Orienteer's safety

[Peter B]

Having heard in the local news of somebody getting beaten up in one of the local forests, it occured to me - how safe are we in the forest, especially at night?
Your thoughts please.

[chrisecurtis]

I feel much safer out on my own in the forest (day or night) than I ever do in any town centre. Aggressively drunk people (90%+ of violent crime) tend not to find their way out into good orienteering terrain and the rare and random anti-social psycopath who would attack you for fun could be anywhere anyway.
The real safety risk is dogs that chase and bite anything that moves, plus their owner's aggression when you defend yourself, as well as brambles, nettles, pointy branches, barbed wire and the usual risks. Carry a whistle in case it all gets too much!

[SJ]

I don't feel safe running alone in the commons near my home so I take every opportunity to go to local events even if they only have short/easy courses - feels a lot safer knowing that there are people running in (hopefully!) similar directions as me.

I guess there could still be psychos in the forest but I agree that town pikeys tend to be scarier than the usual dog-walker types found in orienteering areas

[mharky]

its cos you live in a crap country

[rocky]

yeah, mharkys safer when he's in the forest cos he's further from the ghetto!

[mharky]

thats a very good point actually, but we have only had one shooting this year which is quite good. although when i went swimming a few weeks ago there was some polive tape round the diving board and surrounding shallow aquatic area. there was nothing there the day before so i guessed someone quite stupid had dived off into 75cm and done themselvs over, or there had been some inter-block warfare and the bodies were dumped here, so swimming goes on as usual... but it turns out that someone had found a handgrenade there and they were waiting for a bomb disposal team to come and clear it up.... nice

i agree with the dogs. i hate dogs

i think farley mount, British Schools 97?, had a crazy guy on it at some point... i woudlnt want to do night training on my own there. Lords wood, in one of the worst pats of Southampton, is pretty bad aswell, yet the club still insists on having events there. new forest is fine, apart from bird watchers who steal your controls

[Kitch]

Dogs are great,
they are stupid but they do learn, if you treat 'em to some physical training

Good dog stories

a British Relays.
me; run, navigate, run etc...
doberman : 'bark, bark, bark'
owner: from some way off on a track ' Sparky, here Sparky '
me : boot (well actually 12mm spikes)
doberman : ' yeeoooww, yeeow, yeow'
owner: 'Sparky ???'


Steve Murdoch and Jon Musgrave running along the canal in edinburgh.
Alsation jumps for Steve
Steve punches dog out cold
Owner to Steve ' Er, excuse me...'
Steve: 'EFF OFF!'
Owner to Jon: 'Err, my dog...'
Jon: 'EFF OFF!'

The Crookes dog
This one lived in the farm/stables as you run from Crookes down into Rivelin. It used to come hurtling out of the garden barking like fury and snap round your heels - until.......
One day I took a large branch and when it appeared I just went for it weilding stick and screaming blue murder.
After that it just used to cower in the yard when I went past

you see dogs can be smart.

[Becks]

That's fine if you're a bit strong bloke...I've met Alsatians almost as big as me and it's scary!

Dogs are the only thing I've ever felt threatened by out in the forest, although I don't like night O' over here simply because there's never too many people running at the events. They also tend to be in crappy local parks that I don't feel safe in after dark.

But yeah, I like to think the psychos don't get as far into the wilds as we do, or if they do, that they'd be more surprised by us crashing through the undergrowth then we would be by them.

[SJ]

england's not crap

and dogs are cool

cept when they are scary and attack me/my wimpy greyhound

[FatBoy]

Dogs are great,
they are stupid but they do learn, if you treat 'em to some physical training

I remember one boxing day race in some park down souf somewhere that a little yappy thing quite fancied my ankles until it found out I was wearing spikes. It was by accident but I did think afterwards that it was either my ankles or him so sounds fair to me.

If anyone (dog owners) thinks this is unfair then simple message - if your dog's under control then it won't get hurt. simple.

As for big scary blokes in the forest - well that's enough about me....

[rocky]

can we keep the dog anecdotes to banter? thanks

[srollins]

Ever run on Wisley?
Just off M25 junction with A3 (nr Guildford) - about 6ish on a weekday evening - about the time for the SN training - men seem to gather in certain parts of the forest.....and rapid trouser pulling up has been witnessed on several occasions with sheepish looks all round....(actually no sheep involved although I'm sure they wouldn't say no)

[Becks]

Glad I didn't know that for my last risk assessment there!

[SJ]

I'm pretty sure I've run there - not at 6pm though - and I think I'm glad about that