Orienteering 101 Multi-Cache
geobaby: Time to retire this one. Thankyou
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Size: 
(regular)
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Troop 160 brings you "orienteering 101." It was made by boy scouts...for boy scouts but we hope you enjoy it also. It passes of much of the "first class" and a bit of "orienteering" requirements. Print the aerial photo, bring your compass, and go for it. The last step is on private land..with permission from Geobaby.
Don't be intimidated by the length of these instructions. Grab your compass and have some fun.
Boy scouts, start at the first step. For a shortcut...just skip to step 6.
You will pass VERY close to "mission impossible" cache so plan to do both caches on the same visit.
Prepare by printing a copy of the aerial photo and the "topozone.com" map.
You will need less than an hour. You might discover a local park that few know of.
1. Start at the flagpole of troop 160 (don't have a GPS? Look in the hint below. Take a bearing on the south peak of Aubrey Butte. Follow this bearing until you reach the fence. What bearing did you follow? _________ If you wished to return to the start can you think of an easy way to reverse your direction? What is a reverse bearing?
2. Take a bearing on the top of Pilot Butte. Follow this bearing until you have safely found your way back to the east side of the street.
3. Follow a bearing of 161 degrees. As you walk from Dempsey to Watson pace off the distance of the sidewalk. One pace=two steps. This distance is 215 feet. How many paces? ____________ 215 divided by your number of paces = feet/pace. How could you use paces to measure distances?
4. When you get to the parking lot of Hollenshead Park, pull out your aerial photo. Orient this photo so that the photo, with it's gardens, roads, and trees, is oriented to match the land in front of you. Did you print a topomap? Try orienting it as well. What does it mean to "orient" a map?
5. Notice the tree in the photo marked by a square? Where in the park is this tree? How tall is the tree? Hold a pencil in your hand to visually mark the height of the tree. Use the same pencil to imagine where this tree top would land should the tree fall over. Pace off this horizontal distance to see how high the tree is. Record the tree's measurement in the log book. Compare it with others measurements in the log book.
6. Go to the tree that is marked in the photo by a circle. This is the start of our traditional orienteering course. All measurements are based on "magnetic north". I have given very few distances so use landmarks.
7. From the tree (circled) your target is a gate at 350 degrees. You might miss the gate. Consider aiming at 345 or 355 degrees so that when you find the fence, you can know which direction to go to find the gate. If you were hiking cross country to a bridge across a river, why might you purposefully offshoot (aim left or right) of your target?
8. From the gate go 138 degrees to a shed.
9. From the shed go 215 feet at 44 degrees. (There is no landmark to look for, so be very careful)
10. From this "no landmark" spot go 286 degrees to "ship rock"
11. From Ship Rock go 176 degrees to a lone Ponderosa.
12. From the lone Ponderosa go 106 degrees to the rocky grotto.
13. From the Rocky Grotto go 188 degrees to a rocky hangover.
14. Which direction do you think that Pilot Butte is? Do you remember taking a bearing on it in step 2? On your GPS Pilot Butte is at N 44 04.174 W 121 17.351. According to the map the Butte is at 144 degrees (set on magnetic north). Were you far off? Are you oriented? Can you find yourself on the map you printed? Could you have found Pilot Butte without a compass? Try walking upstream a bit to see Pilot Butte again and to re-orient yourself.
15. Follow the canal west (downstream) to 12th street. Stay to the right of any fences or private property.
16. We don't have a good pond or river to measure. How could you measure the width of this street without actually crossing it? Save this number and record it in the log book.
17. Across the road stand between the weirs. (diversion ditches) Go 290 degrees for 6 paces to find the log book. (found at eye level)
18 If you liked this cache, try Tillicum Village (requires a good understanding of true north vs. magnetic north), Spooks and Spiders, or Cougar Eyes (Troop 160's night time caches). Tillicum Village, Mirror-rorriM, Meadow Bounce, Hill Cache, and Control Point are all local caches that are useful for teaching how to use a compass or a GPS.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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Treasures
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