Smiltene Rogaining Adds Hike and Mini-Rogaining for City Festival
For the second year, Smiltene's city festival on July 18 features a rogaining event, this time including a time-free hike and a one-hour mini-rogaining.
The Smiltene city festival, under the slogan “Salido Smiltenē!”, will take place from July 16 to 19, with the main day on Saturday, July 18. On that morning, the Smiltene Rogaining will begin – a team orienteering competition that is part of the festival for the second consecutive year.
Rogaining is a sport where teams of two to five members search for control points in any order, aiming to collect as many points as possible within a set time. Standard control times are four or six hours, but this year organizers are introducing two new options: a hike with no time limit and a mini-rogaining with a one-hour control time.
Organizer Artūrs Pauliņš explained that these additions are meant to attract people who want to be active but are intimidated by longer distances. The hike allows participants to spend anywhere from 20 minutes to six hours outdoors, without competitive pressure or result comparisons. In the mini-rogaining, participants can start between 11:00 and 15:00 and must find control points within one hour, losing two points for each minute over the limit.
Officially, the Smiltene Rogaining is the fourth stage of the Forest Rogaining Cup organized by the society “AP89”, but it is also possible to participate only in this stage. Teams must register online by July 15 at rogaining.lv. However, the hike and mini-rogaining allow on-site registration on the day of the event.
The start on July 18 is at 11:00 near Jāņukalns, by the Baptist church, with registration and map distribution starting at 10:00. The map covers Smiltene city and its surroundings – Launkalne and Bilskas parishes, Niedrājs forests, areas up to the intersection of the Vidzeme highway and the Smiltene–Gulbene road, and the Cērtenes hillfort area. Control points will also be placed within the city, in its most scenic spots.
Hike participants receive the same maps and control point lists but can freely choose their route, pace, and duration. Among finishers of the hike, ten prizes will be drawn.
