FREE Practice Orienteering Event at the US Air Force Academy

We are good-to-go on Saturday, August 27th for a practice orienteering meet at the United States Air Force Academy ('USAFA'). Everyone is welcome, please invite your friends!

Basic details, all subject to change:

This is a “practice” meet meaning there will be no formal scoring, timing, or results reporting. It will be a great opportunity to enjoy a new map completed this past Spring.

There will be three courses (planned by Neal Barlow), all on 1:5,000 scale Sprint maps with 2.5m Contour intervals:
Yellow 2.4km, 30m Elevation gain (Advanced Beginner – most controls along trails or other easy-to-follow features. Newbies welcome! Mini-clinics and/or annotations will be available.)
Orange 3.1km, 90m Elevation gain (Intermediate – most legs will have the option to follow trails or shortcut off-trail)
Green 4.0km, 130m Elevation gain (Advanced – little or no use of trails, strong map reading and terrain interpretation skills are required)
You’re welcome to do one or all three courses, but you must pre-register (see below) for each course so that we’ll have enough maps for everyone.

Theses courses will be on a large-scale, highly detailed “sprint”-spec orienteering map covering parts of the USAFA Cadet area and surrounding forest and undeveloped areas

You may start your course(s) anytime you wish between 9am and Noon.
Courses close at 2pm sharp (you must be off your course and 'downloaded' (checked-out) with the Meet Director by this time.

Controls will have hand punches (optional). Please bring your own compass (not required, Silva Starter 1-2-3 or Suunto A-10 NH compasses are good choices).

Please bring your own snacks and water and a compass (optional - it's better practice to orient your map by aligning features on the map with those on the ground).

Your time out and time back will be recorded for accountability purposes only.

There will be no charge for this event, and it is open to the public and all USAFA, USAFA Prep School, and Air Academy High School cadets, students, staff, and faculty.

Pre-registration: An online form submission including an electronically signed liability waiver on EventReg will be required of every participant. Minors of any age will be required to have separate registrations with waivers signed by their parent or legal guardian. The pre-registration site on EventReg has been activated and is ready for your use.

We will be using parts of and will be HQ'd in the athletic field area, within which dogs are strictly prohibited. I’m sorry, but that means that dogs will NOT be allowed at this meet. CoNav knows that dogs LOVE orienteering, will welcome pups at most future events.

USAFA is currently open to the public. Please visit USAFA Base Access for details about getting on-base.

DIRECTIONS to the Meet HQ (39.017, -104.886):

1. Enter USAFA at the NORTH GATE, I-25 Ext #156
2. Drive West on North Gate Blvd (it changes to Academy Drive) for abt 3.4mi
3. Turn left onto N of Cadet Athletic Fields Road (after a descending left-hand curve and before reaching a large athletic field)
4. Continue East abt 0.7mi, turn right on Rd 210 (immediately before the Track area). Meet HQ will be near the S end of the Track Area.
   I will have a few signs out.
   *You are free to enter through South Gate and find your own way to Meet HQ from there, if you wish.

Feel free to contact me with any and all questions.

Thank you!

Galen