Orienteering Class in GSMNP

[illabelle]

I signed up for the non-credit Wilderness Orienteering class through the University of Tennessee. Today was the day. I was unable to go to the Introduction to Orienteering class, which was held yesterday. About a dozen people gathered at the amphitheater behind the Cades Cove camp store. The instructor organized us into small groups of two or three. I and another woman who had missed the introductory class were assigned to a guy the instructor had confidence in. We had a short lesson on paper, and then headed into the woods.

Each of us were given a map of Cades Cove. We marked the locations of ten points of interest, drew lines, measured angles, and worked as a team to locate each one. I've often carried a compass on the trail, but other than finding North, never knew what to do with it. Now I feel that I have a passable understanding of the process for navigating by compass and could manage to do so if required. I wouldn't be good at it, or fast, but I believe I could get where I needed to go.

Below is the map we used. The entire loop road (in red) is about eleven miles. With all the turns and twist of our bushwhacking, we felt like we did at least ten. We somehow missed point 5 while following Abrams Creek, a dry creek bed. We entered the creek bed further downstream than we thought, and came out at Hyatt Lane. We walked a short distance south to an unnamed creek bed, and followed it to point 6. The other woman and I stopped after we located point 7, and the guy went on and finished the full course while we walked on the loop road back to the amphitheater. We both felt like we'd learned what we set out to learn, and we were ready to be done with the exercise.
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Bushwhacking through the woods was challenging. Blowdowns all over the place. And if you're trying to follow a bearing in a straight line, they're hard to avoid. One blowdown after another after another, sometimes in piles on top of each other, we were climbing up and over, walking the log where we could, trying to go slow enough so we wouldn't get injured.

Bushwhacking through the open areas was MUCH worse! We had the advantage of being able to sort of see where we going, which was helpful. But areas that weren't mowed, which was much of it, were full of briers and thorns, TALL briers, MANY briers. Let this serve as a warning to any who might wish to take this class: DON'T WEAR SHORTS!! Picture below doesn't convey the full extent of the scratches and bruises. I had blood running down my leg into my sock. I'm looking forward to going to work tomorrow and spending the entire day sitting in front of a computer.
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[johnspenn]

I need to take a class like that. Remind me to wear long pants when i do.... ouch!

[John B]

How lucky you are! Many times I have tried (and failed) to find a class like that. The best that I've been able to locate is one offered by an REI store in Cincinnati that is a 2-hr. session on how to use a compass.

That's a brutal leg pic, though, but the pain will be worth it if/when you ever need the skills you learned.

[rhjanes]

In Orienteering I do, we wear thorn-knickers, and gaiters (Orienteering style). We usually do NOT bush wack IF there is a trail / road, fence, power line, nearly anything to "follow".

On "Following a compass bearing". There are some tricks to it as it is never possible to exactly follow a bearing. What we teach is....following an exact bearing is about the LAST option you should choose. Follow the mapped land marks (creeks, hills, etc). But if you need to follow a bearing.....Hold up the map and compass. check the bearing....check the "line of sight" off the compass.....look as far as you can see...spot something....a distinct tree...an odd bush, anything....lower the map and compass and simply walk to the thing you spotted...avoiding blowdowns, thickets, brambles etc....just get to the "thing" the best way you can. Once you are there, bring up the map and compass....sight the next "thing"....repeat.....
Sometimes in open land, the "thing" is 1/4 mile away.....and sometimes in a thick forest, it is 10 meters away.

[illabelle]

Here's the website where I signed up. Cost was $79 for each day.

The orienteering classes are not shown currently because they are in the past. My understanding is that they offer them every spring and fall. Drive time from Marietta and Cincinnati is just under 3 hrs and 4 hrs respectively. At least one person in the class drove from Nashville, about 2.5 hours away. Not exactly convenient, but many of us have driven that far to hike. And this is mostly definitely a hike! Be sure to carry two liters of water if you take this class. The stream beds through the Cades Cove valley were mostly dry. You don't want to be counting on them. I forgot to mention that we saw three bears and two snakes.

I didn't know thorn-knickers existed. Paired with gaiters, they would have been very helpful. Little bit of itching going on now that the skin is past the initial trauma - hopefully not poison ivy!

I plan on repeating the orienteering lesson to solidify the learning before it fades. Practice a little bit in familiar terrain, then take it out on the trail to see how it goes in unfamiliar territory. Eventually I hope to teach it to some kids. For now we'll start with basic map reading skills, NSEW, contour lines, etc. My poor daughter, 23 years old, can't get across the street without a GPS (I failed her). I think it's a regional thing. I grew up in central Oklahoma, where the roads are laid out in a square grid, and everybody knew their directions. People who grew up here in mountainous East Tennessee know left and right, but east and west seem to be foreign concepts.

[rocketsocks]

Did they go over first aid also?

[rhjanes]

Check for Orienteering gear online. The knickers are expensive however! I actually got some SWAT style pants from my Army/Navy surplus store. They are heavy, but have survived some years of advanced orienteering (we usually wind up in the brambles.....). REI used to sell some regular type gaitors also.

Some of the people traveling distances, might check for an O-Club near them.
Our O-Club (North Texas Orienteering) needs to raise the cost of the "Free" class we do at every event!!! It's only 30 minutes and not trying it...but hey, you are AT an O-event and can take a start and head out on a beginner course...We even loan out compasses'.

Check here for any clubs/events near you.
https://orienteeringusa.org/clubs/all

[illabelle]

Did they go over first aid also?

Well, maybe. But I skipped the Saturday session. Who knows what info I missed out on. The price I get to pay for not being there. There were others in shorts also, so maybe they weren't warned. The instructor commented when he saw my legs, "I see you found the briers" so it's not like he didn't know.

I did bring a little first aid kit with me. Not sure what was in there - some fire-starting materials, bug spray, one o' them light-stick thingies, maybe a bandaid or possibly two. What we really needed was a high-powered weedeater!

[rocketsocks]

Well, maybe. But I skipped the Saturday session. Who knows what info I missed out on. The price I get to pay for not being there. There were others in shorts also, so maybe they weren't warned. The instructor commented when he saw my legs, "I see you found the briers" so it's not like he didn't know.

I did bring a little first aid kit with me. Not sure what was in there - some fire-starting materials, bug spray, one o' them light-stick thingies, maybe a bandaid or possibly two. What we really needed was a high-powered weedeater!

good times! Sounds like a fun day.