Rogaining

Yesterday Michelle and I did our first rogaine. We were each on different teams. It's not the sport of hair-growing, but rather, of orienteering. I partnered with Keith, and Michelle partnered with Belinda, the wife of one of my research colleagues (she's been a past national rogaining champion, and he's the current rogaining champion).

At the beginning of the competition, teams are given topographical maps with small circles indicating where the targets are. Targets are worth various points. The larger the number for a target, the more points it is worth, but that also generally means the route to get to it is tougher. Before the start, teams have about 30-45 minutes to plan a route and prepare themselves. The time given for this event was six hours. Courses are planned and targets laid out such that it's not possible for anyone to actually collect all targets.

The targets themselves are fairly visible orange and white striped flags hanging from a tree in the defined area. Along with the flag, there is an electronic sensor and a puncher. When a team arrives at a target, each member must touch the sensor to their wrist band counterpart, and use the puncher to mark the paper target matrix (record back-up to the electronic sensors).

The hardest part of rogaining is the navigation. Teams are only allowed to navigate using a compass and the map. GPS, pedomoters, and altimeters are not allowed. To make matters more difficult, the topography in the maps can be a little out of date, and some areas of the land can have very similar geographic features to others -- making the distinction for a target area harder. In this case, the satellite image and air survey of the land used to define the topography was last done in 2002. There were trails and many dried rivulets that were not indicated on the map.

So how did we do? Well, Michelle and Belinda got 1080 points, while Keith and I barely got 480 points (we still beat 11 other teams). The big mistake that cost Keith and I lots of time was getting lost in relation to the map. We were first going after big number targets, leaving easier ones for the latter half of the time. The very first target we went after was one that even Belinda told us later she couldn't find. But we had wasted about 40 minutes in that area right at the beginning. We got off the trail and started following the land for the next target, and that seemed to work better. We were on a roll for the next three targets, and we decided to cut across the land for a really difficult one. We lost about an hour on that target -- we were completely on the wrong ridge, almost out of bounds. Once we figured that out, we found the target and continued across the land to another one.

At that point, we realized we were getting short on time, so we thought we would cut across southwest to pick up another four targets before heading back to the hash house (starting point). We severely miscalculated the distance for that part, and picked up a trail, thinking it was the one we wanted. We wandered up and down the trail, losing another 40 or so minutes until we ran into another team near a target. That target was in the far northeast corner of the map, and we still can't entirely figure out how we messed up that badly. After the final target, we decided to head back to a trail we knew, and continue on to the hash house. (Teams are penalized if they arrive back late.) We walked briskly for most of the way, and we neared a point where the map indicated a target near the trail. I saw the flag from the trial, so we ran to collect those points, then ran back to the trail again. We had 20 minutes to cover the remaining distance to the hash house, half of that time we walked, the other half we ran. We made it back to the hash house with 2 minutes to spare.

Rogaining is definitely one of those sports that one gets better at with more practice. To get a really good score, teams have to be constantly moving the entire time -- no rest breaks -- and know how to decently navigate. Enough water has to be carried, ideally in a bag with a sipping hose, strapped on the back. Food should be such that one can eat while moving.

It was a very tiring event, but definitely something I'd like to try again. It's a neat way to see many different aspects of bush country. Obviously, we weren't taking pictures here, but the event website has some good pictures of the actual terrain we went through.

http://act.rogaine.asn.au/gallery/v/08PP6hr/