The New England Orienteering Club

by Lydia O’Connell, age 10

I sprinted to the first control/flag and stuck my finger thing in it. Yes! One down, 10 to go. I really got the hang of it after the first control. I was orienteering with my family and I was on a Yellow. I got the time of 68 minutes and something seconds. After that I challenged my brother to a White. And he accepted. He won by a measly 1 minute and 30 seconds. Life is unfair.

Orienteering is a fun sport. You run around like a maniac looking for orange and white controls. The controls/flags are in specific places on a specific map. When you find one you take out your finger thingy (which is actually called a dibbler) and stick it in a little box that records your time. You try to get all the controls in the fastest possible time.When you finish, you get a little slip of paper that says your time and the time it took you to reach each control.The order for orienteering courses from easiest to hardest is: White (the easiest), Yellow, Orange, Brown, Green, Red, and the hardest and longest is Blue.

After we finished our White course we had to wait for our s-l-o-w parents that were doing a Yellow and an Orange. At least the place had snacks. They had Oreos and water.

I have done other orienteering meets. Once I went with my friend and some of my brother’s Boy Scout troop and my friend and I creamed those Boy Scouts by getting the best time. Then we played an orienteering game. There were two teams and each team had flags and a jail with snacks. My team was the awesome purple lions. We had to go into other team's territory and steal their flags without getting caught. It was actually more challenging than it seems. The awesome purple lions won. I wish every orienteering meet had that. Guess what the game was called. Orienteering Capture The Flag!

I love to orienteer and hope to do it again soon. I have done four meets now. One with a game, two Scout-Os, and the one at Prospect Hill. Soon I will do another Scout-O on April 15. I can’t wait. I love orienteering.