The Great Outdoors

I haven’t been making art lately.  Complications in my personal life have left me feeling stressed and overwhelmed.  Spending time in nature is one of the best ways to relieve stress, and orienteering is a fun way to spend time in the great outdoors. 

Linne Woods and the DuPage River

Do you know what orienteering is?  Here’s a definition from dictionary.com:

Orienteering is a competitive sport, originating in Sweden, that tests the skills of map reading and cross-country running, in which competitors race through an unknown area to find various checkpoints by using only a compass and topographical map, the winner being the finisher with the lowest elapsed time.

My friend, Linda, introduced me to orienteering last year and I really enjoy it.  You’ll notice that the definition above describes it as a “race.”  That’s not how Linda and I approach it.  We walk briskly through the wilderness (aka, the forest preserve) and solve life’s problems as we look for the checkpoints (called controls).  The only racing occurs when I run to the last checkpoint in order to shave 10 seconds off our total time.  Running also creates a good impression on the people hanging around the finish.

 

An electronic control.
Each participant uses an electronic punch
to record that he found the control.

This is an orienteering map.

Each circle is a control.
Some are easy to see from the trail while
others are deeper in the brush or woods.

Admittedly, I am a fair-weather orienteerer.   I don’t participate if it’s too cold or raining.  I don’t like going into the deep woods, either, because the burrs might rip my clothing.  I definitely don’t like getting my shoes all muddy.  Linda understands that, which makes her a good orienteering partner.

Hopefully there are still lots of sunny days left before the grey winter sets in and I can continue to enjoy the great outdoors.

- christina