential to be helpful to others.

And mytyson, while it's not the rugged mountains or woods (which I love) I am 4 minutes from a beach and within 20 minutes of at least 6 others and it's pretty cool.

"...but I wasn't sure such a newbie inquiry would be welcome."

Ouch. Do we really come across as that unwelcoming?

No wonder we have a problem growing our sport ;-)

On a more serious note, in addition to getting out there and practicing / playing around the way Mike mentioned there are several good books available such as Discover Orienteering (created by Orienteering USA) and Orienteering: Crowood Sports Guides - Skills, Techniques, Training. I've included links to the Canadian Orienteering Store (o-store.ca) only because I'm part of that family business - I'm sure you can find both in the US as well.

Great. I was hoping to get a few book recommendations!

One component of orienteering is looking at a course and figuring out your strategy and route for getting from control to control. This is a mental exercise and you can work on this from the comfort of your own home.

With the internet, there are several options for looking at courses on-line. http://www.routegadget.net/ has thousands of maps form all over the world with courses AND the routes that different people ran. To get the most out of it though, you should look at the course first to figure out what you would do before looking to see what different people actually did.

I should add though that actually running what you plan too is more difficult than it sounds so even if you get very good at picking good, efficient routes on the computer, it takes practice and experience to be able to physically run the route in the terrain.

Try geocaching, but don't bother with the GPS. Just locate the caches on Google Earth, then go find them.

Superpacker,

I will be glad to send you via email/snail mail lots for FREE articles designed for beginners as well as some sample maps. I have been doing training programs for over 40 years and have a wealth of material to share.

Also be glad to chat with you on the phone.

Also lots of good material on my website www.orienteeringunlimited.com

Contact info is on the website

Ed Hicks edhicks@orienteeringunlimited.com

Also some good material on our national website www.orienteeringusa.org

Superpacker, a question: How far down the coast of SW Florida are you? Naples or further south.
Suncoast orienteering has an orienteering map of one small park in the Naples area as well one regional park, two school and one college campus map in the Ft Myers area. Actually the park map still has some work to be done and will probably end up being two maps and one of them will probably be used for a competitive event next winter.
Suncoast Orienteering pretty well runs all the orienteering from Tampa Bay south and the 'season' is limited to December to March. To date most of our eight events per year are held in Sarasota and Manatee County but we will be using more venues in Charlotte County in the next two years. You would be more than welcome to join us.
In the meantime let me know what neighborhood you are in and I will see if I can whip up an orienteering-style map of that area for you. My e-mail is gordhun at rogers dot com

See @superpacker! Your thread has already helped others. Namely, me! I now will contact Mapman in the hopes his offer is available to me, as well!

As far as books, I can second @Canadian's recommendation of Discovering Orienteering. One I've read a couple times and used with youth (scouts and my kids) is Be Expert with Map and Compass. It touches on Orienteering, but is mostly really good for map reading skills/proficiency. I really like it.

also for maps try this: http://oomap.co.uk/ which one of my UK friends has made, based on openstreetmap you can make basic orienteering style maps for anywhere in the world.

This is great stuff, sending an email to mapman, and @gordhun, you guessed it, I'm in Naples, and would love to find anything in the area, both in way of maps and events. Sending an email to you, too. @Jayne, can't wait to check the cool link.

Hopefully this is not a mischaracterization, but am I correct that most orienteering events are more about map reading, less about compass work? That is to say that as opposed to taking a bearing and traveling to that bearing, using pace count, etc., it's more about reading the features of the map to know where to go and the principal purpose of the compass is for keeping the map oriented. Is that correct?

Yes.

I have a friend who used to not even bring a compass. I recently did a course without a compass because I forgot it at home. No problem.

I almost never pace count.

Many people do pace count, and some set bearings on the compass. But the map is always primary.

The necessity of a compass depends very much on the type of terrain you're in. I'm sure you've navigated city streets without a compass on hundreds of occasions, and never once thought to yourself "what azimuth is 19th street." No, you said "I'm going to walk down 19th street about 10 blocks, and when I see the gas station on my left, I'll hang a right onto Washington... if I see the burger shack I've gone too far." Good orienteers do the same thing in the woods, but they have trained themselves to do these tricks using knolls, trails, clearings, and creeks instead. Taking an azimuth and pace counting takes mental energy, so you generally only need to use them when your map is bad or the route is a little foggy: the same way that you might use your trip odometer to make sure you don't miss the pull-out on a country road.

