Boy Scout Troop 149 from Falcon and the Rocky Mountain Orienteering Club hosted the second annual ZombiePocalypse Oct. 18 at the Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch in Elbert, Colorado. Tom Bagby, event director, said the type of orienteering done at the ZombiePocalypse is called score-o, with the ìoî standing for ìorienteering.îParticipants signed up either as zombies or survivors. The survivors received a compass, map, two flag football flags to wear and a whistle. Their goal was to find the geocache locations and participate on the obstacle courseís challenge control points throughout the course. Those who found the geocaches received extra health flags, patches and T-shirts. Health flags were worn on belts, and zombies could take the flags from any survivor participant they were able to catch.Bagby said the ZombiePocalypse event is designed for a map and compass, but land navigation events in general also involve GPS and radio signal finder skills. ìOrienteering uses a map and compass; GPS utilizes a device and putting (plugging) in coordinates; and radio direction finding is a tone at a specific frequency ó so they (participants) can point an antenna at the signal and hear the broadcast signal,î Bagby said.ìThere are a lot of games that people come up with to make orienteering more fun and interesting. The general way we run meets is we have multiple courses of varying difficulty. They are demarcated by colors, and you have to know which is which.îBagby said the ZombiePocalypse score-o event has no set course and participants can venture between controls in ìany fashionî they like.He said each control point has its own worth when it comes to points ó based on the level of difficulty.Zombies participated in groups assigned to commanders, Bagby said. ìTheir job is to position the zombies so they have the best time pillaging survivor health flags.î Zombies arrived earlier during the registration period so then could don superb zombie makeup.All participants were issued whistles for safety and told that if they heard a whistle, they needed to stop their role playing and help. A whistle meant someone was hurt or in trouble. Chuck Douglass, the unit commissioner with the Boy Scout troop, said the scouts were there to provide safety assistance as well as perform ìskitsî at certain checkpoints as part of the entertainment. Scouts wandered the orienteering course in groups of two, with first-aid packs and water.Bagby said he created the event last year by combining two things he enjoys. He is a member of the RMOC and also a merit badge counselor with the Boy Scouts of America. ìI basically combined my two passions into one big event,î he said. Bagby said all money raised from the event would go to the nonprofits involved in the event.The event builds leadership and outdoor skills in a team-based environment, Bagby said. Douglass said the event helps participants sharpen map and compass skills. ìIt can be hard if you don’t have the basic skills,î he said. In addition to map and compass skills, the course offered an obstacle course challenge, a monkey bridge challenge and a biohazard lab, where Boy Scouts put on skits.Both years, the event drew about 200 participants. Bagby said Scout troops and their families came from all over Colorado . Mike Welch and his two sons, Braden and Mason, came down from Aurora… Braden is a Cub Scout with Pack 2010, and Mason is with Boy Scout Troop 12.The Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch is several hundred acres, and offers plenty of room for participants to use their skills. Douglass estimated that survivor participants, if they completed the course and all its checkpoints, would travel at least 5 miles during the three-hour event.The event officially started at 1 p.m.; and, with zombies already in place, survivors ran to the courses from the starting line. All participants had to be back at 4 p.m. for their points to count.Though speed counted for something, Bagby said those who chose to run for most of the event would probably be at a disadvantage. ìYou have to think,î Bagby said, and it’s difficult to think about reading a map and compass at a run.îBagby hopes to keep this tradition alive and build on it. ìI’m planning to do this for consecutive years,î he said.For more information about orienteering and specifics on the Rocky Mountain Orienteering Club, visit http://rmoc.org/.
