2026 Choose Your Adventure Series #5 – Skeleton Bones!
CHOOSE YOUR ADVENTURE
Sunday, November 1 at Shoreview Park/Shoreline CC in Shoreline, WA
Celebrate Dia de los Muertos with a Skeleton Bones event!
The Choose Your Adventure Series is meant to be fun, social, friendly for beginners, yet interesting for seasoned veterans. Who will visit the most “skeleton bone” checkpoints within the time limit? Who will run the fastest?
This format is great for beginners! With many checkpoints along trails and open areas, you’ll be sure to visit a lot! And if there’s one that’s hard to find, don’t worry, you can skip it and keep going. For the advanced navigators, the races will be a challenging exercise in figuring out the most efficient and optimal route to try to get them all.
COURSES
Course designer(s): Patrick Nuss
Like most Choose Your Adventure events, there are 24 checkpoints to find and you have 75 minutes, starting at 11:00am!
But here’s the Skeleton Bones twist!
The 24 checkpoints are actually 12 pairs of 2 checkpoints (each pair resembles the shape of a bone). Once you visit 1 of the 2 checkpoints of a “bone”, you then must go next to its pair checkpoint, completing the “bone”. After completing a bone, you may go visit any other bone. You can visit the 12 bones in whatever order that you like. You can start each bone from either checkpoint, as long as you go to the other one next.
For reference, the minimum distance to visit all 12 bones (24 checkpoints) is approximately 6 km.
Here’s an example of the format from our 2019 “Dog Bones” event at Edmonds College.
BASIC RULES: (these will be printed on the maps, too!)
- There are 12 Skeleton Bones on the entire course, all on the same map.
- Each Skeleton Bone is a pair of checkpoints, which must be punched consecutively in order to be completed and scored. It doesn’t matter which end of the bone you start with, but once you start a bone, you need to complete it before moving to the next bone.
- Of the 12 Skeleton Bones on each map, you may collect the bones in whatever order that you want, as long as you follow Rule #2.
- Each completed Skeleton Bone is worth 2 points, with a maximum score of 24 points. There are no single points awarded for uncompleted bones. Ties in points will be broken by elapsed time.
- Time limit is 75 minutes, with each minute late resulting in a loss of 1 point.
The overall course has checkpoints on the campus of Shoreline College and Shoreview Park. Within Shoreview Park, we are staying completely above the ravine of Boeing Creek. You won’t need to cross the creek or climb down into the ravine.
The campus part of the map has been updated to show the new 8000 building and its surroundings. This map has some older (pre-2022) symbols in its multi-level areas. This campus has very few multi-level areas, and course avoids these.
The park part of the map is generally good. As to be expected, some of the smaller indistinct trails may be very hard to follow this time of year with a lot of untrampled leaves on top. Overall, control placements are not hidden in tricky networks of indistinct trails.
SCHEDULE
Choose Your Adventure: Skeleton Bones!
09:45am – Check-in & Instruction Open
10:30am – Check-in & Instruction Close
10:50am – Map Handout
11:00pm – MASS START!
12:15 pm – Finish & Course Closure
PRICES
PRE-REGISTRATION PRICES
$22 base price
– subtract $5 for CascadeOC members
– subtract $5 for using your own e-punch
Participating as a group? Just $5 for each additional adult (18+) group
member, no cost for additional minors.
What’s an e-punch?
An e-punch records your race. At each control, you’ll dip the e-punch into an electronic box, which will beep and flash as confirmation. After you finish, you’ll download the e-punch at the download tent and get a receipt that show which controls you visited and how long you took between each; these are your “splits.”
Part of the fun of orienteering is comparing your splits with people who completed the same course, and discussing the routes you took!
LOCATION
Start, finish, and indoor restrooms are near the 1300 & 1400 buildings of campus, which are on the southwest side of Shoreline College’s campus. Enter campus from NW Innis Arden Way.
CARPOOL
Looking for a carpool? Join the club email group and share your request to find a ride.
THE MAP
This map is like two venues in one: the hilly and wooded Shoreview Park and the complex campus of Shoreline Community College. Be prepared to switch mental gears as you move between the two!
This venue is mapped to sprint standard (or ISSOM, the International Specification for Sprint Orienteering Maps). The sprint standard has a few key differences from traditional orienteering maps (or ISOM, the International Specification for Orienteering Maps):
- Some features (usually walls) can be marked as uncrossable (illegal to cross)
- Out-of-bounds is represented by olive green, which is used often for flower beds or private areas
- Footpaths and paved areas appear tan
- There are additional urban symbols, including canopies, which illustrate covered passageways
Read more on the map page
SAFETY & ETIQUETTE
Return to the Finish
All participants MUST return to the finish and download their e-punch or turn in their punch card.
Even if you have not finished your course, you must still return to the the finish and confirm with event staff that you have returned safely.
Out of Bounds
Some areas may be marked out of bounds. It is imperative to respect these boundaries to maintain our relationships with land managers. Participants MUST NOT go out of bounds. Any participant caught going out of bounds will be disqualified.
Course Closure
All participants MUST return to the finish by course closure time. If a participant does not return by course closure, event volunteers will begin coordinating a search party.
If you need a long time on the course, start as early in the start window as possible, wear a watch, and be prepared to cut your course short to make it back by the course closure time.
Whistle
All participants MUST carry a whistle on the course. Complimentary whistles are available at the start tent (please only take one).
If you are injured on the course and need assistance, blow three long blasts to call for help.
If you hear a call for help, abandon your course to find the person in distress.
Voices
Part of the fun and fairness of orienteering is navigating your own course, so please be polite when you find a checkpoint and don’t holler that you’ve found it.