Orienteering is not compass and pace. Otherwise, you could use a blank sheet of paper. However, as you improve and get better and better and the courses get harder and harder, you will probably find that you use your compass more and more to keep you going in the right direction. And going in the right direction makes map reading easier too because than there is no question about which knoll---the one on the right or the one on the left.

Most experience orienteers seldom pace count. However, there will be instances where it can really save you. The key is to try to pick up on those before it's too late.

Helpful clarifications. So it sounds like only a simple compass is necessary. E.g. A baseplate compass, not one with a siting mirror, etc. Would even something like a suunto clipper on a watch band be sufficient?

The common standard in the biz is a thumb compass. It's basically what you care about in a compass (the needle, sometimes a rotating bezel), simply strapped to your thumb, on the hand you use to hold the map. Map and compass in the same place!

Most competitive orienteers use either a baseplate compass or thumb compass. They look for a compass with a needle that settles quickly so they don't have to wait while the needle wavers back and forth before pointing north. I know some very experienced orienteers who prefer the baseplate.

The thumb version, as PinkSocks says, lets you hold the compass right on top of the map. I use mine holding the edge of the compass parallel to the line of travel. Then I just make sure the north lines on the map are in line with the North arrow on my compass as I move through the terrain.

If your map isn't already aligned to magnetic north it may be helpful to use a straightedge ruler to add them according to the declination in your area, which may or may not have changed since the map was made. Http://www.magnetic-declination.com appears to be a website that can be used around the world.

Absolutely nobody uses a sighting mirror. Ever.

It's useful in case you get really lost and need to signal the rescue helicopters.

Also, shaving.

Absolutely nobody uses a sighting mirror. Ever.

Except for this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb6mR5c2iDM

By "ever" are you referring to just in events, or period? I've used them a bit, and while it seems a bit helpful, it doesn't seem all that crucial. My current compass has one but I've thought of updating and, due to this, but also cost, just thought of getting the nicest base plate model I could find

Pretty much ever, ever; ever. After 30+ years in this sport, I can't say that I honestly even have any idea what you'd do with a mirror. It would just be in the way. There may be some people who use the mirror when mapping, but even that would be pretty rare. (I know how to use a mirror when mapping, but I've never actually done it that I can recall. And there are better tools for those who want to use that technique.)

Nicest base plate? I guess. I can't ever recall anybody ever saying that they need a better compass, or that they got a better compass and it made a difference. The main features that people seem to like in a compass are 1) it doesn't break easily, and b) it doesn't have a big bubble in it.

Orienteering is like driving a manual car. You have steering wheel, pedals, gear shift knob, turn signal switch and stuff. When you drive you don't use them one by one and decide you'll tackle next task by using this one tool only and focus just on it. No, you use them simultaneously: you may engine brake, hit turn signal shift, turn steering wheel and look at side view mirror simultaneously to chance lane, but think of none of those things, you may think of gaps between cars, speed differences and the music from the speakers.

Elite orienteers make route choices, plan ahead, estimate distances, control running direction with various techniques (not just compass), read map, memorize, simplify, look around and ahead and spot features, pick micro route choice between bushes/rootstock and all while running as hard as they can. Just like driving it may be difficult and confusing at first and your physical fitness may feel totally irrelevant what it comes to result. And the way elites do it may feels just unbelievable. But just like in driving, years of practice makes difference and sooner or later your fitness becomes the key factor. The key issue to get there is not learning each of those techniques really well, it is integrating your favorite key techniques together as your own personal navigation technique you learn to do almost subconsciously. The use of compasses with mirrors, accurate bearing taking, pace counting and such are not that popular because most find there is much more essential things to do and focus on and to integrate and only so little brain power and time really.

Seems like part of my trouble with asking questions is semantics. My initial interest and intention was orienteering, as in, being in the woods, say backpacking, reviewing a map, plotting a course, taking azimuths, etc (sorry for any incorrect terminogy). But I've also learned that there is orienteering the sport, which involves maps and compasses, but in what seems to be more of a supporting role. As such, when someone says something to the effect of "in orienteering you do . . ." Or, " In orienteering you don't . . ." It can be difficult to determine which "version" of orienteering is being discussed, recognizing that there is substantial overlap

The About Orienteering link at the very bottom of this website describes what most of the people replying to your questions think of when they think of "orienteering," i.e., the competitive sport.

