Cunning running. A school room favourite, touching on geography,
physical fitness, math and consequential decision making. One of
the current off-beat adventure sports. An easy way to demystify
compass use and map reading. Gain confidence being alone in
the woods. A scavenger hunt in the great outdoors. A life-time sport
for all ages: 6 to 90. This and more is orienteering.
Comox Valley will have a unique chance to celebrate all things
orienteering the weekend of Aug. 10-11 at the inaugural North
Island Orienteering Festival. On Saturday there will be two
opportunities to tackle the trails with a morning course at the
Cumberland Lake Campground (mass start 9 a.m.) and an
afternoon course at Nymph Falls Park with starts between 1 p.m. and
3 p.m.
On Sunday, the action moves to Comox with a noon start
course at North East Woods and the Highland Trails. The meet will
begin and end at the very accessible parking lot near Guthrie and
Torrence Roads, east of the Highland School playing fields.
For all three courses, instructors will be on hand to help out and explain the basics of the sport of orienteering. Participants may register for one of 3 courses at each meet location: novice, intermediate and advanced. The advanced courses are designed for an experienced orienteer to complete in about an hour; and for others about two hours time.
A Saturday evening social is planned and all participants are invited
to join their new orienteering friends for a potluck and course awards.
For further information call Comox 250-890-0983, Victoria 250-592-
4944 or visit http://vico.whyjustrun.ca/ to download the brochure with
all of the NIO Festival details.
– North Island Orienteering Festival