Discussion: Orienteering in the Southern Appalachian Mountains Area?

I am going to the Southern Appalachian mountains area for four weeks later on this month. Will be in Knoxville, TN; Johnson City, TN; Asheville, NC; Chattanooga, TN. I cannot really find any references to an active orienteering club or group in the area through OUSA, AP or even a Google search.

Is there anyone that have any information or contacts in the area? I would love to get a map or have a joint practice with people.

Birmingham, AL is the southernmost tip of Appalachia

I've heard there is a club in the mountains of west NC

Western NC Orienteering Club - https://wncoc.org/ | https://www.facebook.com/WNCOC

Not presently a member of OUSA, so not on the club locator page.

There is a new club in Nashville TN, but of course that is well west of the mountains, 200 miles west of Knoxville and 100+ or so NW of Chattanooga.

OK - WNCOC looks interesting, seems to be a one-man-show operation but I will check it out. I could find signs of a recent Meetup event in Chattanooga and some info on permanent courses in the area but nothing more than that. Quite surprising given the amount of open land in the area. I would appreciate more information if anyone has any. Thanks!

I'm interested in this as well, as we'll be vacationing in Asheville in April, with a few days in Nashville as well.

It takes more than open land to have orienteering. You need people who are interested in orienteering.

JJ is right, say during my four years in Mobile I shared all the forest trails of ALL the parks in this 400k-size city with a single runner, apparently an international student from Ethiopia (or Kenya). Hard to believe but true. Plus some mountain-bikers.

BROC may have a meet that fits your need

The driving force of WNCOC is Chris Gkikas. And what a driver! But I have not seen or heard anything of him or the club since last November.
I'm pretty sure he made at least one map in the Johnson City area and many around Asheville.
I envy you. Popping into a city and linking up with a local orienteering group is a great way to travel. In my younger days I did that a lot. If there wasn't a competition in the right time period clubs like GAOC and BOK were able to fit me with a map where I could test run some planned courses.Competed up and down the California coast and into the desert, too.
But it gets better. Nowadays with the availability of LiDAR and websites such as Open Street Map it is prettty easy to make base maps of pretty well any park in any of those cities you mentioned. Matter of fact last week I played around drafting maps of four parks, one university and one scout camp in the Nashville area. Turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.
TN LiDAR is very good and very recent.

Most of Appalachia terrain is too rugged for orienteering. It is steep, rocky, wild, overgrown with mountain laurel, rhododendrons etc. But it may be very nice for trail hiking, if you are not afraid to meet with a black bear or timber rattlesnake

Sounds like the terrain round here. Except for the bear and the rattlesnake.

CompassDan. You are going to be in Chattanooga? Just so happens it turns out I have an orienteering map started of a place called Chicamauga, a Civil War Battlefield park, apparently not far from Chattanooga. If you are interested in it find my e-mail in my profile and contact me.
Update: I now have two maps on the go in Chattanooga itself. They sure don't look like that forbidding Appalachin terrain folks are mentioning.

Asheville's a nice place, but the terrain I've seen on my visits there (our US equivalents are based there, so I've been there a few times) does align somewhat with yurets's description.

There are places around Asheville that are suitable; there was a national meet a number of years ago south of Asheville near Brevard - Dupont State Forest. There were steep areas and laurel mainly in the valleys, but otherwise decent orienteering.

The Biltmore Estate could be a fun place to orienteer...

This might be a little outside the described area (2.5-3hr north of Johnson City), but these are the upcoming BROC events:
Blacksburg: https://www.attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_...
Roanoke: https://www.attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_...

As for the Asheville area, pencil in 20 Mar and 16 Apr.

As for the terrain, the climbs and the rhodo/laurel are certainly challenges, but great for rogaining.

I have an unfinished map of Maryville College campus and woods.

I have a map of Roan Mountain State Park with just 1 or 2 km^2 field-checked. It's not very suitable for orienteering. Of the drawbacks mentioned above, steepness is the killer.

20 March, Black Mountain, NC: https://www.attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_...

...or, for standard orienteering (controls, punching, etc) on the classical Southern Appalachian terrain, consider
https://vulcanorienteering.org/?page=events/local#...

LIDAR contours on this map, you can ignore the rest --all you need is the contours.
300 meters climb on 6.6 km.

Well, if you are at Oak Mountain on Saturday, it really isn't far from Chattahoochee Bend State park where this is on Sunday. Almost no contours there.

Back in the 90s I did that Vulcan -GAOC double a couple of times, well twice I think.
It is very do-able if you get the right dates. One of them was a week after a two day at Bastrop State Park in Texas and two weeks after a 'Go With the Flo' A meet in Florida. That was one intense orienteering holiday, all solo by car.

Sweet mountain biking near Asheville:)

Nashville Orienteering is holding a 4 hour paddle and foot-O on April 16th in part to raise money to buy equipment. The club is starting from scratch but they do have 2 maps.
The map for the Paddle-O is Lidar generated and is on Percy Priest Lake.

Advice to clubs starting up and needing equipment: take lessons from the experiences of Badger Orienteering in Wisconsin.

haywoodkb - I'd love to see that map of Maryville College and woods. I'm doing a 24 hr event there in May.