Zane Colter, 4, looks at a beginning-course orienteering map, which has clues to finding 10 markers in order to complete the course. Participants use a hole-punch at each marker to prove they found it. The goal is to find all the markers the fastest. Orienteering is no walk in the park, but an enjoyable sport By Frank Fisher Close-Up Correspondent The Salt Lake Tribune Date: May 25, 2006 Section: Jordan Ed White set markers around the orienteering course and made maps with clues for finding the markers. Maps were made for beginning through advanced courses. The player darts like a jack rabbit through chest-high thistle, map in hand, scanning the terrain like a hawk for the next orange control marker. The marker hides like a snake in the grass, and he almost steps on it as he sprints. He uses the provided hole punch to mark his conquest on his race card, takes a compass reading and is off for the next marker. If his wilderness skills and fitness serve him well, he hopes to be the quickest in this timed treasure hunt of outdoor skills and speed. Welcome to the sport of orienteering. With Norwegian roots, it is growing in popularity in the U.S. and is taking hold in Utah. It is a sport for all ages and abilities with easy walking courses for beginners and sprint cross-country courses for advanced competitors. Every course has different challenges, especially along the Wasatch Front. The Utah orienteering group meets at various locations on the second Saturday of each month. Participants find their way from one marker to another. The markers could be hidden in a field of marshes with weeds so high it is like a corn maze, or in the mountains, up and down through forests and over and around streams. In larger, urban areas, orienteering courses in larger U.S. cities require participants to take buses, canvass skyscrapers and navigate city streets. "It's like going on a hike with a purpose," said Barbara Colter, who moves alongside her husband, Harrison, and sons Zane, 4, and Zac, 2, as they leisurely navigate the gentle course. "We also want to teach our kids how to read maps," she said. Zane studies the map, and both he and Zac help punch the holes at each control marker. It may take them about an hour, especially with the double stroller the parents push down the path along the Jordan River, searching for control markers within sight of the path. The Colters' daughter Aubrey, 15, prefers to spend her time working at the orienteering registration desk. But even the beginner's course has challenges. At one point, the Jordan River has risen above the path. The kids get out and walk as the parents carry the stroller as a team across river rocks. Suellen Riffkin, president of Orienteering Utah, got her start orienteering decades ago, orienteering with her father, who has competed in national events. She has been active with the Utah club for about four years. "This is a sport for all ages," she said. "You see babies riding in runners backpacks, families who want to walk in the woods, triathletes as well as older gentlemen in their 70s." Riffkin said the sport is also popular with Boy Scouts, who can earn orienteering merit badges. Three courses, beginning through advanced, were laid out on a recent Saturday morning competition, each requiring a map with different control points to find, the beginning course following an established walking path; the advanced requiring cross-country route finding using compass skills, map-reading skills, chesslike strategy and speed on foot on this roughly one mile of wild land. Competitors navigate to the next control point, use a paper punch on their score card to show they found each of the roughly 10 points, then return to the starting desk, where their time stops. Some tricky course setters might throw in a dummy control point with a dummy punch that might cause competitors to be disqualified. The serious orienteering competitor wears long light pants that are loose to allow running; running/hiking footwear with gaiters to keep thorns out of socks and shoes; and a hydration pack, because local competitions are run in spring and summer. That is not so say there are no variations. Riffkin navigates courses in green surgical pants, and some even wear pajamas. But is there any one type of person who always seem to beat the others, such as forest rangers or cross-country runners? Riffkin doesn't think so but said: "Norwegians do very well. This sport in Scandinavia is like football is to us." According to this competition's course setter, Ed White - who wrote the clues and set the control point "treasure chests" to be discovered - cross-country distance runners do well because the more difficult courses might include jumping over logs and dodging bushes. Serious competitors not only need strength and speed, but also a compass, a map and distance-judging skills. Speed can even be a detriment. "The faster you run, your brain becomes deprived of oxygen and the harder it is to think. But you do need to be fast," White said. "If you don't make some thinking mistakes, you are not running hard enough. "Just like golf, the course is broken into discrete sections. You'll do well on some legs and bad on some. You can't kick yourself if you mess up on one," White said. "It's also common to do really well in finding a control point quickly, celebrate, then miss the next one." The group meets the second Saturday of the month. The cost is $10 per group the day of the event or $5 if groups pre-register. The next outing for the orienteers is set for June 10 at Mountain Park in Kaysville. In July, the group goes on to Snow Basin. The Orienteering Utah Web site is www.o-utah.org. ? Copyright 2006, The Salt Lake Tribune. All material found on Utah OnLine is copyrighted The Salt Lake Tribune and associated news services. No material may be reproduced or reused without explicit permission from The Salt Lake Tribune.