Discussion: Orienteering article published in Washington Trails Association magazine, written by an orienteer ;)

I wrote a magazine article on orienteering!

Here in the PNW (...Seattle, WA), we are focusing on recruiting the hiker crowd (and eventually the ultra runner crowd) into orienteering. So how to break the ice? Write an article that goes out to a membership of 35,000+!

What's unique about this article is that it's not just a "hey, this niche sport is neat!" article, but rather appeals to a specific demographic and how it relates/should be important to them. I got VERY nervous writing the environmental tid bit, because I knew the article could backfire if hikers got mad at us going off-trail.

We (COC) also plan to use this article as a way to more effectively communicate with land managers about what we do.

Please share the link below!

http://www.wta.org/hiking-info/basics/how-to/navig...

Very nice article. I think you did a great job of explaining how orienteering fits in with the hiking ethos. Can you get the online version to link to your instructional video series? The words are evocative, but the videos you've made would do a lot to entice people to come and try it.

Thanks, Ross! I think that 'framing' orienteering within other point-of-views is important. My scheme for getting ultra runners into O' is to get them to carry all my stuff and follow me around during a rogaine. :D hehehe

I'm glad you appreciate the video series! Unfortunately RunBosco.com has been stagnant lately (those videos take hours and hours to make and I now work 60 hours/week instead of 35).

But I hope to make a 'comeback' with the videos soon! I want to go a little more 'documentary' style.

Nice article and I am sure very difficult to fit it in the Hikers mindset. Our club (OLOU) also misses your Videos but I know those videos take a lot of time.

Hi Run_Bosco. Excellent article.

I'm sharing this with some up newbies I'm trying to get into Orienteering/AR. Nice job.

Minor Erratum - It probably wasn't intentional but the "orienting the map" and "thumbing the map" sections down the side of the article were repeated.