I recently took a small group of designers on a backpacking trip; we did the Pawnee-Buchanan Pass loop in Indian Peaks.
To commemorate the experience, and to offer a souvenir to those who came, we made a map of our route.
We printed them on versa fabric, which is very durable while offering the level of detail required to print the fine topo lines, etc.
http://www.neschenamericas.com/websites/sealbrands/neschen.nsf/htmlalias/versafabric
This is more a piece of art than a functional map, but it was made with great attention to detail. In fact, my friend documented some of the pain he went through to create it, for anyone who wants to do something similar.
http://paste.roguecoders.com/p/0e51d8b017a7a8513f77eaecc04e92da.txt
We love to obsess over details. :-)
Since the trip, we’ve been thinking about making some really well-designed maps that offer only the information you need and nothing you don’t for specific routes (other examples could include the Beaten Path in Montana, The Four-Pass Loop in Maroon Bells, etc.). The idea would be that these could serve as useful maps while you’re actually on the trip, but they would be as beautiful as they are functional.
Other details we’re investigating:
1. Tyvek rather than Versa fabric, because it’s lightweight, waterproof, tear-resistant, and most importantly, foldable.
2. The Miura fold, which is how all maps should be folded, in my opinion.
3. Different high-contrast color combinations to aid readability.
My question for the BPL community is what vital information do you think is missing from our map?
An obvious example is declination, but there may be other things you would miss if you had nothing but the map we made.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions. I’ll leave you with a photo of our first prototype, taken in the morning sun on our last day.
