Month: January 2021

Puzzle Friday: Crowders Mountain

Its the last Puzzle Friday of January and today we wander down to North Carolina to feature a permanent course map of Crowders Mountain State Park from the Carolina Orienteering Klubb (COK).

This map is one of three recent additions to the Orienteering USA Permanent Course listing in the Charlotte, NC area. The other two newly added COK permanent course maps are McDowell Nature Preserve and Reedy Creek Nature Preserve in Charlotte. There is also a regular event (w/ limited registration) at Reedy Creek scheduled for February 6th if you’re in the area next weekend.

Permanent courses provide year-round DIY orienteering opportunities and are a great way to explore new terrain when visiting other parts of the country. Are your clubs permanent courses represented on our locator map? If not, drop us a line at webmaster@nullorienteeringusa.org to get them on the map!

Upcoming OUSA Board Meeting: Feb 8, 8pm EST

The next meeting of the Orienteering USA Board of Directors will be held online via Google Meet on Monday, February 8th from 8pm-10pm EST. Among the topics to be discussed are: Updates and Review of upcoming NRE and Championship events, MTBO events policy for 2021 and review of the 2021 budget. More details and meeting link can be found in the Agenda.

Puzzle Friday: Rockhaven – Clinton Lake

Today’s cartographic puzzle takes us to the heartland and a recent event held by Orienteer Kansas (OK). The control descriptions included a couple of ‘special items’ (black ‘X’s on the map). Not sure I’ve ever been to a control quite like this one! Check out some of the additional photos by Gene Wee as well as the results. There are also some gps routes posted on the RouteGadget page hosted by neighboring Possum Trot Orienteering Club (PTOC).

Have a great weekend folks!

YMP Map of the Month – January 2021

As we head into the new year, Orienteering USA’s Youth Mapping Program (YMP) is moving ahead full steam. At last count there were seventeen (17) new maps in production by 17 different mappers, plus an equal number of remote field checkers serving as ‘eyes on the ground’. And the committee has more map requests queuing up!

This month’s featured Map of the Month is a 1:4000 scale map of the campus of the Black Hills State University in Spearfish, SD. It was created by YMP mapper Julia Doubson with field checking by BHSU Professor Christine McCart who heads up the Outdoor Education Program on campus. Professor McCart will utilize the new map in her PE 100 Orienteering Course as well as RECR 242 Outdoor Skills class. She also intends to share the map and resources with PE teachers in the local school systems.

If the map looks familiar, its probably because we ran this as our Puzzle Friday feature a few weeks back on New Years Day. You can check out the puzzle of this and other maps in our Puzzle Friday archives

Puzzle Friday: Buckeye Hills

Happy Friday everyone!! This week we’re headed down to sunny Arizona for the recent Buckeye Hills event held by the Greater Phoenix Orienteering Club – GPHXO. A big thank you to Ron Birks and Shane Lacanienta for providing media used to create this puzzle for you.

The event was originally scheduled as a Score-O plus an Adventure Race (foot & bike). Unfortunately due to last minute insurance issues for the cycling portion of the event the Adventure Race was converted to a Long-Foot-O extending beyond the confines of the Score-O map. Kudos to the meet staff for adapting to the situation and pulling off a great event. Be sure to check out their results page for a full writeup, livelox gps replay, photos, video and, of course, results.

OUSA Seeks Part-time Administrator

1/20/21 – OUSA Administrator position is no longer accepting applications. Thank you for your interest in Orienteering USA.

Orienteering USA seeks a part-time contractor to handle administrative functions. 

Duties to include:

  • Serve as the primary OUSA office contact.
  • Handle deposits, invoices, and check requests and interface with OUSA accountants to ensure processing. Work with Vice-President of Finance to review financial reports and maintain efficient processes.
  • Serve as OUSA membership administrator.
  • Administer the annual club recharter process.
  • Handle Safesport training requests and maintain OUSA Safesport certification database.
  • Provide administrative support to the Board of Directors and committees as necessary, including handling preparations for the Annual General Meeting.
  • Attend board meetings approximately quarterly and phone meetings with the finance team monthly.
  • Other duties as assigned

Candidate will work remotely and should have a computer with internet access and experience using typical office suite software such as Microsoft Word/Excel or Google Docs/Sheets. Basic bookkeeping/accounting knowledge is a plus, as is experience with GSuite and/or NeonCRM.

Starting contract rate of $800/month plus expenses, including travel to board meetings.
Anticipated start date: February 1, 2021

Please send resume and cover letter via email to Clare Durand, president@nullorienteeringusa.org.

Orienteering USA is the national governing body of all orienteering activities in the United States and is a member nation of the International Orienteering Federation. We support over 60 chartered orienteering clubs nationwide. Our mission is to: increase participation in the sport of orienteering (including rogaining/map trekking), teach map reading and navigation skills, promote enjoyment of, and respect for, the environment, and establish world-class competitive excellence within our national team programs.

In Memoriam: Ed Hicks

It is with great sadness that we write that Ed Hicks, owner of Orienteering Unlimited, passed away on Jan. 1, 2021. Ed was a major advocate for the sport of orienteering over many decades and spearheaded the production of hundreds of maps of parks, camps, school grounds, conference and nature centers across the United States. His cheerful presence will be sorely missed.

If you would like to support Ed’s wish of growing the sport of orienteering, contributions can be made to the Orienteering USA Youth Mapping Program. This program aims to develop school maps and thereby promote the sport.

View his obituary which includes memorial donation information. You can also view and share your own remembrances of Ed over on the Attackpoint website.

Puzzle Friday: Rentschler Forest

Welcome to the end of the workweek fellow orienteers! This weeks puzzle looks back at the New Year’s Eve Score-O event hosted by Orienteering Cincinnati last week. Looks like a fun event! Thanks to the folks at OCIN for sharing the map and photos with us.

Let us know if you’d like to have your event highlighted for an upcoming Puzzle Friday feature.

Puzzle Friday: Black Hills State University

Happy New Year everyone!! Just a quick post to bring you a puzzle version of the January YMP Map of the Month: Black Hills State University in Spearfish, SD. We’ll be highlighting the Map of the Month in a future post, so stay tuned for more details on this brand new map.