31 August, 2005

Orienteering

As a child, my mother thought it was fun to take two children, a map and a compass into the woods...and actually try to accomplish something.

Mad?

Perhaps.

But I'll be ever grateful she introduced me to orienteering.

Sure, sure, GPS units are cool. Geocaching must be quite fun, what with the walking around playing with electronic toys and finding goodies and all.

But it can't possibly compare to the sheer accomplishment of translating land features to markings on the map, while using a simple magnet to find other specific locations...

all while competing against the clock and other teams.

So I enrolled in a seminar course at my college to refresh my skills. Imagine, I can get college credit for wandering around in the woods!

This weekend, we sojourned to Mt. Falcon, which is located in the front range of our beautiful Rocky Mountains.

It was a perfect Colorado morning, that is to say, cool, sunny and crisp. We wandered about, taking headings.

I did well, except for failing to account for the deception of nearness in the different mountain ranges. My map reading is rusty after all.

Many places that I go, maps aren't even necessary. In CO, there are many places that require trail usage. And there are many where it's obvious where you are and where you want to go (distinctive/solitary mountain, canyon, etc).

So I've got work to do.

As a classmate pointed out, it's great practice for adventure racing. I think I would kick ass at that sort of thing.

Drop me in an unknown place with a compass and a few supplies, and I'll find my way out.

Either that or I'll take up with a band of nomads and never come back.

Who can tell?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Millennium Plus operates using an innovative hybrid of technologies, including GPS satellites and patented microburst cell technology. Each time you communicate with the transceiver in the vehicle, there is a two way flow of information.

* When accessing Millennium Plus via the Internet using any standard browser, you send out a signal. That signal then travels to the cell phone tower nearest your current location.

* Microburst technology operates on existing cellular networks to send and receive data packets, tapping into unused channels on the back side of standard cell frequencies.

* The GPS satellites then locate and communicate with the Millennium Plus transceiver on board your vehicle, which exchanges information on location and speed, as well as executing any commands you've sent.

* The cell towers then relay the signal back to you via the exact means by which it was sent.

gps systems,google gps,
car gps,gps navigation system,handheld gps,
gps reviews,gps maps,gps navigation,cell phone gps,gps tracking,gps software,gps units,bluetooth gps,

Anonymous said...

That the forgetting of dreams explains this in part, at least, we are convinced by our experience, confirmed again http://startso11.info/moviemistakes.html and again.. Leaning back in the soft depths of the http://startso11.info/www.hommemade.com.html cab, he savored his independence, cheered already by the swaying, lurching speed.. At certain intervals, some of the best speakers mount the http://startso11.info/jvc+akcesoria.html platform, and speak a piece, which is generally as declamatory as possible.. Once, in passing the plate, he slipped one o' them peppermint lozenges with the letters stamped on it 'I love you' for me to http://wowyesaf.info/rozmiary+palcy.html take.. Let it not be supposed that Master Horner was of a cruel and ogrish nature--a babe-eater--a Herod--one who delighted http://storyah44.info/pyramisa+blue+lagun+hurghada.html in torturing the helpless.. I once tried from this principle to http://startso11.info/www.osuch.mac.html develop a theory for hysterical paralysis.. The absence of any mirth-provoking correspondence, and the appeal solely to his own powers of persuasion, actually struck his http://startso11.info/google%2Cok.html fancy.. Smiley, as requested http://startso11.info/Poniatowa+Szko%C5%82a+Podstawowa.html to do, and I hereunto append the result.. But Elder Brown's sin during the remainder of the day contained an element of responsibility. http://startso11.info/www.onethoroskop.html. No, said Gideon, hardly knowing whether he was glad or sorry--no, I live south of http://startso11.info/stara+poczta+wp.html heah.. I remember that I suddenly became calm on coming face to face with my mother, as if I needed the assurance that http://startso11.info/Biblioteka+w+Gda%C5%84sku.html my mother was not dead.. The elder was laboriously assorting these postscript commissions in his memory, well knowing that to return with any one of them neglected would cause http://startso11.info/maria+olowke.html trouble in the family circle.. I want you to know that I never http://startso11.info/autoscout24.de.html dreamed of insulting you.. The other man would have been neck and neck with him in the race, if it had not been that he paused to seize two suitcases and had the misfortune to drop one, which burst open and scattered a choice assortment of lingerie from one http://startso11.info/szpital+wroclaw.html end of the dingy coach to the other.. Podington smiled with http://startso11.info/nieruchomo%C5%9Bci+cz%C5%82opa.html a superior smile.. Likewise many landscapes in dreams, especially with bridges or with wooded mountains, can be http://startso11.info/foto%C5%82%C3%B3d%C5%BA.html readily recognized as descriptions of the genitals.. We have nothing more elegant in http://storyah44.info/powi%C4%99kszanie+ust++rzeszow.html stock.. She answers with unqualified praise, thereby silencing her own judgment, as she would prefer to tell the http://startso11.info/epuls.html truth, namely, that he is an ordinary person.. We have as yet no clue as to the motive calling for such compression of http://startso11.info/pami%C4%99%C4%87+o+zmar%C5%82ych.html the content.. Where does she http://startso11.info/Mieszkania+sp%C3%B3%C5%82dzielcze.html get the words which she puts into my mouth? Of course I have never told her anything like that, but one of her brothers, the very one who has the greatest influence over her, has been kind enough to make this remark about me...