For those who take a little longer to complete orienteering courses, the Yukon Orienteering Association’s latest is right up your alley. Take a few weeks to find the controls if you like!
This week the association announced the completion of a permanent orienteering course using the Miles Canyon map. Forgoing the use of modern electronic devices, the 30 controls that make up the course use old-school paper hole-punches to record the orienteerer’s presence at the checkpoint.
“It’s not just for orienteerers; anyone can do it,” said Lee Hawkings, Yukon Orienteering Association junior programs co-ordinator. “You can go out running, mountain biking - there are no rules on transportation. It’s just for fun.
“It would be a pretty big task to go and find them all in one day.”
The course is also the venue for a month-long contest organized by the association. Orienteerers can enter a draw for prizes by finding at least 10 controls and can enter more than once by finding 20 or all 30. Contest rules, the map, control descriptions and the necessary punch card can be found at www.yukonorienteering.ca or by e-mailing Hawkings at leehawkings@gmail.com.
“We wanted a map big enough that people could just print off on a normal piece of paper at home,” said Hawkings. “Everything you need to get started is at the Yukon Orienteering website.”
Unlike at the association’s regular Wednesday night meets, the course allows for score-orienteering, a format that allows for controls to be found in any order.
“You can visit as many as you like in no particular order,” said Hawkings. “There are 10 that are rather easy, the rest are off trails and at harder to find features.”
The word “permanent,” in this case, is subjective. The controls will be out 24/7 until July 20 - the tentative contest deadline - at which time the course might be moved, depending on the response the association receives.
“We’re thinking about moving the course for the second half of summer,” said Hawkings. “So this is just a month-long thing. But if there’s more interest to keep this thing going, we can wait to move it.
“It’s until July 20 now, but that’s open to change.”
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com