Orienteering is the sport of navigating through unfamiliar terrain using a map and compass. Maybe that sounds interesting to you, but you have a bunch of questions holding you back from giving it a try. Eastern Washington Orienteering Club events are pretty low-key. Think of them as very small fun runs — some people will run fast, and others will walk with kids on their shoulders. No one's there to make fun of the first-timer. It still feels nice to show up knowing what's going on, so the following pages are meant to walk you through the basics of a typical orienteering event.
Whether or not you care about competing against other people, developing new abilities is most of the fun of playing any sport. After describing the basics of an event we'll introduce you to the most basic skill in orienteering: using a compass to read bearings from a map and follow them in the field. The steps are simple, but it will take you a little practice to remember them. With more practice those steps will start feeling more natural and you can start working out for yourself how to do them efficiently.