Re: 2nd Class Hiking Requirement

I shudder whenever I see "bearings and paces" used with
the word orienteering. Those are two different animals.

This past weekend my troop camped at Camp Birch near
Yellow Springs, Ohio (nice camp) and on Sunday we attended
a Scout Orienteering meet at Camp Cricket Holler in Dayton.

The orienteering meet was run by the local club (MVOC) using
standard O maps and IOF standard map and clue symbols.
They had White and Yellow cross-country courses and a Green
line-O course. My troop had had orienteering training prior to the
weekend where they learned the importance of reading the MAP.
They used the compass to orient their map so they knew which
trail to start out on. After that, it was follow the trail or navigate
by terrain features. Some of the first year Scouts ran their White
course and had times that beat some of the older Scouts. It was
a very successful day of learning to read maps.

Out on the trail I came across a Scoutmaster from another troop
with several of his Scouts. After punching their control card at
one of the orienteering flags, he had them compute the straight
line bearing to the next point and then off they went through the
woods ignoring the trail that lead right to the next point.

Peter M. Murphy :: murphyp@indy.tce.com
SM T125, TC P125, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Catholic Church
Carmel, Indiana
Del-Mi District, Crossroads of America Council

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