Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Orienteering Meet at Green's Creek

On Monday, November 5, the outdoor ed class headed to the Hornet's Nest to compete in an orienteering meet. The weather was perfect as the skies cleared and the sun came out. There were two divisions, beginner and intermediate, and 4 courses. The beginners set out to find 11 controls, while the intermediate course had 15 controls. The courses were between 3 and 5 km in length, but as you will read in the students' own write ups, many more kilometers were covered.

As they followed the map through the woods and bushes looking for car wrecks, re-entrants and trail crossings, the many route options took them through creeks, mud and burs. Success was had by all, with some setting fast finishing times and others exploring golf courses. Everyone came back and at the very least has a story to tell.

Check the comments to this post for some of the students' experiences, as well as, the experience of some students who didn't attend as they challenge themselves this coming Sunday in Gatineau Park on a course organized by the Ottawa Orienteering Club.

4 comments:

Nik_S said...

I was pumped for the orienteering meet. When I got to Green’s Creek I was ready to run. I signed up in the intermediate group and felt like a had a solid shot at winning the meet. As soon as I heard that I could go I started to sprint towards my first control. There I net Tony, who started a little bit before me in the staggered start, because he took a wrong turn. We worked together to find the first five controls and bushed whacked most of our way from control to control. Between control 5 and 6 was a long run and in that run I lost Tony because he said later that he got a cramp. I found the next 10 controls myself going, through fields, bushes forests and dried up rivers. At one control it was so muddy that my shoe got stuck in the mud. I picked it out put it right back on and kept on going. I only felt lost at one point in the meet so I doubled back but, I later found out was right on track and very close to my next control. I kept running finding controls using the green/amber/red light system that Mr. Brouwer taught us. I ended up coming in with a time of just over sixty minutes. I ended up winning my group by almost 20 minutes. I tried to give 110% and did. I had so much fun and am now seriously contemplating doing a couple of competitions next summer with some friends in Gatineau Park. It was something completely different than anything I have ever done and had an excellent time. If whoever is reading this has never orienteered before, it is a lot more than just finding flags in forests using a compass and a map it is a serious sport that I highly recommend trying out

Tashers said...

We all left on November 5 to go the orienteering meet at the hornets nest, it was pretty cold outside , very windy. So only a couple people in the class came. When we got there we all got our gear on and made team's , Val and I were partners for the beginner course B , we left running into the woods as soon as we saw the first flag,Tyler came running up from the side, me and Val bush whacked it , and Tyler nicely walked on the path, so we decided that Tyler, Val and I would work as a team to find them all so we ran and the way , for the first 4 the it started getting a little tougher as we had to look more in the woods , so then once we found the 4th flag we ran for the other's. We got to a field and we saw a lot of other student from other schools so we tried to make them confused, but i didnt really work seeing how we were in a field, so then we cut across the whole field looking for number 8, so we cut off time and passed every one on who took the trial, so we only had three left, and we trying to go fast, so we split up Val and Tyler went for the second last one while i ran ahead and looked for the last one so they already knew were it was so i was waiting there and they finally came running and i went around the back of the hornets nest and i waited and they were taking so long, but then i looked forward and Val came running our of the front, so i had to run all the way down.So me and Val came second for partners and Tyler came frist.When we got back we ate chocolate and cookies , and were very cold ,But Brouwer made us go out again to go find 5 flags on the intermediate trail, and we found none of them and got lost , then we found our way out. We met up with every one and waited for the rest of our class to come in , Jordan, Derk,Jeff and Brad all came late because well they got a bit off track, and tony got lost.So the meet was actually really fun, and i would do it again,and it was pretty easy even for me!

jwyatt said...

Orienteering Meet
By: Jordan Wyatt

For the past few weeks in our Outdoor Ed. class we have been practicing the skill of orienteering. For those of you who don’t know what that is, its running through the woods, with a map, trying to find little flags. It sounds relatively easy but let me tell you it is not. Every day for a week we would come to class, get our maps and then head out onto our course. While doing this we were timed, and it got quite competitive. By the end of our few weeks of orienteering we were getting quite good. On Monday, November, 4th, our class (only 9 people actually came), headed out to Greens Creek to compete with other Outdoor Ed. classes in an orienteering meet. Brad Rivington and I partnered up and decided to work as a team during the meet. We decided to go on the intermediate course. We got our maps and punch cards and then we were off. We easily found the first few flags easily without any problem. By flag number four we had caught up with Derrick Martin and Jeff Barbour who had started slightly before us. We decided to team up with them as they are good friends and we knew that they could help us. Even if we finished tied with them we would win because we started after them. We continued to zoom through the course. We got to flag number six with no problems, however when we planned our route to flag number seven, there was a trail on the map that was not in fact there. Perhaps it was over grown or very small and we missed it. As a result of this we went too far in the wrong direction and ended up at the edge of some forest. We then realized that we were in fact lost.

I knew roughly were we were on the map, which was very far from where we were supposed to be. We were however curious as to what was in this bush, so we ventured in. We then discovered Greens Creek. Derrick Martin slipped on the top of a small cliff that led down to the creek and ended up falling down toward the water. Fortunately his fall wasn’t to far but he did drop his map in the creek and it floated off down stream. We all decided to go and try and help Derrick retrieve his map. The map did get away from us and we eventually gave up trying to get it out of the water. When we decided to try and climb back up the hill to the edge of the forest we discovered that it was very slippery clay. We decided that we would walk down stream a little and try to find a better way up the hill. While walking we found a spot where Greens Creek was quite skinny and we could jump across. We decided to cross it and walk up the other bank and see what was on the top. Much to our surprise we found a field with a golf course at the other side. After much debate we decided to turn around and head back. We thought that we had come much farther than we actually had and we thought that it was quite a bit later than it actually was. When we arrived back at the meeting area we learned that it was in fact only 2:30 and that our bus still hadn’t arrived. At this time it was not worth it to head back out and try to find more flags so we decided to give up.

All in all I had fun on our trip, we were not very successful. We learned the valuable lesson that when you are orienteering even the smallest mistake can get you lost. I had fun participating in this event and am eager to participate in the next activity that we cover in our Outdoor Ed. Course.

K.Weirmeir said...

Unfortunately i missed out on going to Greens Creek since i forgot to get my permission sheet signed and i also didn't want to not go to coop since at this point in time i was concerned about my hours and that i already missed a few days due to Outdoor ed, but i now regret not going because i have heard stories which my peers have told me about this orienteerig meet and i would have liked to go and i missed out on a good experience, but i now know that for the next time, but i did really like the orienteering part of this course it was fun and a great experience.
I just hope that if again in the future i have another oppurtunity to go orienteering that i take it.