The maps we use are typically specially made with high detail and 1:10000 to 1:15000 scale, not a 1:24000 outdated topo requiring declination correction (it's already been corrected by the orienteering mapper). The challenge in the sport is going as fast as you can on the course laid out for you, choosing the best routes for your fitness and abilities, without going so fast that your brain can't keep up.

So sighting compasses are very inefficient for that purpose. :-) It could be that they're useful in the more remote wilderness, but I wouldn't know....

I agree with Janet, virtually everyone here considers "orienteering" to mean the map racing sport. But when I'm just hiking or mountain biking or whatever, I still use the same techniques that I do when racing, it's just that the map is much lower quality. And I still don't know what I'd use a mirror for.

Good clarification. I'm sure the skills from the sport are transferable

Part of the appeal to me

Superpacker: there is a long history behind how the English word orienteering came in to being to define the sport that was known originally in Swedish as 'orientering lopare' (or something like that) and German orienteringslauf which both really translated as 'navigation running'.
The English word Orienteering was originally meant just to describe the competitive sport but somehow it got usurped by outdoors authorities in America and elsewhere to describe activities related to general land navigation skills in the wilderness. There has been confusion ever since.
It is true that all skills learned in the sport of orienteering are transferable to wilderness land navigation and even urban street navigation or getting around a shopping mall.
However some of the skills taught in standard wilderness land navigation are cumbersome and slow one down if transferred to competitive orienteering. Taking and following a compass bearing as mentioned above is one example.

If I were making my own map, the lens-type sighting compass might be useful. For traveling through the forest, I use the simplest compass available, and if it is sunny, my shadow on the ground will help me stay oriented. You might enjoy reading a book titled "Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass" by Harold Gatty

I will confess to having used a compass with a sighting mirror quite a lot about 50 years ago when one of my favorite "outdoor" activities was caving. When doing cave mapping, the third dimension of height can be pretty important, and there isn't a convenient set of contour lines from someones lidar survey of the area to extract that component of information for free from the planar coordinates. Also, in a larger room where the only light source is some other caver's headlamp, getting it lined up with the readings on the compass can be very tricky without a mirror, since it is much harder to estimate just when a little dot of light is vertically directly over or under something lined up with the plane of the compass. Even when caving, I can't really ever remember using a compass except when mapping. While orienteering in the woods, I simply can't imagine a time when a mirror would be an advantage!

Great comments. I especially like the historical background. Glad to see I was right about the conflation of the terms. From now on I will reserve the term orienteering for the sport. While this wasn't my original interest, stumbling into this area of orienteering still has piqued my interest as I already am an avid runner and anything which adds additional enjoyable elements while at the same time gaining trasferable skills has to be great.

And for clarification, I'm not bent on having to have a sighting mirror. If anything, I'm an advocate of minimalism and simplicity so I like the thought of only needing a good baseplate compass.

I may be wrong (I am a beginner myself), but I think what tools and techniques are useful in orienteering is determined to some extent by what control locations are allowed. Namely, all controls (flags) should be on a mapped feature and there should be no "bingo controls", say, in a tiny pit in a flat dense area a few hundred meters from the nearest other feature on the map. If such controls were allowed, there would be no choice but to take a very precise bearing and walk slowly making sure you don't deviate from it, even by 1 degree, and a very high-quality compass with a sighting mirror would give an advantage.

I've had controls like that. In fact, I wrote a full-page article in O/NA about one such notorious control back in 1990. I found it with a thumb compass.

There is lots of orienteering headcam videos in youtube, watching those may give good impression what orienteering is about. For example this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTeOjKzFPec Camera is aimed low enough to record map reading well enough. It should illustrate well running intensity and the way thumb compass and map reading is done, in good and bad. Pace reading is in min/km. There is quite steep hill up to first control.

Holy crap @Jagge, thanks for that link. That was so much fun to watch.

@mjtyson, here is a collection of those from DC/QOC terrain:

https://www.youtube.com/user/kenjrwalker/videos

thanks for this thread! I am fortunate to have some super orienteers around me who know what they are doing and are willing to share...but I need to study up and get all the help I can get.

@ken: LIKE! Thanks so much!