McCowin Park

Course Information

Level: 1
Length: 1.6 Miles
Print Map | Print a Log Sheet

Past Times:

Our Goal

My Story

I have run in many 5k events over the past few years and as much as I love them, I decided to look for something new. It wasn't the events so much as the training that got to me. I kept looking for something to take the repetition out of running. I tried listening to music, or audiobooks, different running routes, virtual running, nothing seemed to work until I stumbled on Orienteering.

The only problem was, there were no Orienteering courses anywhere near me. The closest one was in Colorado, about a 7 hour drive. So I did the next best thing. I made one up for my personal use at a local park in Ammon, Idaho.

Running was fun again! I didn't worry about the distance, I wanted to get to each point as fast as I could! My running time improved and I was able to compete in a long distance relay race with a personal best time for my leg.

The Plan

Phase I
Knowing how many runners there are in East Idaho, I would like to open up the area to orienteering by making orienteering courses in local parks at various difficulty levels.

Permanent Courses
Level 0: Kids 5+ and beginners
Level 1: About 1 mile
Level 2: About 2 miles

These courses would use stickers like the one pictured here as checkpoints with the control number in the upper left (white) corner, and an alphanumeric log code in the lower right (orange) corner. Paper and pencil would be used to log each checkpoint by the runner and they would time themselves using a stopwatch. They could then come back to this website and upload their log sheet and/or time to see how they compare to others.

Using stickers as checkpoints is low impact, and easy to maintain and wouldn't require the parks department to add any additional features to local parks. Maintenance would be limited to writing the control numbers and log codes once or twice a year, if that.

See sticker prices here.


Phase II
As runners become more confident with the navigation aspect of orienteering, I would then start hosting events with larger/longer courses. These courses would require larger investments for proper control flags and electronic checkpoints.

Temporary Courses (Events)
Level 3: Up to a 5k (temporary courses for events)
Level 4: Up to a 10k (temporary courses for events)