thanks guys for the comments - it just looked SO cool and there is a group less than an hour from us that does monthly meets....my son loves geocaching but it really doesn't use mapping skills...with geocaching you use you GPS and some hunting skills and look for hidden items in or around the GPS location. Orienteering is more like learning how to read a topographical map and you have a number of "way points" that you have to locate by using a compass and a topo map of the area. You have to think of the best route to get to each way point (which I think is marked with a special box flag with a special hole punch) and then you punch a special card you get at each way point in order on the course. You can be competitive and see how fast you complete a whole course by finding all the way points or you can just enjoy trudging around in the woods - for those that do it - I hope I explained it correctly? I think we will just head out next month and check it out!
I saw info on Campfire but the closest group is on the other side of Florida :-( Someone is locally looking at starting up a Spiral Scouts group and I just don't know a whole lot about it. With DS6's interest in nature, hiking and camping and the fact that he really has a hard time meeting others with his same interests, we had hoped to try to find more things/groups that would allow him to meet others.
