March 29, 2021 by Michelle Kastner
Winter League #3 is this Saturday April 3rd at South Seattle College. Join us for a fun sprint style race at a venue COC hasn’t visited in a few years.
Public registration will open at 7pm tonight (3/29) and close at 9pm on Wednesday (3/31). Rental e-punches will be available for this meet, but you must pre-pay online for them. Be sure and check out the event page for important parking information and other need to knows.
March 24, 2021 by Michelle Kastner
COC’s Ultimate Orienteer Series has officially released their season schedule. This year’s series will be three weekend double-headers over the mountains in Eastern Washington. Ultimate Orienteer events are COC’s most challenging courses but are open to everyone. All events will include Intermediate and Beginner courses in addition to Advanced courses. Read about the UO events here. Registration is open here.
Here’s the just released schedule:
4/10 – #1, Bishop’s Land (Classic)
4/11 – #2, Quincy Lakes (Classic)
5/15 – #3, Frenchman Coulee (Middle)
5/16 – #4, Frenchman Spring (Long)
6/12 – #5, Teanaway (Ultralong)
6/13 – #6, Jack Creek (Middle)
March 15, 2021 by Michelle Kastner
Winter League is excited to visit an old friend in Lynndale Park this Saturday, March 20th. Public registration will open at 7pm tonight (3/15) and close at 9pm on Wednesday (3/17). Rental e-punches will be available for this meet, but you must pre-pay online for them. Be sure and check out the event page for important parking information and other need to knows.
March 8, 2021 by Michelle Kastner
Looking for an orienteering challenge?
The Winter Virtual Series Live Finale is This Saturday, March 13th at Lord Hill Regional Park in Snohomish.
Brand new courses, brand new areas on the map. Lots of flattish open runnable forest totally off trails, where creating one’s own handrails using contours, vegetation boundaries and other imaginary life savers will be the norm. More information on the event can be found here.
Sign up now! Registration closes this Thursday, March 11th at 9pm. Register here.
March 2, 2021 by Michelle Kastner
COC officially returns to live events this Saturday, March 6th at Bridle Trails State Park. Registration is open now through March 3rd at 9pm. Limited space is available and there will be no day of meet registration, so get your spot reserved now. For more information about the mini-Winter League Series and to learn about the rules and safety procedures we will have in place visit the series and the event pages.
February 19, 2021 by Michelle Kastner
COC is excited to announce a mini-Winter League Series starting March 6th and continuing through the end of April (pending permits). This marks COC’s long awaited return to a full series of live events! This series will be limited to 200 participants, with the students of WIOL being allowed to sign up first. You can read all about the mini-series, get exact dates and venues, and check out the new rules and COVID precautions on the Winter League home page.
WIOL registration is open now and will close on February 27th at 11:59pm.
Public registration for the first meet for any available spots will open on Monday, March 1 at 7pm and will close at 9pm on Wednesday, March 3rd.
There will be assigned start times for all and no e-punch rental available for public runners. We are counting on all participants to adhere to the safety guidelines we must put in place to keep folks safe and to get permits from our venues.
We are excited to be able to get back out running in the woods! Hope to see you soon!
January 31, 2021 by Ing Uhlin
Did you know Cascade OC has a group email list? It is a “Discussion group for the orienteering community of western Washington state, USA.” But it is also a way for anybody on the list to communicate with other club members or other members of the list, and a way to get information out quickly about upcoming events, changes, or other critical information. This can be especially useful now when the newsletter has gone on a hiatus (hopefully temporarily).
For some background, COC had a Yahoo Group list for many years but after Yahoo discontinued support for their group lists last December, we have now switched to a Google Group list. It is not an ideal situation because one has to be logged into Google.
So what to do?
1) Go to groups.google.com (this becomes an active link if you open the News post).
2) Search for cascadeoc (as one word).
3) Ask to join.
4) Wait for the email confirmation from groups.google.com.
January 5, 2021 by Debbie Newell
We may not be having our usual in-person events right now (we’re working on it) but that doesn’t mean you can’t get out on a map. This winter, we’re offering the Winter Virtual Series, a 4-event season culminating in a possible in-person event in March.
Using the UsynligO smart phone app, you can earn points by completing a course. Even if you don’t have a smart phone, you can still download and print a course map and run one or more courses (you will need to use the app to earn points).
Get more details on the Winter Virtual Series info page.
Please NOTE: Even though these are not organized events, please follow the WA state guidelines and wear a mask whenever you are approaching or passing other people or are within 6 feet of others.
December 28, 2020 by Ing Uhlin
Did you miss the Bog Slog event at Lord Hill? Or do you want to do the course again? Maybe find a better route to the control you missed on?
The three courses are posted as a “virtual event” on COC’s event page from where you can get PDFs of the maps with the courses. (Note that the legend and control description are files there too). The event is also on the UsynligO orienteering app (and its website
https://usynligo.no/ ) from where you also can get the course files. The Jog (Intermediate) and Slog (Advanced) courses also have streamers and tags with the control numbers posted at the controls. (However, no guarantee that they have not been removed or eaten by squirrels.) The streamers and tags will be up at least through Jan 10 but possibly until Jan 18 (depending on when it is a nice day to take them down).
Note that the courses start at the south entrance to the park off Tester Rd. (
Here)
Get out and enjoy!
Ing Uhlin
November 22, 2020 by Ing Uhlin
The Tahoma Orienteering School Team together with COC is putting on a series of virtual events on the app UsynligO (see the earlier News post about UsynligO here). This is a 5-week series of events, each with four levels of courses, White (Elementary, Beginner), Yellow (Middle School, Advanced Beginner), Orange (Junior Varsity, Intermediate), and Red (Varsity, Short Advanced). There is also a very short Warmup or Model course for each event so you can try the app before heading out on a longer course.
Schedule:
Nov 7: Lake Wilderness. The map for the Red course is not available on UsynligO but can be downloaded here.
Nov 14: Summit Trails
Nov 21: Fort Steilacoom Park
Dec 5: Magnuson Park
Dec 12: Hamlin Park
For instructions on how to start using UsynligO, please see the guide, and this YouTube video from OCIN (start at 6:10 into the video).
To access the maps with the courses, you can download them from the app as explained in the guide. You can also download the course maps from the website UsynligO.no. Click on All events and find the event you are looking for on the map. The first link (“Directions”) under Event Description is the Google map of the start location. Under the Directions are the links to the individual course maps.
The lowdown: This app is far from perfect. Like your phone GPS, it will work better in open areas and good weather. Sometimes the GPS and the app cannot keep up with you and you have to wait for a few seconds for the app to buzz telling you that you are in the right control location. But it is a lot better than no orienteering.
Print your map, bring your compass, head to the course at a time that works for you. Keep at least a 6-foot distance from others outside of your family. Wear a mask. Be safe.
For questions, contact tahomaorienteering@gmail.com
