SunCatcher wrote on Dec 30^th, 2010 at 7:07pm:


Cool .

mastertangler wrote on Dec 29^th, 2010 at 8:07pm:


I would like larger print for failing eyes.  I am getting older and the smaller print and stuff on the park map is not the great.  So I blew em up to my liking.

Someday, maybe I will get the personal map making figured out like dd or some of you and will fix the problem that way?
Thanks for all your help and Happy New Year!
SunCatcher

mt and db,
I did have the topo's along with me.  Never looked at em, didn't need em.  Had GPS, Topo's, Regular Park Map, Compass, and my OWN Blown up maps.  The blown up ones and GPS is all I used.  90% of time just Blown up Maps.  I was by myself, first solo ever, and it worked peachy.
SunCatcher

SunCatcher wrote on Dec 29^th, 2010 at 7:51pm:


Careful ... I do that too. First time I used the blowup to actually travel by was a real short distance and I was like a mile past the portage I was aiming at before I realized I'd not changed the scale in my brain. I was like WAY past it.

Suncatcher

I can't imagine being in that country and not having topo maps. I suppose a man could get around with the park map blown up but it seems to me a good topo would be best. I am curious as to why you prefer an enlarged version of the park map?

I took the WCPP Park Map into Office Max, blew them up in Color, of the area's I wanted to travel.  I used these and took the Big Park Map as a backup.  I put them in my CCS Thwart Bag/Map Case and it worked peachy.  I need to spend a week with DD to get the low down on map making.  Coming to Nebraska anytime soon Wayne?  (hehe)
I wish the Park would develop a set of smaller maps with "segments" of the park.  That were bigger and easier to see.  Oh well.
SunCatcher

have been using color maps downloaded from MNR sites for years. printed 8.5x11 on regular laser paper and carried in a wp map case, or laminated back-to-back and carried in a non wp case. i've used these maps on trips to the near north parks including WC and the Albany River this past season. add whatever detail you want in paint or powerpoint, change the zoom, etc., easy and free.

another method for custom trip maps is to buy the topo cd and print out your route on 8.5x11. the cd is a digital scan of the paper maps you would buy, exactly the same, except you just print what you need.

usually i'll take both, it gives you a backup set of maps, and the plain paper is a write on set for trip notes.

Thanks for the "vote of confidence" guys!

The maps that Jim and Darrel mention above are illustrated in my first few posts in this thread.  Yes.  After I looked at what maps of WCPP you buy from a commercial source, I decided to put a little "skin in the game" and make my own.  I wasn't overly confident in some of the material until I looked at a set of marked-up commercial maps from a local outfitter.  Most all of the information I had matched up nicely to what the outfitter provided.  The additional advantages for me were (1) to only carry paper maps for the area actually planned to visit (we had a couple of commercial maps where we needed less than 10% of the material present), (2) condensed more by printing on both sides of the paper and (3) printing on waterproof paper (I have a personal printer that will handle stock up to 13 X 19 inch ... perfect size, folded, for my map case).

(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) is a sample of where I was a few weeks back with my "new" approach.  

Everything you see (I mean EVERYTHING) is produced by an independent layer ... don't want the yellow vegetation ... you can turn it off ... you don't like the yellow color ... change it to something else from an extensive color palette.

Legend of some of the less obvious elements on this map (again, you don't like the size/shape/color ... you can change these to suite your fancy)

continuous dashed brown line: canoe route...portage when they cross land (non-continuous lines, not shown here, are winter/snowmobile trails)
small brown squares:  cabins (yes there are a few privately owned cabins within the park)
black crosses (on water):  these are referred to has "hazard to navigation"; translation ... reef/rock outcrop
short red line: rapids
red dots: waterfalls (I've since change these to red triangles to more easily differentiate between rapids and waterfalls)
black number above a small black dot: point elevations

Of course, you have the obvious ... gray contour lines, light blue lakes, darker blue steams and so on (in addition to which there are a variety of other data layers that don't appear on this map selection, e.g., roads).

dd

I will concur with Jimbo. Wayne's maps were far more useful and user friendly than the Canadian topos supplied by our outfitter. Scale, color coding and select details were well researched and allowed my group to travel with confidence in the areas mapped out by Wayne.
I eagerly await any further developments DD has to offer. Sincere thanks for the effort so far.

Darrel

DD,

My only comment is that the web-based maps YOU produced for our WCP trip last year were every bit as good content-wise as the much more expensive outfitter-annotated variety.  The scalability factor also allowed you to create maps in very useful sizes.  Your maps not only offered greater definition of features than the regular park maps (due to the colors you added) but they were produce on high-quality waterproof paper AND they were reversible (ie. you flip it over & there was another park section mapped out on the other side, maximizing usable space)!  Your stuff was BY FAR more user-friendly than any existing alternative for canoeists who are trying to figure out where they are headed in a driving rain storm on choppy seas!

Wayne, I think you have a promising 2nd career ahead of you as a cartographer after you retire next year!!

Jimbo