Trail Kids Run & Orienteering

Wirth Pavillion Hill, Minneapolis MN

Tuesday, May 6th, 2025

🏃‍♂️ Overview

The Run & Orienteering program is part of the Loppet Foundation’s Trail Kids year-round programming.

🌲 Trail Running Experience

Participants ages 7-13 will enjoy trail running on the single track and ski trails around Theodore Wirth Park as they are coached in the basics of orienteering skills. The program will also incorporate ultimate frisbee, slackline skills, and other running games as warm-up activities for the main session which is focused on trail running and orienteering.

🏋️‍♀️ Practice Activities

Agility and strength: exercises to develop age appropriate motor skills
Balance work: with the slack line
Orienteering skills: using orienteering maps to find hidden controls in the woods like a treasure hunt
Adventure Trail Race: offers a trail race in the woods of Theodore Wirth Park and surrounding areas
Games: relays, ultimate frisbee, and soccer mixed in throughout the sessions

👟 Gear Requirements

Participants will need a good pair of running shoes and water bottle for each session.

🏅 Ability Levels

When you register you can indicate the appropriate orienteering ability levels listed below.

White Level: Beginner with no experience in orienteering
Green Level: Beginner to intermediate orienteering skills: Participant has participated in at least one or two 6-week sessions of the Trail Kids orienteering program.
Blue Level: Intermediate to advanced orienteering skills. Participant has participated in at least three to four 6-week orienteering sessions.
Black Level: Advanced orienteering skills with two plus years of orienteering experience and a desire to be challenged and compete at local MNOC meet events.

🎽 Swag

Trail Kids T-shirt and water bottle for all participants available at no additional cost. In an effort to reduce waste, TK Swag is now listed as an optional “add-on” during your registration. If you’d like your participant to receive this swag please ensure it is selected.

👫 Friend Requests

For safety and equity reasons, Trail Kids does not offer friend requests as part of registration. The mass quantity of friend requests made it impossible to accommodate them all and greatly impacted safety and group dynamics. We encourage riders to embrace the opportunity to form new friendships through our programs!

🏁 Adventure Trail Race

Participants will get a chance to partake in one of the adventure trail races that are offered as part of our Trail Kids program. There will be one race scheduled for each of the three sessions scheduled during a normally scheduled practice. Participants will race with their teams at different start times throughout the evening and continue practicing with their team before and after their race wave.