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.
We had an open event at Schenck Forest on December 7, with about 50 people running advanced courses and 20 participating in the White/Yellow Score-O. The Score-O also featured a holiday twist: half the controls included trivia questions worth an extra point each. All questions were orienteering-themed. Curious what you missed? You can view the […]
Read MoreRuth, Dave, Matt K. and I are hosting a 3-day Radio-O and Orienteering event at our Gray Owl house in Asheboro NC. Everyone is welcome. Be sure to check back here before you arrive, as details will be added as I set the courses.
The forcast for the weekend is clear sunny and cold. You can hang out in our house to keep warm when you aren’t out in the woods. Also, now we have a fire pit so you can warm up by the fire.
There is overlap between the radio-O and orienteering courses, so all the radio-O courses you are planning to do should be done before you do any of the orienteering courses except Sprint, which is completely separate.
Saturday Evening we will have dinner at our house, and camping is available on our property and nearby commercial campgrounds. Hotels are available within 15 minutes of Gray Owl.
Location & Directions: 1725 Gray Owl Road, Asheboro, NC. (35.634843, -79.881873) There is a control on our mailbox at the intersection of Hopewell Friends and Gray Owl Road. Drive 1/4 mile on Gray Owl and take the first left turn onto our driveway. Drive 1/4 mile to the turnaround, turn around and park only on the right side (east side) of the driveway as you are heading back out. Do not drive on the grass at all! Do not park in the turnaround!
Check back for updates which will be bold in red. If you are interested in participating, be sure to read this entire post. It may be long, but because of a five hour start window and lack of pre-run briefing, it’s important info. Contact Matt K with questions.
What: navigate over 40 miles throughout Birkhead Mountains Wilderness to complete the Birkhead Hiking Challenge (BHC) unplugged i.e. without GPS, essentially a reveal cache-o. Each of the 15 hidden caches provides coordinates to the next.
When: Check-in and map handout begins at 6:30 am Saturday, December 13th. Start window from 7 am to 12 pm noon. Those trying to complete the challenge should start as early as possible to maximize daylight. Take caution with hunters, wear blaze orange. Carry lighting plus adequate supplies to remain safe and comfortable for the duration you might be out there. This event is finished 24 hours after its start at 7 am Sunday, December 14th. BE BACK BY THEN, otherwise you lose all your points (see scoring).
Where: 1725 Gray Owl Road, Asheboro, NC. Part of BOK gathering. Consider camping and/or participating in the other weekend orienteering events.
S/F: N 35° 37.91 W 079° 52.93 |
Cache 1: N 35° 37.033 W 079° 54.250
Who: open to self-sufficient navigators.
REGISTER BY 8 PM THURSDAY, 12/11 TO ENSURE YOU GET A MAP SET.
Why: navigation, endurance, etc.
How: read this geocache page created and maintained by Ranger Fox. Use print maps to plot coordinates (degree, decimal minutes) in the field. You can and should carry GPS devices (i.e. phone plus external battery) for safety and verification. Livelox will be used for this purpose. However, you are challenged to NOT interact with these devices for navigational assistance while out there (see scoring).
Instructions for participants:
Rules:
Scoring: to date, no one has yet to complete the BHC in one continuous hike. It’s not meant to be a competition, but because this unplugged version discourages GPS assist and imposes a 24-hour time limit, the following rubric will be implemented based on the honor system. Each cache found without GPS assist is 2 points. Each cache found with GPS assist is 1 point. No one wants to worry about you, please use Livelox and BE BACK BY 7 AM SUNDAY, or lose all points. Because our paths may not cross, please self-report your score by filling out the following form: https://forms.gle/NYGSfPaWy3of68Qz9
Maps: registrants will get four (4) orienteering map sheets covering the entire Birkhead Mountains Wilderness. Sheets will be printed in color, three 8.5×14 and one 8.5×11, all in landscape at 1:15000 and oriented to TN with prominent 0.1 minute grid and faint MN meridians. Sheets are titled by latitude minute. They are not printed on waterproof paper, protect them with bag/case. Bring a writing utensil. A ruler and magnifying glass might be useful. Other paper maps and barometric altimeters are permitted. Here is a FS topo set (below) free to print and use. This set may be handy if using an altimeter:
The magenta border line in the west of your orienteering map set indicates the Thornburg Farm area. For this portion of the maps, only contour lines are georeferenced. All other mapped objects in Thornburg (e.g., trails, boulders, stream bends, etc.) are not georeferenced. They may be mapped with 0-30 meters of inaccuracy.
Example:
In this image, note how the mapped gully does not lie within the mapped reentrant. In this case, the reentrant (i.e., contour line) is what’s georeferenced. The mapped gully can still inform you about its shape. You can also assume that the nearby rock features are also displaced south by about the same amount as the gully.
On all portions of the map other than Thornburg Farm, every mapped feature is georeferenced.
Expectations: locating all fifteen caches and plotting coordinates will consume several hours. Add to that the travel time on foot (much of it cross country) and you can understand how this challenge could take 24 hours. Expect to spend a significant time outside of your physical and mental comfort zone.
If there is a mass start, expect a bottleneck, or slinky effect at ground zeroes. Consider writing down coordinates, replacing the cache and leaving before plotting on your map to minimize time showing off the location to others.
Expect caches to be time consuming to find. Per BHC: “If there are many rocks around the area, look around for the piles. Some will be obvious while it might take a little searching for others. You might have to remove six rocks to get at the container. Just be sure to secure the cache when you’re done. None of the stages are hidden to be difficult or malicious, but you will have to look around for some.”
You can expect it to take at least twice as long to find caches in the dark.
Below is a photo of a BHC cache (most are small camouflaged “LocknLock” containers) and a photo of a laminated coordinate sheet. You may find it beneficial to team up on searches. This is permitted. Note that any interaction with a participant using GPS assist means that you are using it as well. You can quit anytime, but you must first report back to Gray Owl S/F.
Practice: If you want to practice plotting coordinates, you can print off a practice map (8.5×11). Note that it’s using an older 0.25 minute grid overlay, but it’s still good practice. With just a ruler and the map, try plotting the 7 coordinates below and see how close you get with the answer key. Ideally, you want to plot and attack with an accuracy of about 0.01 minute, or 15 square meters.
We had great conditions for an open meet at Raven Rock, and nearly 60 of us enjoyed being out in one of our lesser used parks. Raven Rock is really a great spot for orienteering, though; and we’re hoping to have a brand new map of the area for our next event there. A new […]
Read MoreEveryone is welcome to Raven Rock state park on November 23 where we will offer a full range of courses, from beginner to expert. Start any time between 10:00 AM and 1:00, but make sure to check back by 2:00, when control pickup will begin.
Map handout, finish, and the start for the white and yellow courses will be from the park shelter (coordinates = 35.461870, -78.911506). There are water fountains and bathrooms nearby. Orange, brown, green, and red courses will have a remote start. If you are new to orienteering, be sure to watch our introductory videos at the top of our newcomer information page. Also, come in time to attend our question and answer session at 11:00.
Tentative course lengths are:
White: 2.6 km (9 controls)
Yellow: 3.1 km (7 controls)
Orange: 3.8 km (11 controls)
Brown: 4.0 km (8 controls)
Green: 5.4 km (12 controls)
Red: 7.1 km (14 controls)
