A Way Through The Woods Orienteering Club Competition Blends Outdoor Navigation, Fun

An hour into his nephew’s first orienteering experience, John McDonald knew the outing had been worthwhile.

“There it is!” a delighted Erich Longre yelled as he spotted an orange marker hanging from a telephone pole. It was the eighth spot Erich and his friend, Matt Jensen, had located that day, using maps and compasses.

“That’s the kind of excitement I like to hear when I’m doing stuff like this,” said McDonald, who has 28 years of experience with the Army and Marine Corps, much of it teaching orienteering.

“There’s nothing hard about what they’re doing, but it’s the whole concept of bringing it together,” McDonald said. “Any time you master a skill, you feel a little better about yourself.”

McDonald and the boys were among 20 people who showed up at Farragut State Park on Saturday to participate in an Eastern Washington Orienteering Club event.

The 11-year-old club holds about 14 events per year in Idaho and Washington. People of all skill levels try to find marked spots in the woods by reading topographical maps. The club’s next event is at 10 a.m. Oct. 23 in Liberty Lake County Park.

On Saturday, most participants, including McDonald and the boys, did the beginner course, which required finding 10 locations. Others, like club member Ed Robinson of Sandpoint, chose the advanced course, which gave participants a limited amount of time to find as many markers as possible.

“One thing I like to stress about orienteering is, it’s a really good family thing to do,” said Robinson, who did the course with his 12-year-old son, Ben. “(Kids) get familiar with reading a map and using a compass. Those are really good skills.”

Erich and Matt, both 15, started the day as pretty cool characters. They sauntered down the road toward their first destination, in no particular hurry. “Well, that looks like an obvious thing-a-ma-bob,” Matt said when they easily found the first marker at the intersection of two paved park roads.

The second was equally simple, but then they ran into trouble. As they headed into the woods, and trails crisscrossed, the boys became confused. They set off on a trail, only to realize they were headed in the wrong direction. So they turned to McDonald for help.

How far have you come? McDonald asked, making the boys measure their progress on the map. Then he helped them determine how to correct their direction.

They began looking to the west for a clearing in the forest that could be the correct path.

“See that scraggly pine?” McDonald asked, pointing west. “Doesn’t it look like there’s an open area to the right of that? Why don’t we go try that?”

They pushed through some trees and eventually came out on the right path.

The boys didn’t have trouble finding markers after that, but their enjoyment seemed to grow as they progressed along the course.

They finished with an official time of 61 minutes, taking first place in the beginner category.

“It was great,” Erich said.

“I’d do it again,” Matt chimed in, as the boys toasted each other with raised canteens of water.

Then, since they had 30 minutes before the event officially ended, they set off on the advanced course, without McDonald, to see how they could do.

And this time, they were running.

This sidebar appeared with the story: RESULTS Top finishers Here are the top finishers in Saturday’s Eastern Washington Orienteering Club event: Advanced First, Ed and Ben Robinson, Sandpoint, 540 points; second, John Beck, Spokane, 380 points; third, Bernie and Barbara Jackson, Dalton Gardens, 270 points. Beginner First, Erich Longre, Matt Jensen and John McDonald, Post Falls, 61 minutes; second, the Bobcats, (half of a Coeur d’Alene Girl Scout troop), 69 minutes; third, the Cool Magnets, (the other half of the troop), 72 minutes.