Also take orienteering class if you want to be an outdoorsy person. I took it and it was a blast. Now looking to join a local club and get into orienteering competitions.
Beyond orienteering, I think the sport of rogaining would appeal to many here. Not sure how popular it is in the US, but there are bound to be some events people could try - start with a 3-6 hour event and work up to 24 hours. It's addictive.
It's similar to orienteering but team-based, everyone leaves en masse, and control points can be reached in any order within a fixed amount of time. This means you can be competitive by walking and relying on compass smarts rather than having to be able to run for hours on end.
I got into it a year or two ago here in Australia and have now competed in a state and national event plus others. Entered into the world champs in July, though we will be aiming mostly to not come last!
Interesting memories indeed. I took it as part of a special program in 6th grade. We split into two groups and the group I wasn't in found a corpse just off the trail, which cut our orienteering exercise quite short. I got to explain to the school psychologist that "No, I didn't see anything, I wasn't traumatized."
I should go do some more, I'm fairly confident in my map skills but I bet there are some assumptions of mine to knock down.
Same here. Teacher and two in my class competed on national level, but I never caught the bug although I was happy to learn to use maps and compass as it is useful (and was essential back then) for long hikes.
It was mandatory at my school, as well. We covered basic orienteering, outdoor winter survival, emergency signalling, and avalanche safety.
If I remember right, it was a one- or two-day field trip we took during middle school. Everyone was excited when it was their class's turn to go. (But who doesn't get excited for a field trip?)
Not as comprehensive as what you'd learn in scouts or taking a professional survival class, but it was a good overview. I still remember a lot of it and find the material useful.
This was in South Lake Tahoe CA, so we were already in the mountains. :) Cost wouldn't have been any worse than any other field trip.
I grew up in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. It's a pretty hilly/mountainous region, so competitive orienteering is huge there. I was never really any good at it myself due to being bad at running and especially cross country running, but I enjoyed weekend trips to participate in competitions anyway.
