Come out for an adventure among the flowering dogwoods! West Tyson has some hills. Quite a few hills. So, we’ll decrease the distance a bit to compensate. Whether your first orienteering experience, or you’re thousandth, it’ll be a lot of fun. At the moment, we’re planning for three “point-to-point” courses (you have to go in order). You can start anytime between 10:00 am and Noon.

Date: Sunday, April 13

Location: West Tyson County Park. We have the Chubb Trail shelter reserved but there might be a remote start.

Time: Courses open at 10:00 am. First start 10:00 am. Last start Noon. Courses close at 2:00 pm.

Courses: 

• White (Beginner), Distance 1-2 km
• Orange (Intermediate), Distance 3-5 km
  • Red (Advanced), Distance 6-8 km

Meet Director: Mark Geldmeier

This is NOT a SLOC event, but worth sharing.

April 4-6, 2025

Perhaps not discussed enough in the club, SLOC is a club under the umbrella of OrienteeringUSA . This is the national governing body for orienteering, and thus they sanction some national events every year. One such event is in its twenty-seventh year and organized by OCIN (Orienteering Cincinnati). This year the event is being held around Indianapolis, a short 4-5 hour drive from St. Louis, so it may be an opportunity for some of us to participate in a National Event.

If you’ve never seen a national orienteering event, it’s quite different from our local meets. The effort, rigor and detail that goes into these events is impressive and something to be seen. This is a 3 day event with 3 separate locations and courses. Start times are assigned in advance, you don’t get to look at your map until your time starts, and there are a lot more competitors. It also has a lot more socializing resulting from the large number of travelers and only orienteering for a couple of hours each day.

There is some limited information now, but the link below is to the official event page. Some from the club have discussed going, so far with just some miscellaneous interest communicated. If there are club members that are interested and/or registered we’d like to know. It’d be nice to stay in touch as a club, have a club dinner, or coordinate travel. Reach out to a club leader.

https://www.ocin.org/events.php

A nighttime orienteering event is planned for the evening of Saturday, May 3rd. It’s been a while since we’ve held an event in the dark. Dust off your headlamp and head down to Meramec State Park. We’re also planning a short middle distance event for Sunday morning. Join for one or both. Camp at the group campsite or glamp at the cabins.

Date/Time: Saturday, May 3rd..Night-O in the evening. Start after sunset. Sunday, May 4th, short middle course point-to-point event.

Location: Meramec State Park

Meet Director:  Eric Buckley

Gain access to one of St. Louis’ most valued nature escapes: Beaumont Scout Reservation. This event is in coordination with the John Smerek Memorial Scout Orienteering Festival. There will be a bunch of boy scouts doing a separate Score-O Course. The club members will be doing point-to-point courses. There is separate registration and pricing for the scout event so please make sure you register at the club table.

When: Saturday, March 8th

Where: Beaumont Scout Reservation

Registration: 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM with starts to follow. Course closes at 12:00.

SLOC participants, please register online to help us know how many to expect for the event. All early online registrants get an 11″x 17″ printed map for the Green and Blue Courses! Late registrants will have 8″ x 11″ maps, as they are available. Scouts, please use the forms below to register.

We will have 3 courses prepared:

1. Beginner: Map Hike Course (White-Yellow level): 2.6 KM
2. Intermediate: Green Course: 5.5 KM
3. Advanced: Red Course: 8.8 KM

Questions? For club event, contact Josh Borgmeyer at jb.balancedbody@gmail.com. For the scout event, contact John Daberkow at jwdrunner@icloud.com.

The forms below are for Scouts only. Scout leaders, please bring the completed paper forms and a check made out to St. Louis Orienteering Club to the registration table on the day of the event. Thank you.