The US Champs were held in Maryland this year.  The format is a Sprint, Middle distance and Long.  The Middle is a short very complex forest course and the Long is similar to our regular events.

BOK had a great representation! We sent 10 people to the champs and did quite well.  

• Ruth F75 – 1st in both the Sprint and Long – US Champ
• Phil M35 – 2nd in Sprint – US Champ
• Lina F45 – 2nd in Middle – US Champ
• Tanya – 3rd MGreen
  • Tanya picked up the wrong map, so instead of competing in her age category she ended up in M-Green. (Women are allowed in the men’s courses and that was the class she could be in based on the map she picked up). This class was not elegable for US Champ title.

The following maps are of the Brown-X courses.

The Sprint was on the University of Maryland campus with competitors running all over the place finding the flags in little nooks and crannies around the buildings. 1:3000

The Middle was either ridiculously complex or subtle at the Fran Uhler Natural Area at Bowie State University. 1:5000

The Long (which really isn’t that long) was at the Bacon Ridge Natural Area which has terrain similar to what we are used to but much steeper and higher ridges. 1:7500

Double-Up Score-O

Join us for a Score-O event at the New Hope Overlook section of Jordan Lake on Sunday March 29. In this event, your goal is to collect as many points as possible within the allotted time. There is no set route—you can visit the controls in any order you choose.

Register here by 9pm, Friday March 27

Special Twist: “Double-Up” Controls
Some controls on the course will be designated as “double-up” controls, meaning their point values will double every 30 minutes. These will be denoted as “2x” on the control description.

Elapsed Time (in Min)	Value
0–29:59	1 point
30–59:59	2 points
60–89:89	4 points
90–120	8 points

Event Timing and Rules

• Map Handout starts at 10:00 and you can use as much time as you want to plan your route
• Start Time: Any time after 10:00 AM (but you must finish by 2:00)
• Time Limit: You have 2 hours from your start time or until 2:00 PM, whichever comes first.
• Maps will be printed at 1:10000 on an 8-1/2 x 14 (legal) sheet.
• Trails and access roads will NOT be printed on the map. Once you receive your map, you are not allowed to reference any other maps except those posted by the park on kiosks.
• Note that clearing the course will require you to get your feet wet.

Late Penalty
If you return after your 2-hour limit or after 2:00 PM, you will be penalized 3 points per minute, beginning immediately after the deadline.

Control pickup will begin promptly at 2:00, and help with pickup would be appreciated.

Registration will close at 9pm Friday, March 27.

There is no entrance fee required at the park.

We had a great turnout at Cane Creek Mountains on a beautiful spring day, with 57 starts including two high school JROTC teams, many families, and several first-time orienteers. Participants were surprised by the challenging terrain, which truly felt like being in the mountains. It was especially fun to see beginners finish one course and […]

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We had a great day for both regular and radio orienteering at Woodpecker Ridge. The rain held off until the last of us were on the way home. Runners found Paul’s courses both challenging and fun. We set out to add more detail to this map since out last event here. I managed to break […]

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If you love the North Carolina mountains and don’t get there as often as you like, do yourself a favor and make a visit to Cane Creek Mountains Natural Area in Alamance County. Just over an hour from Raleigh and even less from Chapel Hill and Durham, Cane Creek has all of the rugged, rocky terrain and elevation you would expect deep in Pisgah National Forest located at our doorstep.

On Sunday, March 15 from 11 AM – 2 PM, BOK will have an open event offering 6 orienteering courses:
Beginner (White): 1.9k
Intermediate (Yellow): 2.7k
Advanced (Orange): 3.4k
Expert Short (Brown): 3.7k
Expert Medium (Green): 5.7k
Expert Long (Red): 6.4k

There is also a “Cane Creek Mountains Hiking Challenge” course available from now until 2 PM March 15. For this challenge, you receive a map and plot coordinates for a stage/checkpoint and then navigate with map and compass to this stage. Repeat for each successive stage and then return to the start/finish. There is a small red/orange pin punch hanging in plain sight at each of the seven stages along this 4 to 5 mile loop (exception: one punch is hidden due to its proximity to trails, there’s an additional hint for it.) Taped to each punch are coordinates for the next stages in a clockwise and counterclockwise direction of travel. This course is inspired by and designed to be training for the Birkhead Hiking Challenge (BHC).

Participants in this challenge get to choose, or will be assigned their direction of travel. They also get to choose which type of map to use: one with a Degree Decimal Minute (DDM) grid, or one with a Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid, both are 1:10,000 orienteering maps. The DDM is more difficult to use, but is the best practice for BHC. The UTM is designed to be easier for those not as experienced, or interested in BHC.

Estimated time for completing the challenge loop is 3 hours, but there is no time limit other than to abide by park hours and be finished before the conclusion of the March 15 BOK event when stages get picked up. You can either register to do the challenge during the BOK event on Sunday March 15, alternately you can use this link to obtain a digital copy of the challenge maps and initial coordinates so you can print your own map and go when you please.

Registration is open until NOON on Friday, March 13.

Check-in and starts will be located at the Pine Hill Trailhead: 5075 Bass Mountain Rd, Snow Camp, NC 27349. (GPS location = 35.958089, -79.420903). Bathroom facilities and drinking water are available from the park near the start.

If you’re new to orienteering, be sure to prepare yourself by watching our introductory videos at the top of this page. If you have questions that aren’t answered in these videos, we will have a friendly BOK member available near registration at 11:30 to answer questions.

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 2:30, 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.)