ALL PARTICIPANTS must wear appropriate clothing (shoes that cover the feet and long pants).  There may be ticks or other biting insects.  Using insect repellant is an exceptionally good idea.  It is Spring, so it is likely to be somewhat wet or muddy in some places.
 

Beginner Instruction:

There will be two identical sessions, one starting at 11 am, the other starting at 1 pm.  In each session, there will be instruction on map reading, simple use of the compass (orienting the map) and how an orienteering course works.  If time allows, there may be additional instruction topics.  There will also be an exercise in which participants can put what they have learned into practice.  Each session will last approximately 90 minutes.  Compasses will be loaned to those who do not have them.
 

Intermediate Instruction:

There will be a single session that starts at 12 noon and will last 1 ½ to 2 hours.  The focus will be on off-trail navigation (following a bearing) and keeping track of distance, combined with terrain association.  Various navigational and map handling tips will be introduced.  Instruction will be done through a series of exercises that go around a short orienteering course, much of it off trail.  Compasses will be loaned to those who do not have them.   It is not recommended to try to do both the beginner and intermediate instruction on the same day.
 

Advanced Exercises:

There will be three types of exercises to choose from.  Each involves doing a short orienteering course in one way or another.  The courses are kept short to allow participants to do more than one exercise:  starting on an exercise may be done between 11 am and 2:30 pm.  

Pathless-O

Activity:  Find the controls in a normal cross-country orienteering course using a map on which all clearings and  trails and possibly other black features have been removed.  If you are thinking of doing more than one exercise, do this one first - the other exercises will show the trails, roads, etc. which would partly defeat the purpose of this exercise. Here is an example map:  Pathless

Objective:  To practice using contours, terrain and vegetation features in terrain association; also to practice using the compass and making distance measurements.

Hiker's Quest

Activity:  Given a map that contains only trails, roads, open spaces, streams, buildings and north lines, find your way around a course.  Controls are on standard features and the control descriptions specify what to look for; however, none of the control features are shown on the map and none are on trails.  The idea is to find a good attack point using the little information that you have with one hint.  Hint:  It is possible to reach each control without going through dense vegetation; although you may need to deal with a little light green or slow undergrowth in a few places.   Here is an example map:  Hiker's Quest

Objective:  To practice finding a good attack point dynamically when some obvious choices have unexpectedly bad vegetation problems.  To practice dealing with a map whose vegetation is out of date.

Donut O
Activity: Maps have been prepared with the area around a control blocked out.  Find an attack point for each control and run to it.  Then, using careful compass reading, navigate to the control.  You can go to the controls in any order;  or a sequence may be specified. Here is an example:  Donut-O

Objective: To get better at picking attack points.

See: http://www.wpoc.org/welcome.php