Everybody Loves a Treasure Hunt

Orienteering in Women's Health Magazine

READ THIS NOW! How fun to have someone at the gym come up to me and show me this article.  And at the office, I received an email that referred to the magazine article.  She wanted to know where to go to learn to orienteer. The sport will get lots of attention for this.  I hope everyone will realize that it is just as much fun done non-competitively.  It is a thinking challenge for all ages and all abilities.  People with physical difficulties can participate in Trail-O (This does not mean it is just on trails) or as the Europeans refer to it: Pre-O for Precision Orienteering.  Foot Orienteers struggle with this as you must look into the woods and see 4 different controls to determine which one is being referred to on your map.  It is very difficult.

Orienteering is always a fun time for kids.  Go to my web site to learn more

GPS gamers: be discreet

Just the other day in Portsmouth, NH, there was in incident where a GPS cache alarmed the public and the gamers were arrested.  The cache they used was a metal box duct taped to an electrical box on the side of a local chain supermarket. Here is the newspaper article. Just the week before, Boston police and federal agents arrested folks that had put 'lite brite' like boxes on the bridges as part of a marketing campaign. I would have thought that would be enough to let GPS gamers know what the limits are for discretion.
A friend of mine emailed me to say how horrified he was at the arrest and he started a heated seacoast discussion online.
I have organized dozens of these GPS events in many different areas of the country both public and private.  I would not want my hard work interrupted or ruined by having a cache attract attention.
Some venues appreciate the attention that they would get if teams found a cache on their property.  Always, always, always secure permission.  Some would not like it at all as many scavenger hunts require the participants to take photos or create a situation.  Virtual caches just have the participants answer questions from the proper location.
I feel an obligation to respect the public environment that we now find ourselves in.  Having fun, learning new communication skills, and moving around outside are the goals for my games at both Ultimate Treasure Hunts  and Can You Find It?

It must be great fun because it is so popular.

So orienteering is a competitive sport??

I hear "Orienteering is a real sport"?, a lot, when I present to new groups and schools.  Orienteering is the national sport of Sweden.  There are school teams that compete with other schools as any other school sport. 
You can visit the US Orienteering Federation  website to learn more. 
There are active sites for competitors and novices to keep track of their own training and competition,as well as watch others' information.  Visit Attack Point.
or the Junior training site: Junior's
You can even see a US Junior Video on YouTube.  It is long and fast to watch, but it gives a good idea of the excitement the competition generates. It's called O.MOV
Orienteering does not have to be a race.  Developing the skills of map reading and navigating transfers to many other life skills.  You can always email me at info@ultimatetreasurehunts.com or visit my website and I can help you find a local event.  There is Ski-O, Mtn Bike O, Canoe O, Night O, Mounted (horse) O, radio transmitter-O, Scuba-O as well as any sport you can think of.  I did read about Unicycle O......
And there is always the excitement of going as fast as you can for 24 hours....Here I am with my partner, Anne, at about 22 hours into the World Championship in Australia 100 degrees, Brown snakes, wild Boar.....  Yeah....I'm the silly one.