Boggs Mountain Orienteering: use your whole tool box

Wowza. That meet backed me into a corner and made me fight.

Last weekend, a few of us drove down to Boggs Mountain, California to try on some different terrain. It would be my second 'A meet', which is a nationally sanctioned meet in which an orienteer can earn national ranking points and a generally more challenging meet overall. I would be racing the 'Red' course, the 'elite' course for women.

A portion of the Red middle distance map, showing the continuously off-trail route from 8 to 15.

I'm a pretty good map reader, comfortable with contours, and my tactics reflect that. Instead of taking a bearing or counting my paces, I will do everything but that. I'll scrutinize the topography, assess the vegetation, and scope out linear and point features until I can close in on my target. This is a sufficient strategy for most terrain. I'll get up on a soap box and tell any beginner that the thing to learn is how to associate a map to terrain, not how to play with a gadget.

This particular control gave me a real challenge!

Well, it turns out that signing up for an elite course at a nationally sanctioned meet will force you to use every tool you have in your box. Boggs Mountain forced me to take precise bearings and pace count through indistinct terrain. These are skills that I don't practice much, but you know- I did okay. I even occasionally "spiked" a control, as in- marched straight into it. But too often, I shot my arrow and missed the apple. I would miss by only a little bit, but a little bit was enough to miss and do some wandering.

This is how you get better. Don't crutch on the skills that you're good at, focus on the ones that you haven't mastered. I advocate racing just a little bit above your head. It'll stretch you. Just be sure to bring a snack.