Orienteering Courses
Camp Joy and Camp Vandeventer

Troop 53 is currently hosting all of these files on this website for a couple of reasons. First because of our involvement in the development of both of these courses. Second because we have a number of updates and upgrades in mind over the course of the next year or so. All of these updates/upgrades will be posted here first, even if the council mirrors this information on its website. An Updated: mm/yy notation will be next to each of the files to let you know if you have the latest version(s) of the files(s). The date will be the date of the maps included in the packages, currently "January 2010". In all cases you will need Adobe Reader, at least version 6, installed on your computer. A link to this software is provided at the end of the page.

Introduction

The Orienteering Course at Camp Vandeventer has been in the works for quite a while. Originally it was a Woodbadge Ticket item for Dave Kuester of Troop 12, Belleville. He set the original control points (with Kerry Brethauer's help) in 1996.
Picture of typical control point. Certain things didn't work out at the time and nothing was done until late fall/winter 2008 when Troop 53 decided to do Orienteering as a theme and part of a campout program.

During our annual day-after-Christmas hike on the Eagle Trail in 2008 we found most of the control points. A number of adults went to Vandeventer on January 1, 2009 and found, GPSed (is that a word?) and recorded all the pertinent data on the points still in existence. The points were somewhat crudely plotted, first by hand, then using Adobe Acrobat, on an existing map of Camp Vandeventer so we could have something to use on our campout the following week.

On that campout (January 9-11, 2009) 2 of the 3 "missing" points were found, charted and plotted. We also ran a few test courses to make sure this thing actually worked. A few minor adjustments were made to the Control Point Map and the whole mess sent to Al Goepfert to be professionally plotted.

After Troop 53 and friends completed the Camp Vandeventer Orienteering course someone (probably Craig Brethauer) suggested that the camp which really needed a course was Joy. Frank Kurz spearheaded the Joy project, coordinating all aspects of its creation: making the posts/control points, deciding where they should be, arranging a work day to plant and plot them with GPS, and all the follow-up work. One large challenge at Joy was the lack of accurate map data for the south end of camp ("The Hill"). All maps in existence had someone's rough guess at where the trails, roads, campsites, and structures were. That rough guess wasn't anywhere close to reality as we found out. Frank Kurz and Kevin Mahoney went out to Joy one Saturday afternoon in early January 2010 to plot all of these. The Camp Joy maps on this page have this information plotted on them.

Both courses are designed to be as flexible as possible. This means that you can use them for basic "map & compass" work for your Tenderfoot Scouts (at Vandeventer) all the way up to a full-blown Orienteering competition, or a Geo-Caching event (at both camps).

A special thanks to Al Goepfert and others at Oates Associates Engineering for doing all the plotting, providing all the maps, and putting up with our many "demands".

Course packages

Detail of Camp Joy control point map.

• An information file about that camp's course including printing instructions, suggested activities, and more.
• A "base" map of the camp including contour lines.
• A "control point" map of the camp which is basically the base map plus the plotted control points.
• A chart of the control points — A "cheat sheet" with the following data for each control point:
  • Control point number
  • Control code — a 2 letter code that can be used to verify finding that point
  • GPS coordinates — latitude and longitude of the point
  • Description — a clue as to where to find the point in relation to other camp landmarks
• A chart of distances and angles between each point. You can use this to lay out a course without using a map or compass.

All of the maps are designed to print on 2 8½x11 sheets of paper so any consumer-grade printer should be able to handle them.

Camp Vandeventer Orienteering Course:

This course is a little easier and was designed to accomodate rank beginners. Most of the control points are findable from the Eagle Trail. You can use a few of the points for extremely basic compass and pacing instruction, but a full Orienteering course could also be done.

Download the course package — 2.62mb, Updated: 01/10 (minor corrections and formatting changes to the information file in Feb 2011)

Camp Joy Orienteering Course:

This course is harder than Vandeventer's and is designed to challenge a Boy Scout or Venturer. Many of the control points are pretty much buried in the middle of nowhere. Even if you know where they are they can be difficult to find.

