Backwoods Orienteering Klub, founded November 15, 1978 sponsors events and teaches orienteering in the North Carolina piedmont, around Raleigh, NC.
We invite you to try orienteering with us. Everyone is welcome at all our events. We always offer beginning, intermediate, advanced and expert courses (routes through the woods) at every Regular event.
This was the first time we had regular courses set at Cane Creek Mtns, and they turned out to be rather challenging. Elevation, terrain, vegetation, weather and overabundance of rocks – all played a part. Kudos to all the runners who came and gave it all on the course. And of course, thank you to […]
Read MoreBackwoods Orienteering Klub is proud to host a registered event as part of the International Orienteering Federation’s World Orienteering Week (WOW) taking place May 17-25, 2025. This global celebration connects thousands of orienteers and newcomers across more than 70 countries, all participating in their local communities while being part of something truly international. Read more about WOW here:
https://worldorienteeringweek.com/
We will have an OPEN event at Umstead Park (South) on Sunday, May 25, 2025.
This is also a Radio Orienteering event with a classic 2m course.
Exit at Harrison Avenue off I-40 and drive into Umstead Park. Registration will be in the large shelter along the Company Mill trail northwest of the parking area. (GPS = 35.838133, -78.760707)
The event starts at 10.30 am and everybody must finish by 2.00 pm.
We will have all regular courses from beginner to expert, White through Blue. Expert courses will have a remote start.
Course Lengths:
White 1.5km
Yellow 2.6km
Orange 3.3km
Brown 3.7km
Green 5.7km
Red 7.3km
Blue 8.8km
Registration will close Saturday morning.
We will have a beginners Q&A session for regular orienteering as needed starting at 11:30. There will not be beginner instruction for radio orienteering.
If you are new to orienteering we recommend that you check out these short videos to prepare for the event.
We will use Livelox so you can see your route on the map after the event along with everyone else on your course. 
This is great both because you can learn a lot about route choice, and fun to see how others’ choices affected their run. The easiest way to use Livelox is to download the Livelox app to your phone. Then when you start open the app on your phone and click “Start Recording”. Then after the event, at 2:00, the event will be published on Livelox.com and you can select your “Class” which is the same as your course. Then you will be offered the event to choose so you can see your and everyone else’s routes. (You can also upload your route from your GPS watch.)
We had a fantastic turnout, over half the Radio Orienteers in the United States came to the event from as far away as Oregon, and almost everyone ran all four events. I set up the event while I had Covid, and was finally negative the morning of the event. Saturday we had 80m, Sprint, and […]
Read MoreBackwoods Orienteering Klub is proud to host a registered event as part of the International Orienteering Federation’s World Orienteering Week (WOW) taking place May 17-25, 2025. This global celebration connects thousands of orienteers and newcomers across more than 70 countries, all participating in their local communities while being part of something truly international. Read more about WOW here:
https://worldorienteeringweek.com/
We will have an ADVANCED event at Cane Creek Mnts on Saturday, May 17, 2025.
Use northern parking area. GPS: (35.958118, -79.420857)
The event starts at 9.30 am and everybody must finish by 1.30 PM. Note the early start/finish window!
We will have advanced courses available at this event:
Brown – 4.0km, Green – 5.7km, Red – 7.6km
Click the following button to go directly to the registration page.
We will use Livelox so you can see your route on the map after the event along with everyone else on your course. 
This is great both because you can learn a lot about route choice, and fun to see how others’ choices affected their run. The easiest way to use Livelox is to download the Livelox app to your phone. Then when you start open the app on your phone and click “Start Recording”. Then after the event, the event will be published on Livelox.com and you can select your “Class” which is the same as your course. Then you will be offered the event to choose so you can see your and everyone else’s routes. (You can also upload your route from your GPS watch or Strava.)
Help with control pick-up would be greatly appreciated.
Vladimir, Tatyana and Brian
It was a beautiful day for some orienteering at Horton Grove Nature Preserve on April 26th, 2025. Opened in 2012, Horton Grove Nature Preserve is the largest public preserve managed by Triangle Land Conservancy. It has nearly eight miles of trails, with plans to expand to over ten. The trails honor the Black families whose […]
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