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Activity Type: Outdoor Learning Experience | Outdoor Learning Experience
Difficulty: 4 - Moderate
Trip Leader(s): Paul Brookes, Diane Simms, Philip Hardebeck, Jonah Sakwa-Novak
Registration Type: Application
Please Click Here to RSVP: https://activities.outdoors.org/a5UVX0000011CPx
Register By: 6/18/2026
Audience: Everyone

Description: Map & Compass Weekend Workshop
No prior experience needed—just bring your sense of adventure!
Join us for an exciting weekend in and around the Blue Hills Reservation. Over two immersive days, you'll learn the skills that turn hikers into confident navigators. You'll progress from the basics of reading a map to advanced off-trail navigation using both terrain features and compass bearings.
Day 1: Saturday
Morning - Foundations in the classroom Start the day with engaging, hands-on lessons on how to read a topographic map; master the use of a compass; and understand how maps and compasses work together to keep you oriented.
Afternoon - Skills in Action Head into the Blue Hills with your instructors to put your new skills to work. Practice navigation on real terrain during a guided hike and finish with a fun, confidence-building bushwhack between trails.
Day 2: Sunday
Morning - Advance skills instruction Meet at the Blue Hills concession-stand tables for lessons on back-bearings, triangulation, and other advanced techniques.
Afternoon - Orienteering Course Team up in small groups to chart your own course and hunt for hidden flags, both on and off trail. Using only a topographical map without trails showing the location of the flags, put all your new skills to work as you navigate by compass bearings, terrain features (valleys, brooks, saddles, hills) and your growing intuition. Your goal is simple: find as many flags as possible within the allotted time and claim the coveted 'best group' prize. Each team is supported by an experienced instructor who guides your learning adventure with instructional feedback and suggestions after each flag is located.
Why Join Us? · Personalized Learning: Small groups (4-6 students) ensure plenty of individual attention. · Expert Support: Each group is paired with an assistant instructor to facilitate learning and enrich your experience. · Build Real Confidence : Two days allows time to master one skill before moving to the next
Unlock the secrets of the wilderness navigation Stay Found!
Skills & Topics Covered · Types of maps and how to read a topographic map: scale, distance, colors, symbols and more. · Understanding contour lines and visualizing terrain features from their shapes. · Compass anatomy, how it works, and how to use it effectively. · Taking a bearing from a map and plotting a bearing onto a map · Declination: What it is, how to account for it and then forget it. · Following a bearing in the field and taking a bearing on a distant object. · Orienting a map to the real world and using it at intersections to find the correct trail. · Route planning, and the use of offsets when bushwhacking between points. · Point, line, and area awareness to stay found. Using natural 'handrails' to hike off trail. · Locating yourself on a map using bearings and triangulation and other techniques to get unlost. · Route planning, safety and decision making.
For more information click on Map & Compass . For short video of prior workshop click here .

SEM 50th Anniversary Event T his is a SEM 50th Anniversary Event where all participants will be automatically entered into a special SEM 50th Anniversary raffle, with prizes to be awarded at the end of the anniversary year. Each SEM 50th Anniversary event you attend earns you an additional raffle entry, so join us often!
About SEM 50th Anniversary For fifty years, the Southeastern Massachusetts Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club has forged a legacy of adventure, conservation and community across the vast forests, rocky peaks, and sparkling coastlines of the New England region we call home. Join us as we mark 50 years of amazing memories and the enduring power of our shared passion!

Reminder: Please click the RSVP link above to register!

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