Long Island Orienteering Club members explore the woods with just a map and a compass
Glen Malings, president of the Long Island Orienteering Club, from left, with club members Kimberly Ferina and Brittany Wong inside Muttontown Preserve. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
As a beginner in the outdoor sport of orienteering, Brittany Wong knew she would have a lot of catching up to do when she joined the Long Island Orienteering Club.
“I’m really directionally challenged,” Wong, 27, of Syosset, said of her motivation for joining the orienteering club, which combines hiking, map-reading and competition in spring and fall meets at Long Island parks and preserves. Although Wong got lost and had to call a friend at her second meet this spring at Muttontown Preserve, she says she plans to continue with “the goal just to be comfortable to be in the wilderness by myself.”
This fall, hikers will again be leaving their GPS behind and instead bringing a compass (and maybe a cellphone) to enjoy an activity that puts traditional map-reading skills back on the map.
“We’re getting too dependent on our GPS,” said club president Glen Malings, 67, of Muttontown. Founded in 1978 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, the club has maintained a “relatively stable” membership of 80 people in the past 30 years and currently has more than 450 members on its Facebook page, Malings said. The club hosts six meets a year including three each in the spring and fall. Members say their events promote physical and mental fitness and preserve a valuable skill.
“Although orienteering is technically a competitive sport, these skills [map-reading and orienteering] are also useful if you want to go on longer hikes in the wilderness,” Malings said.
Members say orienteering meets are like “scavenger hunts” with contestants using hand-held paper maps created by the club to find checkpoints in the woods. Beginners can learn the basics in about 15 minutes and follow easy courses that take between an hour and an hour-and-a-half to complete along marked trails, according to Malings. “We can even walk with you until you are confident enough to complete the easy course,” he said. Results of meets are posted on the club website, liorienteering.com.
“The best thing about it is when you’re out there communing with nature and your mind and your body are working together,” said Kimberly Ferina, 53, of Atlantic Beach, a Locust Valley School District administrator who joined the club four years ago to hone her orientation and navigation skills. Ferina, a club course-setter, is among the most advanced orienteers, competing in Adventure Race triathlons combining orienteering with sports such as kayaking, mountain biking and running.
“You get an endorphin rush when you find the checkpoints,” she said.
The Long Island Orienteering Club hosts its fall meets on Sept. 20, Oct. 17 and Nov. 15. You don’t have to be a club member to participate, and you can enter as an individual or with up to two teammates; 516-477-0852, liorienteering.com. Club membership costs $15 a year and members receive a $5 discount. Nonmembers pay a $15 meet fee.
