Setting Courses with Orienteer

So you want to create a course on Orienteer.co? Sweet! Go to the create page on orienteer.co (you may need to sign up or register). Read through some of the details, basically, what the different course difficulties mean, then click “Let’s go!” at the bottom. Double-click to set checkpoints on the map, scroll your mouse to zoom in & out.

Depending on what kind of course you want to create, a few different options are available. For beginner courses, they have to be in-order (it’s easier for the app to guide you to the next checkpoint, instead of trying to figure out what the next checkpoint should be). Unless you have a specific route in mind, or a tight area to work with, it’s easier to leave it up to the course runner what checkpoints they want to get, and how - so you probably want to leave “checkpoints must be visited in order” unchecked (unavailable for beginner courses, but inside the “Checkpoints” area in the left hand toolbar). In order to make finding the course easiest, I like to set a Start Checkpoint (at convenient trailhead, for example), but keep “end checkpoint” un-set. Requiring an “end checkpoint” is great for races that actually end somewhere, but usually I prefer to let them end anywhere, so if they have to leave and forget to “end run” at the end, they still get a “completed” run.

Require Team Names: If you want to make the event more “race” like, you can check this box, which will require teams/individuals to specify a race number & team name which will show up in the leaderboard and on the tracking map.

Difficulty: Beginner/intermediate/advanced - the only real difference is that beginner courses allow in-app GPS use to help folks get started. Intermediate courses should be a little bit harder than beginner, but not much - they’re now not allowed to use the on-phone GPS. Advanced courses should be hard!

Estimated duration: How long do you think a relatively fit person would take to walk/hike the route with good navigation? The goal here is to give folks both something to plan around, but not depress people if they don't make it in time.

Print Files: If you want folks to be able to print out maps, upload a PDF here. You can download the GeoJSON file from the course view page (save the course and click the “view link” button next to the public checkbox), upload it to CalTopo.com, and create a PDF using their excellent app!

Mapping Settings: While setting course, you can view satellite & scanned topos to get more detail, or a different perspective from the normal maps. These are only available during runs to “Pro” subscribers. You can also check out land ownership, which should show you whether the land is public or private. This may not be super up-to-date as the USGS data sometimes seems to be inaccurate, but should give you a decent idea.