On Sunday, August 30 at 10:00 AM, we will be back to the (relatively) flat and fast woods of Carolina North Forest for our 7^th annual 90-minute “Fox Chase Score-O”. The event is open only to advanced orienteers (i.e. those who have completed an orange, brown, green, or red course). After reading the description of this event below. . .

Park in the parking lot of the Orange Co. Social Services Dept. (GPS coordinates = 35.94849, -79.06546) before 9:45. Map hand out will begin at 9:30. It is important that you are at the park and ready to run at 9:45 AM. At that time, we will meet at the end of the parking lot for the pre-race briefing. We will then walk as a group to the start, where we will (hopefully) all take off promptly at 10:00 AM. If you arrive late, the event director will be out on the course and you will not be able to participate.

A “Score-O” involves a course with no predetermined route, in which competitors decide which controls they want to visit, and in which order. The “Fox Chase” version of a Score-O has two additional features that make it especially fun and interesting. First, a punched control will score points only if it is followed by another punch (within the time limit) of a common control, #63. For example, a successful series of punches might look like: 56, 63, 72, 63, 37, 63, 58, 63, etc. The sequence: 56, 63, 72, 63, 37, 58, 63 would not score the points associated with control #37 because it was not followed by #63. It would score points for 56, 72, and 58, though. Point value for each control is directly proportional to its distance from the director’s loop, described in the following paragraph.

The second twist is that throughout the race, the event director will walk at an even, brisk pace around the main loop trail on the east side of the park (aka, the Pumpkin Loop). He will be carrying control #63 as well as the finish punch. Thus, you must plan your returns to control #63 to a constantly moving position. The route walked by the director will be marked on the map. The loop will take approximately 45 minutes for the director to walk. Because the cutoff time is 90 minutes, the event will be over on or around the time that the second loop is completed. (You can of course stop sooner and your accumulated score will still count.)

If after 90 minutes of frenzied Fox Chase activity, you want more a more subdued map and compass experience, consider visiting Matt’s innovative combination of orienteering and geocaching, only 8 miles away from this year’s Fox Chase. Check out the description of this event here. Start/parking coordinates for this activity are 36.03105, -78.96018.

The following table summarizes features of our previous Fox Chase races, including the number of controls on the course, the total points possible, the value of the highest valued control, the winning score, and the winner. (Because of how the Fox Chase is scored, scores among years in the same venue* are comparable.) You can see that this year’s Fox Chase will be packed with available points, and is just begging someone to break Matt Kirk’s all-time record from 2022.

Year	# controls	Total points	Max control	Winning score	Winner
2026	29	558	56
2025*	27	282	25	223	M. Kirk
2024*	22	506	59	271	V. Stemkovski
2023	24	412	37	282	M. Kirk
2022	29	432	37	287	M. Kirk
2021	26	374	36	283	E. Andersen
2020	0	0	0	0	Covid-19
2019	30	411	30	257	I. Polik

* the 2025 venue was Cane Creek Mountains Natural Area – much more steep and rugged than other years. The 2024 venue was the west side of Carolina North Forest.

Memory-O returned to Bond Park, and it turned out great again. This time the course was longer — 70 minutes — and we were sure it wouldn’t be clearable, but four people proved us wrong. Matt Craig won on time! We also ran three sprints of different lengths and difficulty. Karol Gabrowski won Sprints A […]

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We will have an open event at Bond Park (in Cary) on Aug 2, 2026. Registration will be at a picnic table near the boat house. If the parking lot near the boat house is full, please be ready to park in any other parking lot (there are plenty) and walk back to the start.

Register Here

This event is open to all skill levels. Start anytime between 10 am and 1.30 pm. Courses close at 2 pm when we start picking up controls. Be sure to check in at the start/finish after your course so we know everyone made it back.

There will be 3 sprint courses available and you can run as many as you want in any order:

Sprint A – 2.6 km (Yellow-Orange level – not exactly a sprint, but not quite middle-distance)

Sprint B – 2.1 km (Yellow level)

Sprint C – 1.5 km (White level)

In addition to the sprint courses, we’ll have a 70-minute Memory-O course/challenge. It works just like Score-O, but you won’t be given a map. Instead, a map with the controls will be placed on a table at the start, and you’ll need to memorize it to find the controls in the park. You can return to this stationary map as many times as you want (within your 70-minute time limit) to refresh your memory. Each control you find is worth 10 or 20 points. However, there will be more controls in the park than on the Memory-O map — if you punch one that isn’t on the map, you’ll get minus 5 points. The penalty for being late is 10 points per minute. If you choose to do Memory-O, you must do it before running the sprints.

Beginners may prepare themselves by watching the videos on our Newcomer Information Page. If you need additional instruction or have questions, please ask one of the BOK volunteers at registration.

We always appreciate help with control pickup.

Tatyana and Vladimir

We picked an earlier start time (on a Saturday!) in an attempt to beat the heat. I believe the heat still won overall. The park is a bit challenging, with all the construction going on. A lot of fences had to be mapped, and even within the week of the event there were significant changes […]

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Memory-O was a success and proved to be a real challenge for orienteers. It turned out to be less about speed and more about strategy, confidence, and spatial memory. No one managed to clear the course, though several people came very close. Decoy controls also played their part. In the end, Brian Thompson and Matt […]

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