Sunday, May 10, 2009

Orienteering at Camp Twin Echo

The Western Pennsylvania Orienteering Club hosted a orienteering meet at at Boy Scout of America camp near Ligonier, PA, Camp Twin Echo.

There were four courses available: White, Yellow, Brown, and Line.

Line was a novelty for all: one had to follow the line as drawn on the map to ensure to find unknown mystery controls on mapped features on touched by the line. It was easy to miss some controls, since not always one went on exactly where the line was. Missed three out of 16. And along the way, found other controls that did not belong to the Line course. On the map below, the red circles were added on the map to indicate were the controls were placed, and the yellow circles indicate where other controls were placed that did not belong to the Line course.

This was definitely an event where athletic ability was diminished and map navigation was rewarded. For example, in following the Line in the vicinity of control #9, went a bit south of where the control was, and found a utility pole with a small electrical line. Looked up and saw that the line was making a small bend. Located on the map the bend of the power line, and noticed that I missed a power line and a root stock. Kind of backtracked the Line and went to the pole (nothing there), and then to the rootstock, and hurrah!, there was the white-and-orange visual of a control. So, looking for mapped features was the key of the game here...

Doing the line backwards





Orange line is route followed