Download the course package — 1.93mb, Updated: 01/10 (minor corrections and formatting changes to the information file in Feb 2011)

Auxiliary Maps

Maps which are not included in the above packages, or versions that can be printed with "professional-grade" printers and plotters. The Plain Map for each camp is like the contour maps mentioned above, but without contour lines. It will print on 2 8½x11 sheets of paper. One of the side benefits to all this work is that these maps are probably the most accurate ever done for either camp. If you just want a map showing you the general layout of a camp, download the Plain Map. The Map Sets are the full-size 18x12/12x18 versions of all three maps of each camp. Yes, they will print on one 8½x11 but the details and text become so small as to become undecipherable/unreadable. However, if you have the printer/plotter to handle large paper, go for it.

Camp Vandeventer:

• Plain Map — 409kb, Updated: 01/10
• Map Set — 2.12mb, Updated: 01/10

Camp Joy:

• Plain Map — 220kb, Updated: 01/10
• Map Set — 1.46mb, Updated: 01/10

Updates

• At Camp Vandeventer we are currently in the process of re-mapping the Eagle Trail.
• There is an "oops" on the Camp Joy maps to be fixed. The latrine for Ute campsite somehow didn't get in the right place. Bad GPS signal? Transposed numbers in the latitude? Who knows. Will be fixed Summer 2010.
• At Camp Joy we have plans to GPS-locate, plot and map currently unmapped trails, e.g. the trail around the lake. This will be an ongoing project beginning Summer 2010.

Council and Camp Contact Information

Map Information, Links, and Software

I downloaded the USGS topographic maps that include both camps from the USGS online map store. The digital versions are free, but not very printable by normal humans. It is possible to copy sections of the maps for your use and print them however. A couple of notes about the USGS Map Store:

• The only browser I could get the site to work on was Mozilla Firefox (v. 3.x). Internet Explorer 8 choked on some javascript, and Opera 10 didn't display the most important part of the page.
• If you have cookies disabled, you must grant exceptions to store.usgs.gov and mst.edu

USGS Map Store

To save you the trouble of finding the maps I have direct links to the USGS map packages here. If you want different versions of the maps use the Store link above. Please note that these are direct links to the Zip files, not to a web page.

• Waterloo IL 7.5' Quadrangle — contains Camp Vandeventer, 6mb
• Beckemeyer IL 7.5' Quadrangle — contains Camp Joy, 3.5mb

Both maps are "GeoPDF"-enabled. This free software puts an add-on on the toolbar of Adobe Reader that allows you to do some pretty cool things with the maps. The Distance and Angle Charts for each camp were developed using this add-on. GeoPDF is a product of TerraGo Technologies.

Technology moves on at a rapid pace. GPS is no longer confined to purpose-built machines. With the advent and subsequent explosion of "smart phones" you may already have a GPS unit in your pocket provided you get an "app" or 2. A couple for those of you with iPhones: GPSLite by MotionX and ArcGIS by Esri. Follow the provided links and/or search for them in the App Store. The former is a pretty good, full-featured GPS app with fairly rudimentary topo map backgrounds. The latter is a repository of all styles of maps world-wide, mostly free. You can download a USGS topo map of almost anyplace in the USA to your phone for example. Both apps are free but there is a paid version of the MotionX GPS that gives more capability. I assume there are similar apps for Android-based phones and maybe other phone OSs (Crackberry, Symbian, WinPhone7 et al). I have found all GPS-based apps, including the Maps app included with the phone, absolutely scary accurate — so much so that it makes you wonder if "big brother" is watching you from some satellite. Part of it is that not only does it use satellite information to find you but also triangulates from cell towers to really get down to a gnat's eyelash. Even if you don't have a phone signal it can be just as accurate as a purpose-built unit. I used my phone to track how far I walked from our cabin to my deer stand last fall and display the track on a map (it wasn't as far as it felt) and even though I didn't have a phone signal (more bars in more places my patootie) it did a credible job.

Related Merit Badges and Rank Requirements

All of the below links go to MeritBadge.org

• Orienteering Merit Badge
• Geocaching Merit Badge
• Second Class Requirements — See Requirement 1a & b
• First Class Requirements — See Requirement 2

Caveats

At this point you are on your own. Download what you think you need, make a reservation to use the associated camp, and have fun. There is no cost for any activity you choose to do associated with these courses other than the normal camp use fees the council charges. We do not, and never will offer instruction on how to use this information other than what's included in the package files. If you would like someone to instruct your Scouts on Orienteering or Geocaching that's why God created Merit Badge Counselors. Find one and have him/her teach you and your Scouts.