Anyone who rides an MTB and wants to get better at reading maps, I can only recommend finding a local MTB-O group and joining them for training sessions. It helps if the area the map covers you are familiar with at least a little bit, after the session your familiarity will increase 200% (and I've been going to these MTB-O trainings for years, mainly to the same places, and still discover new trails and unknown areas!).
The basic idea of MTB-O is that you need to find points from a known starting position on a blind map. Rules are simple: you must follow existing trails, you shouldn't just cross terrain (like you would in the classic running version of orienteering). After a few sessions you will start understanding the importance of isohypses (elevation lines), because there can be significant differences in difficulty of routes, depending on your route choice. You decide your own route, then navigate, easier said than done while your heartrate is >170bpm :)
You start at the triangle, then usually go in sequence of the numbering of purple circles. Black lines are the trails, dotted means worse quality / smaller, straight line means wider, brown is paved / street.
Try connecting two purple circles purely by following the black trails, there are usually multiple reasonable options, but be vary of the difference in elevation! It is really fun doing it purely in your head, even better if you know the terrain, you can close your eyes and do an imaginery run!
The basic idea of MTB-O is that you need to find points from a known starting position on a blind map. Rules are simple: you must follow existing trails, you shouldn't just cross terrain (like you would in the classic running version of orienteering). After a few sessions you will start understanding the importance of isohypses (elevation lines), because there can be significant differences in difficulty of routes, depending on your route choice. You decide your own route, then navigate, easier said than done while your heartrate is >170bpm :)
Here is a recent example of such a map, I hope it can be accesssed openly: http://astrois.hu/mtbo/2023/cstsz2023-palyak11.Hosszu.gif
You start at the triangle, then usually go in sequence of the numbering of purple circles. Black lines are the trails, dotted means worse quality / smaller, straight line means wider, brown is paved / street.
Try connecting two purple circles purely by following the black trails, there are usually multiple reasonable options, but be vary of the difference in elevation! It is really fun doing it purely in your head, even better if you know the terrain, you can close your eyes and do an imaginery run!