#rogaining

Introduction Orienteering is a group of sports that involve using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they use to find control points. Originally a training exercise in land navigation for military officers, orienteering…

Introduction Rogaining is an orienteering sport of long distance cross-country navigation, involving both route planning and navigation between checkpoints using a variety of map types. In a rogaine, teams of two to five people choose which checkpoints to visit within a time limit with the intent of maximising their score. Teamwork, endurance, competition and an appreciation for the natural…

Yes, I've been to all length rogaines, also 24h ones, not just once. But I'm not in the mood to remember it now.

A year ago we gladly went on Midnight rogaine, organized by the funkiest guy in this sport in Latvia. He always has something fun in mind in terms of terrain.

Last year it was as hot as it is today. When heading out, we had our pre-planned route and a pocket full of optimism. Before we reached our first CP we knew shit had hit the fan.

The forest was so dense you couldn't fucking fall down if you tripped or something. Of course, you coudn't run either, barely even walk. Maybe you could move slowly in a half-squat, head-first.

When we walked out on a patch with no trees (in 15 mins which felt like 2 hours), we thought of checking the route, but no! There were horse-flies. Tens of horse-flies landing on you simultaneously. You coudln't stand still for a second, let alone checking the map. The map was mostly used to hit horse-flies on that rogaine. We retreated back into the tree-line.

When we walked out onto the swamp, we honestly preferred to lie down on our bellies and crawl across it instead of going back into forest and look for other ways (which we would have done in normal conditions). Going back to squatted walk or meeting horse-flies again was out of question. We crawled across the swamp and found our first CP. It took us 40 minutes!!!! (would be about 10-15 normally)

What we didn't know, the shit wasn't over, it was just a beginning. The entire forest was the squat-forest you couldn't see shit or walk through. Horse-flies were EVERYWHERE! I haven't been eaten like this ever, and I've had my share with the forest, trust me. Every opened place and a stop for a map-check included screaming and hitting yourself and your partners with the map.

When we walked up onto a field, walking on a damn wheel-track felt like driving a ten-lane freeway in comparison to walking through this forest.

We finished our course with 3 times less CPs collected than planned initially because it was pretty impossible to execute more, even if you were a good runner (which we are not). As it turned out, not only we were so weak, you know. The winner collected less CPs than we had planned! We took 3rd place in a family group, and it was my first pedestal in a rogaine ever!

We couldn't forget this awfullest experience we had in a rogaine. Moreso, after the event there was a discussion on FB, and all the participants were equally impressed, and these are people who do this for tens of years! Trust me, it wasn't their first time in the forest, neither it was ours, but it was the first time we all were so surprised by a familiar Latvian forest.

Guess what? We're back for more tonight. Same guy organizing the event, approximately same area, same team, except for we don't fit into a family group anymore, so no pedestal for us in any case. But it's gonna be fun.

“The weather´s looking rainy on Saturday night and early Sunday morning. Gonna be a rough night out.” “But you´re coming to Tampere on Friday, right?” Rogaining is an orienteering sport where the participating teams cover a maximum number of checkpoints of varying value (points) in a set amount of time. The teams must stay together through the race and make their way back to the starting point…