The Sport of Orienteering

By Kevin Fisher

“What are you doing?” some hikers ask as I burst out of the woods onto the trail. “Orienteering!” I respond before diving back into the forest on the other side, glancing back to see some confused looks.

Often called “the thinking sport,” orienteering is an activity that combines a sense of adventure (and willingness to get a little lost), outdoor enthusiasm, and both physical and mental exercise. At the start of an event, participants each receive a highly detailed map and an electronic “dibber” (to record your progress), and they use the map and a compass to visit and check into a series of “controls” (hidden markers) in order. Controls are orange and white flags hung on terrain features such as knolls, gullies, cliffs, or rocks, oftentimes well off the normal trails. “Elite” orienteers will often travel five to eight miles, seldom taking trails to complete their course, while new orienteers, families, kids, and hikers will follow trails and travel one, two or three miles on easier courses.

The Empire Orienteering Club operates out of the Capital Region: empoclub.org. EMPO hosts events at a number of popular parks throughout the area including Thacher State Park, Grafton Lakes State Park, Moreau Lake State Park, Washington Park, NYS Cabak Lock 7 Park, and Peebles Island State Park to name a few. The club usually hosts four “foot orienteering” events in the spring and fall seasons, when the underbrush in the woods isn’t at full growth, and an additional two to three “ski orienteering” (ski-O) events in winter at cross-country ski venues such as Lapland Lake and Mt Van Hoevenberg. 

EMPO spring events include April 11 at Margaret Burke Wildlife Management Area in Knox; May 23 at Rotary Scout Reservation in Averill Park; June 14 Score Orienteering (Score-O) at NYS Canal Lock 7 Park in Niskayuna; and June 28 (tentative) at Moreau Lake State Park in Gansevoort. More info: empoclub.org.

Note: Score-O is a fast-paced competition where participants navigate to find as many controls as possible within a set time limit, rather than following a fixed sequence. Controls are assigned varying point values based on difficulty or distance, and the highest score wins.

Each regular event has three to five different courses to accommodate different skill levels and lengths, so ALL ARE WELCOME at every event! Club members are always available to provide instruction to newcomers.

While compass use is an important skill in orienteering, it often feels like a barrier to entry for new orienteers. Don’t let it be! Easier beginner courses are typically not much different from reading a trail map on a hike. The provided maps are highly detailed, created using LiDaR (light detection and ranging) and added to with extensive field checking of every inch of the mapped area. They show contours, trails, vegetation thickness, marshes, water features (streams, ponds), and point features (rocks, rootstocks). 

All that being said, learning to read the details on the map is very important, and once done well can almost be used exclusively, with a compass just providing a general check of direction. By progressing through the increasingly difficult courses, you naturally learn how to read and use the details of the map and other skills, such as compass bearings and pace counting, to your advantage. 

You’ll soon find that the straightest path is not always the best path, but instead you can optimize the use of trails, the avoidance of hills or thick vegetation, and find an easier, albeit more circuitous route!

Orienteering USA is a national entity that includes over 60 clubs in nearly every state, including six other clubs in New York, and hosts several national and championship events throughout the year, which EMPO members often travel to and earn medals: orienteeringusa.org. 

EMPO is even the home club to two USA Orienteering team members who have competed in the World Championships in foot orienteering and ski orienteering. Two other activities related to orienteering are Adventure Racing and ROGAINEs (Rugged Outdoor Group Activity Involving Navigation and Endurance). 

Rogaining (aka map trekking) is on long orienteering courses of 20 to 100 miles with teams of two to five navigating between checkpoints on foot using a map and compass to maximize their score within a time limit of six to 24 hours. 

Adventure races are events that combine orienteering with other outdoor activities including mountain biking, canoeing, and rock climbing, and are also typically six to 24 hours, or even multiday events.

If you are a hiker, runner, outdoor enthusiast, geocacher, birdwatcher, trail user, park user or anything in between, we hope you’ll join us for an orienteering event, and that you get hooked like we have! Visit empoclub.org.

Kevin Fisher (fisher.adk@gmail.com) of Niskayuna is the president of Empire Orienteering Club.