- Joined
- Dec 11, 2006
- Messages
- 1,659
If you have ever hung out in the woods with me, or read my compass article on Woodsmonkey, you will know that I am a HUGE map and compass geek. I was for a long time, then went through a few years of GPS use, and after several negative experiences have been hardcore back into the simple ways of navigation.
What it all boils down to, is I love good maps. If you cover lots of ground, and go lots of places, buying USGS renditions of maps is expensive, quite a bit of work, and I find them cumbersome to use. These days, most land nav geeks I know are using software to print USGS topos out on 8.5" x 11" pieces of paper. I am no exception, and I keep them at the 7.5 minute scale.
My method was to have a "user" copy ready at hand. Sometimes it was in a case, sometimes not. They got beat up, folded, wrote on, and everything else. I also kept a "spare" and pristine copy in my pack, in a case.
Recently, I was checking out Rite in the Rain products, and found that they carry a lot more stuff than the yellow covered notebooks I saw and REI. LOTS more. One of those things was 8.5" x 11" copier/laserjet paper.
It is a bit on the pricey side, but for something as valuable as a map, and the amount of paper that I would actually go through on them, I had to give it a try for my topo maps.
I like to carry my maps folded in 1/4. It is a small size that I am actually willing to hold. At 7.5 minute scale, you can walk quite a distance on that much space. When I move off the page, I just fold again.
So, my first test was to fold over and over again on the same line. While you can not expect any map (including original USGS ones) to not deteriorate along that line, I at least wanted to make sure it was on par with normal paper. You see the wear line.
It seemed no better or no worse than regular paper.
Now on to some testing. I took two maps, one on RITR paper, and one on normal paper.
On each I wrote on them in pencil, space pen, and a permanent sharpie.
I did that both in the white space and the printed area.
First, I did a simple water pour. Pouring 1L of water of each and seeing what happened.
Close up of the RITR paper.
To Be Continued......
What it all boils down to, is I love good maps. If you cover lots of ground, and go lots of places, buying USGS renditions of maps is expensive, quite a bit of work, and I find them cumbersome to use. These days, most land nav geeks I know are using software to print USGS topos out on 8.5" x 11" pieces of paper. I am no exception, and I keep them at the 7.5 minute scale.
My method was to have a "user" copy ready at hand. Sometimes it was in a case, sometimes not. They got beat up, folded, wrote on, and everything else. I also kept a "spare" and pristine copy in my pack, in a case.
Recently, I was checking out Rite in the Rain products, and found that they carry a lot more stuff than the yellow covered notebooks I saw and REI. LOTS more. One of those things was 8.5" x 11" copier/laserjet paper.
It is a bit on the pricey side, but for something as valuable as a map, and the amount of paper that I would actually go through on them, I had to give it a try for my topo maps.
I like to carry my maps folded in 1/4. It is a small size that I am actually willing to hold. At 7.5 minute scale, you can walk quite a distance on that much space. When I move off the page, I just fold again.
So, my first test was to fold over and over again on the same line. While you can not expect any map (including original USGS ones) to not deteriorate along that line, I at least wanted to make sure it was on par with normal paper. You see the wear line.
It seemed no better or no worse than regular paper.
Now on to some testing. I took two maps, one on RITR paper, and one on normal paper.
On each I wrote on them in pencil, space pen, and a permanent sharpie.
I did that both in the white space and the printed area.
First, I did a simple water pour. Pouring 1L of water of each and seeing what happened.
Close up of the RITR paper.
To Be Continued......
