Orienteering is a sport that entails using navigational skills, a map, and compass to navigate from one point to another in unfamiliar terrain. Often in the form of a race, the goal is to find controls marked on a map.
On Oct. 10, Jamie Kamlet will lead an orienteering class during Family Fun Day at the Black Rock Forest Consortium.
Kamlet got involved in the sport, in 1977, when he and fellow Lee Road School colleague, Sally Wortmann, discovered an orienteering club at West Point.
“I had been lost in the woods several times because I’m an avid backpacker, rock climber, and mountain climber,” Kamlet said. “I learned how to orienteer so I wouldn’t get lost.”
The two were invited to participate in a meet, and at the time primitive maps were being used. After a year or two, Kamlet learned an updated map of Black Rock Forest was being made. The map, created by a Norwegian orienteering team, included every large boulder, stone wall, and dry stream bed in the forest.
In 1978, he and Wortmann obtained a copy of the map and organized their own orienteering club. They had as many as 100 children and parents show up on a Friday afternoon.
The participants were asked to find orange controls that were hanging from trees and almost looked like Japanese lanterns.
“You get a map that has features mapped in order,” Kamlet explained. “You have to run around, using the map, reading clues that accompany it, to find the controls. At the beginner stage, they’re located on trails. At the more advanced levels, you start going through the woods taking compass bearings.”
A teacher at Cornwall Elementary School for 30 years, Kamlet even taught his own students orienteering. At one point, he and his students raised $1,200 to create a professional map of the school.
When Kamlet retired in 2003, Black Rock Consortium hired him as an educator. He’s also been invited to teach orienteering during Fall Family Day.
On Oct. 10, Kamlet will create a simple treasure hunt for the 3 to 8-year-old participants. He’ll teach them to hold and read a map, so when they’re done, they can visit places like the Bronx Zoo and be able to use the park map to find specific animals.
If there’s interest, Kamlet will offer more advanced courses. The controls would be hidden and a compass introduced to aid in locating them.
Orienteering isn’t just a sport, Kamlet said, as it can be applied to real life situations. Ever since he learned how to read a map and use a compass, he’s been able to go anywhere in the woods and not get lost for more than a few minutes.
“It teaches you techniques, if you do suddenly lose track of where you are, and steps to follow to find where you are.”
To register for the program, visit http://blackrockforest.org/events-programs.
