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Training
OverviewMap & Compass 1
This is the core outside material.
Goals:
- Orient a map using surrounding featurs.
- Recognize features in the world, and find them on the map.
- Recognize features on the map and find them in the world.
- Follow along on the map.
- Know the length of their pace in various types of terrain
- Convert between meters and paces
- Set a bearing on a compass.
- Follow a bearing on a compass
- Move a defined distance on a defined bearing.
Training area:
I developed the following for training.
Upper Fields
This is a meadow, about 500 meters long with poplar bush on one side, spruce on the other side, a couple islands of trees within, and a few scattered trees. A football pitch is fenced off within this field, and a baseball diamond is in one corner. The meadow curves, and has rolling hills. Only about half of it can be seen from any spot.
I placed twenty 12" x 18" coreplast signs around this meadow labeled with letters, around the edges, on the islands of trees, and on a few fence posts.
Each sign has 2 to 4 controls within 50 meters.
Micro Training
There is an open mixed spruce/poplar bush about 4 acres in size at one end of the upper fields. I have about 50 controls in this space. I use this space for bearing and range training.
AJ Area.
The school (Zone A) and the neighbor area J together are a bit under a square mile. At this time I've got about 400 controls in these two areas, and all of the trails larger than rabbit tracks are marked on the map.
Rogaine Country.
The entire mapped area is about 10 kilometers east/west and 12 kilometers north south. Of this region about 20 square kilometers is off limits for various reasons. In addition we have an arbitrary rule to not get closer than 200 meters (otehr than road access) to any occupied dwelling. In this area, all major cutlines are on the map, minor trails and creeks are not complete.
In the entire region there are about 1200 controls.
This gives a variable density of controls and landmarks to work with. It allows training to focus on a single skill at a time, with less distraction from other elements.