The Orienteering Course or Orienteering Trail at Stone Mountain is a permanent orienteering course in the woods on the south side of the mountain. The course is 1633 meters (5358 feet) in length. It starts behind the chimney of an old homestead along the Cherokee Trail 79 meters (260 feet) south of the railroad tracks along the trail, at 33°48'14.36"N 84°9'22.15"W, and ends where the Cherokee Trail crosses Stonewall Jackson Drive at 33°47'52.84"N 84°9'4.38"W.

Orienteering course map

There are 23 marked stations. The course has vertical pipe markers which are under knee high and about two inches in diameter. The first four markers are green and the remainder are white. Each marker has the marker number and the distance and bearing to the next marker painted on it.

Unfortunately, many of the distances and bearings are not as advertised. While the inaccurate distances are not a major problem, the incorrect bearings can make following the course very difficult. The following chart shows the indicated and actual values as measured. We have walked the orienteering course a total of six times while carrying a GPS receiver. During these hikes we have averaged the location of the markers and mapped them. Similarly, the 100-foot marker is actually located 108 feet from station 1 (and is 8 feet south of the line from station 1 to station 2).

Station	Bearing		Distance
	Stated	Actual	Stated	Actual
1-2	292°	285°	440’	327'
2-3	270°	271°	286’	383'
3-4	219°	215°	255’	296'
4-5	180°	175°	345’	349'
5-6	81°	82°	225’	189'
6-7	157°	154°	286’	281'
7-8	164°	159°	281’	277'
8-9	84°	79°	300’	270'
9-10	175°	167°	322’	314'
10-11	130°	130°	292’	256'
11-12	147°	139°	200’	205'
12-13	223°	220°	110’	94'
13-14	150°	138°	155’	101'
14-15	125°	129°	340’	323'
15-16	150°	136°	175’	154'
16-17	130°	124°	249’	247'
17-18	126°	120°	171’	169'
18-19	108°	101°	245’	232'
19-20	200°	195°	322’	312'
20-21	46°	48°	192’	165'
21-22	42°	51°	165’	164'
22-23	42°	36°	248’	254'

In the following station photographs you will see my GPS receiver atop each marker. Every time we hike the orienteering course, we measure the position of each marker so they can be averaged. Hiking the orienteering course in the winter increases GPS accuracy since there are fewer leaves blocking and reflecting the satellite signals.