Sisters of the Compass

In an age of GPS systems and personal satellite navigation, Dedham High School graduates Hillary and Samantha Saeger have used a compass and a map of the woods to take them around the world.

The sisters, who have tested themselves in the forests of four continents, will travel to Kiev in the Ukraine next month to represent the United States in the 2007 World Orienteering Championships.

The five men and five women on the American team are underdogs in the tournament, but in orienteering, the journey really is as important as the destination.

"It's a competition, but I wouldn't say we're doing it for the glory," said Samantha Saeger. "The best part is the people. There isn't a lot of money involved."

Orienteering combines cross-country running and navigation skills in races over rivers, through woods and, hopefully, back to civilization.

Competitors enter a wilderness area and, using only a map and a compass, search for a series of "controls," colored markers hung in locations throughout the area. The person who finds all the controls in the fastest time wins.

For the Saegers, orienteering is a family affair. The sister's parents were introduced to the sport by friends a few years before the girls were born and made it a part of family vacations.

Samantha, 24, an assistant teacher in the Needham public schools, was the first to get involved competitively.

"Before I started competing internationally, after my junior year of high school, I was running track," Samantha said. "People say you get bored running on roads or tracks, but in orienteering everything is always new. Finding where you are going makes the time pass really quickly."

Hillary, 22, who graduated this year from Marist College in New York with a degree in mathematics, got involved soon after.

"I am a competitive person and it motivates me to stay in shape," Hillary Saeger said. "Having someone else to train with definitely makes it better."

Both sisters competed in last year's world championship in Denmark and qualified for the finals in the "sprint" distance, the shortest of three disciplines.

Samantha finished 29th and Hillary 42nd, strong showings for Americans.

The sport of orienteering was developed in Scandinavia, where it is sometimes done on cross-country skis, and it is more popular in Europe than in the United States.

"In Europe it is huge. In Sweden they teach orienteering to kids in schools," Samantha Saeger said. "The U.S. does not do that well. If we make the final it's an accomplishment."

In addition to Denmark, the sisters have visited Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Poland, Australia, Estonia and Japan for orienteering events.

Jeffrey Saeger, the sister's father, said while some parents may be nervous about sending their children out into the woods alone, he thinks more kids could benefit from skills developed orienteering.

"From my point of view, this is a good spot for them to build self-confidence," Jeffrey Saeger said. "The other thing is that sometimes in orienteering you do get lost and you learn how to get out of it."

Samantha and Hillary said as far as they knew no one has ever died or been seriously injured orienteering. Twisted ankles are common and occasionally there is an encounter with wildlife, but nothing too dangerous.

"When we talk about getting lost, it means we were off course and couldn't find the control," Samantha said. "Sometimes inexperienced people wander off the map and don't know where they are, but each course has a direction where if you keep on going you'll get to something eventually."

Daily News staff writer Patrick Anderson can be reached at 781-433-8336 or panderso@cnc.com.