Mountain Bike Orienteering Camp

In spring 2023 club member Marshall Millar attended a mountain bike orienteering camp in Denmark. He sent the following report and photos …

MTBO Camp was a lot of fun! It was well-organized, with a range of courses over the week. The highlight was an ultra-long distance event where we, as a group of 150, took a ferry to an island, and the start time began as soon as we were off the ferry. It was a interesting mix of beach cottages, wilderness areas, and a long stretch on the beach itself (which had wide, flat hard sand).

In addition to races, they also had training sessions where they gave us different challenges. The most unique of those was a map with sections missing– you can see it in the attached photo with the straight trail and forest in the background.

They said there were attendees from 14 countries– I was the only North American. Most people came from Denmark and Sweden, or the rest of Europe.

The rental bike was a little wonky, but made it through the week.

Overall, I just loved the opportunity to be out there every day, often twice a day, on my bike orienteering. The Danish woods is mostly pine forests with smooth trails.

The man holding up the map is the map-maker himself, Erik. He says mapping orienteering events is his full time job now that he’s retired and gave me his contact information if we felt he he could ever be of help in the U.S.