NEWS

Don’t Miss WL Celebration Weekend Feb 28th & Mar 1

February 16, 2026 by

We hope to see you at our WL Celebration Weekend Events, on Saturday, February 28th and Sunday, March 1st.
WL Champs is a stand-alone event on Feb 28th at Camp River Ranch in Carnation. Everyone is welcome.  No invitation is necessary. After racing, bring your own food/snacks and join us for a fun community gathering and awards ceremony in the lodge at Camp River Ranch. More info on WL Champs can be found here.
WL Relay is a casual, fun, and very inexpensive ($3 or 1.5 volunteer points) fun run.  Gather two teammates or sign up to be paired with other runners on a 3-person team. This will happen Sunday, March 1st at Bellevue College. More info on the WL Relay can be found here.
Register for both events here.

WL #7 is Next, Followed by Winter Wednesday on Feb 11th- Don’t miss the fun, register for both now!

January 29, 2026 by

Join us for the seventh and final regular season event of the Winter League series that will take place at Green River College in Auburn on February 7th (but wait, then there is the Championship and Celebration Relay, so WL isn’t over quite yet). The GRC venue has a sprint map with a combination of college campus and forest, with a scale of 1:4,000 and contour intervals of 5 m. More info is posted on the event page here. Pre-registration only on the registration page.

Then make plans to hone your navigation skills at the Winter Wednesday training event on (guess what, Wednesday) February 11 at Jackson Golf Course. The club house restaurant will be open for a post (or pre-) training meal, a great success last year.

Register for both events here.

Winter Wednesday training event, January 28th

January 25, 2026 by

The next COC event is an evening training event on a new map at Lake Wilderness Golf Course in Maple Valley.  This event features night orienteering with an opportunity to try different orienteering skills.

The Winter Wednesday events are low key and can be leisurely (just finish by 8:30 PM) or intense.  At the last Winter
Wednesday we tried a “five minute challenge” – who can maintain an average pace of 5 minutes per kilometer?  This is the pace of top orienteers at some World Championships in not-so-steep terrain and at the Lynnwood Golf Course event Matthew Rogers was able to sustain a pace of about 4:35 per kilometer.  We might never host world championships on our local golf course venues but they are generally not-so-steep.  Come give it a try!

For event information and to register, please visit the event web page.

Winter Wednesday at Lynnwood registration closes Tuesday night

January 12, 2026 by

The first Winter Wednesday event this season will be this Wednesday,
January 14th, at Lynnwood Golf Course:

https://cascadeoc.org/event/2025-26-winter-wednesday-2-lynnwood-golf-course/

Registration for this week’s event closes at 11:59 PM Tuesday evening.
Currently, the weather for Wednesday evening is “mostly cloudy”.

The Winter Wednesday events are low key training opportunities – at
night – with an emphasis on compass skills.  Instruction and general
coaching will be available.  Why at night?  Well, it’s more fun and
provides challenging training.  Also, if we’re going to host evening
events on weekdays during the winter, they’re going to be at night.

Upcoming events in the series include:
January 28 – Lake Wilderness Golf Course (new map!)
February 11 – Jackson Park Golf Course
We hope to reschedule the canceled Foster Golf Links event (another new
map), probably in early March.

For more information on the series:
https://cascadeoc.org/series/winter-wednesdays/

Whistles are required, headlamps are strongly recommended.

Next Winter League event is January 10th – Register now!

December 31, 2025 by

Join us at Summit Trail / Rock Creek Natural Area on Saturday, January 10th for WL #5. More info here. Register here (pre-registration is required and closes Wednesday Jan. 7).

As the Winter League progresses into its second half of the season, the difficulty level is increased a bit as we move into more forested terrain from city parks. Remember to read the course notes before the event. Please carpool if you can.

Also, Winter Wednesday evening training event on January 14 at Lynnwood Golf Course. Pre-registration required.

WL #4 at University of Washington is tomorrow. Note different parking spot and start area!

December 15, 2025 by

Parking in lot E18 just north of the Alaska Air Arena. Mandatory crossing of Montlake Blvd at the Hec-Ed Bridge to the staging area by Bill and Melinda Gates Center for CSE. All areas West of Burke-Gilman trail is Competition Area and Out Of Bounds (OOB).

Join us on Saturday Dec 20 for the fourth event in the 2025-26 Winter League Season. More info on the event page here. Register here. Registration will close Wednesday night, Dec 17 11:59 PM. The event is held at University of Washington in Seattle. The course designer is Peter Golde.

CANCELLED – Join us for some orienteering training on Wednesday 12/10

December 6, 2025 by

This event has been cancelled because the venue is already soggy and with the rain forecasted for tonight and tomorrow, there is potential for damage, and we don’t want that to happen, especially not with a first time venue.

Welcome to the first event in the 2025-26  Winter Wednesday training series on a new map of Foster Golf Links in Tukwila. We offer an Easier and a Harder course. The Easier course will be suitable for orienteers with less experience navigating at night and can be completed by staying on the golf cart paths. The Harder course will be a significant step up and, given the flat and open nature of the terrain, is designed to encourage direct routes between controls.  The Harder course crosses many golf cart paths but rarely follows them. Please see the Winter Wednesdays series page for more on the goals and philosophy of these events. Instruction and coaching happily provided on request. More info on the event page. Pre-registration only; registration closes on Tuesday night.