I'm pretty good at navigating off trail with a map and compass already, can plot points and take and follow bearings with reasonable accuracy, and like many folks who have learned by doing am better than any of the aforementioned at visualizing map features and reading micro-terrain. Prompted by doing an adventure race this past weekend, I'd like to improve the exactitude of my orienteering. My partner and I used altimeter watches and the aforementioned skills to good effect, but a friend with a background doing transects for the USFS was able to follow bearings to some very difficult checkpoints with impressive accuracy. I'd like to get that good.

Any suggestions for online sources, books and courses that go beyond the basics would be appreciated.

The classic book would be Be Expert with Map & Compass, by Bjorn Kjellstrom. Don't know if you need something more advanced. You could enlist in the military, that's where I learned :)

David, I don't have any sources to the "secrets" of advance orienteering but a good way to practice with out having to travel far is to look into a local Orienteering Clubs events. There are several in the PNW and they seem to have some kind of event weekly, somewhere. The local in this area has an adventure style race at a local park (wooded) once a month and you can walk or run it, either way it will help you improve your skills.
They might also be a resource for the "secrets" that the advanced guys have.

http://orienteeringusa.org/

Would suggest David Seidman's book The Essential Wilderness Navigator as well. Bjorn's book was written 40+ years ago and does not touch upon GPS for instance.

Edited by kthompson on 04/26/2011 12:08:55 MDT.

Good idea Ted, and thanks for the book recs, though I am looking for something (be it book or otherwise) beyond Bjorn's work (which I read as a Boy Scout).