Orienteering Raleigh NC

Backwoods Orienteering Klub, founded November 15, 1978 sponsors events and teaches orienteering in the North Carolina piedmont, around Raleigh, NC.

We invite you to try orienteering with us. Everyone is welcome at all our events. We always offer beginning, intermediate, advanced and expert courses (routes through the woods) at every Regular event.

Open event at Umstead South, 11 Sept

We welcome everyone to celebrate the beginning of National Orienteering Week at Umstead State Park on Sunday, September 11. We will be in the south side of the park, at the shelter that is north of the main parking lot, (GPS coordinates = 35.838058, -78.760682). If you’re coming in a group of 5 or more, please pre-register here to help streamline your registration process, and to help ensure that we print enough maps. If you’re coming solo or in a smaller group, you can optionally save a bit of time at the registration table by filling out your entry form, available here, before you come; although you do not need to notify us that you’re coming.  Whether you register online or in person, everyone should turn in their entry form (also available at the event) and start their course any time between noon and 2:00. If you’re new to orienteering, please arrive in time to get signed in before attending our beginner’s class at 12:30. Make sure that you report back to the finish by 3:00, because we will begin picking up all of the check points (controls) at that time.

Courses are designed by David Waller, and set by the event directors, Vladimir and Tatyana Stemkovski.  Course lengths are:

Beginner (white): 1.8 km (12 controls)
Intermediate (yellow): 2.5 km (14 controls)
Advanced (orange): 3.8 km (13 controls)
Expert short (brown): 4.7 km (10 controls)
Expert medium (green): 6.1 km (14 controls)
Expert long (red): 7.3 km (18 controls)

The scale of the map for the beginner and intermediate courses will be 1:5000; for the advanced and expert short course it will be 1:7500; and for the medium and long expert courses it will be 1:10000. Magnetic north will be parallel to the page edge (thus no need to correct for declination.) Rootstocks will not be mapped, unless they are used as control locations. In that case, they will be mapped simply with a north-aligned green X.

Participants on all courses except beginner (white) are advised to wear leg protection.