Steve attends an orienteering meet organized by the Bay Area Orienteering Club at California's China Camp State Park. Long-time club member Terri Ferrah explains the e-punch system used to track progress on an orienteering course. Tyler Atherton and his fellow Boy Scouts take off on a beginner (white-level) course. We hear from Mikkel Conradi, who designed the course and the map using O-CAD software. Erin Majors from Roseville, California, and Dana Koontz from Larkspur, California, talk about their experiences orienteering. Gary Kraght, a past president of the United States Orienteering Federation, sums up orienteering's wide appeal.

If you really want to master map and compass navigation in the wilderness, then orienteering is one of the best ways to learn. You can find a local club through the United States Orienteering Federation.

WildeBeat members can download a compete recording of Scott's 12-minute beginner's clinic from our WildeBeat Insider web pages.

• Edition number 153 [MP3 format; length 10:33; 2,385,571 bytes]

Steve attends an orienteering meet organized by the Bay Area Orienteering Club at California's China Camp State Park. Gary Kraght, the vice president for club services of the United States Orienteering Federation explains what orienteering is, and its history. Scott Aster presents a beginner's clinic for first-time orienteers.

Next time, in part 2, we'll listen-in on the experience of orienteering.

WildeBeat members can download a compete recording of Scott's 12-minute beginner's clinic from our WildeBeat Insider web pages.

• Show number 152 [MP3 format; length 10:41; 2,566,756 bytes]

Volunteers Rick Allnutt, Christopher Nicolai, and Ken Bigelow report on the most interesting gear they hope to test for BackpackGearTest.ORG. They comment on products by:

If you're interested in reviewing for Backpack Gear Test (BGT), read: How to become a tester. Manufacturers provide more gear than the volunteers at BGT can keep up with. By becoming a tester, you can help your fellow wilderness travelers find out what gear will work for them.

WildeBeat Members can download the entire reports from the BGT testers from our WildeBeat Insider web pages.

• Edition 151 [MP3 format; length 9:55; 2,384,412 bytes]

Naturalist Dino Labiste talks about the three methods prehistoric humans used to make fire. He demonstrates creating fire by friction using a hand drill. He talks about two other methods, fire by percussion, and fire by compression. He explains what would be the best of these techniques for you to use if you had no modern choices.

The Primitive Ways website has many articles on primitive fire skills. Another source of information on primitive skills is the Society of Primitive Technologies.

WildeBeat Members can download a recording of Dino Labiste's complete firemaking demonstration from our WildeBeat Insider web pages.

• Show number 150 [MP3 format; length 10:26; 2,506,773 bytes]

Steve recorded J.D. Tanner and Emily Ressler giving their regular presentation of the third principle of Leave No Trace, Dispose of Waste Properly. This is an important skill that most people get, but fewer people seem to get right.

Emily and J.D., along with the other Leave No Trace traveling trainers, maintain the Traveling Trainers Blog.

• Show number 149 [MP3 format; length 9:51; 2,368,637 bytes]

Our assistant producer Kate Taylor reports on her visit to the annual field recording workshop of the Nature Sounds Society. She tells her story with the help of:

• Alton Byrd, a nature sounds hobbyist from Berkeley, California.

You can get tips from Dan Dugan on recording nature sounds by listening to our edition number 90, Listening to Parks.

WildeBeat Members can download an extended interview with Martyn Stewart and additional extended wild sound recordings from WildeBeat Insider web pages.

• Show number 148 [MP3 format; length 10:33; 2,356,042 bytes]

Our assistant producer Kate Taylor reports on her visit to the annual field recording workshop of the Nature Sounds Society. She tells her story with the help of:

• Dan Dugan, technical advisor to the Nature Sounds Society.

Next week, in part two, we'll hear more nature sounds, and find out why it's important to our guests to record and preserve them.

You can get tips from Dan Dugan on recording nature sounds by listening to our edition number 90, Listening to Parks.

• Show number 147 [MP3 format; length 9:48; 2,356,947 bytes]

Naturalist Dino Labiste explains and demonstrates the fundamental skill of fire building. Our ancestors depended on fire as a basic survival tool as far back as a million years ago, and yet today, among many people it's becoming a lost art.

Ben Lawhon, the education director for the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics talks about minimum impact skills for making and using fires. The fifth Leave No Trace principle is Minimize Campfire Impacts.

The Primitive Ways website has many articles on primitive fire skills. Another source of information on primitive skills in the Society of Primitive Technologies.

• Show number 146 [MP3 format; length 9:55; 2,383,583 bytes]

J.D. Tanner and Emily Ressler talk about the gear you can bring along to make it easier to Leave No Trace. They talk about shoes and shelter, bags and trowels, cameras and sketch pads, lights and blankets, cans and binoculars, and radios and headphones. All of this gear, and more, can help you leave the wild places you visit as good or better than you found them.

Specifically, Emily mentions Restop, WAG bags, and poop tubes. J.D. mentions bear cans, which we discussed in detail in our previous edition, Bear Cans Revisited.

We'll hear more from Emily Ressler and J.D. Tanner in a future edition. The series will continue several weeks from now when J.D and Emily explain more details about a specific Leave No Trace principle.

• Show number 145 [MP3 format; length 9:47; 2,352,439 bytes]

Steve tells the story with the help of:

• Harold Werner, a wildlife biologist from Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park.

Harold Werner and Calder Reid are members of the Sierra Interagency Black Bear Group (SIBBG), the standards-setting body for bear management in the major Sierra Nevada wilderness areas. Their group also performs the tests that lead to the approval of canisters for use in Yosemite National Park, Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park, and the Inyo National Forest. Several other jurisdictions also require canisters from the SIBBG approved list.

This edition was originally presented on August 31, 2006.

Photo credit: Calder Reid, Inyo National Forest

• Show number 144 [MP3 format; length 10:50; 2,603,437 bytes]