New Frontier In Mapping Out A Route Computer Software Allows You To Customize Maps For Your Adventure

FOR THE RECORD: May 31, 1999: Price wrong: The price for Maptech’s CD-ROM package of three CDs featuring topographic maps covering half of Washington is $229. The price was incorrect in a Sunday Outdoors story.

It happens often enough to qualify as a government plot.

Upon planning a backcountry trip, you walk into the map shop and learn the planned route courses through the corners of three or four topographic maps.

At more than $4 apiece, costs of multiple maps can cut into post-trip party funds, not to mention the inconvenience of having to match two or three maps together in the field to see where the next water stop might be.

Digital technology is on the verge of ending one of the great navigational aggravations in planning a hike, hunt, or climb, as well as bike or float trips.

CD-ROMS for home computers and industrial-grade software that’s becoming available at retail outlets are enabling consumers to use U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) accuracy to build their own maps.

Mountain Gear has just installed a state-of-the-art self-service Navitrak computer map-making system in its store at 2002 N. Division.

The store’s kiosk - only the third to be installed in the United States - allows customers to work at the user-friendly interface and customize a map for areas throughout most of Washington, northeastern Oregon, North Idaho and western Montana.

The system also allows map information to be downloaded from or uploaded into hand-held Global Positioning Systems (GPS).

By touching the screen and typing a location such as a town, river, peak or lake, the user can quickly locate the map area of interest. From that point, the USGS-based maps can be scrolled seamlessly in any direction.

The map size can be zoomed in to a scale of at least 1:12,000, twice the image size of a 7.5-minute USGS quadrangle map. The image also can be zoomed out to 1:500,000.

The system’s weakness is the same as the downfall of CD-ROM software consumers can purchase for home use: the printer.

Mountain Gear’s printer delivers a 10-by-15 inch image at 300 dots per inch (dpi) compared with the 16-by-22 inch, high-resolution image on a USGS quad.

Elevations on lakes, for example, can be difficult to read at 300 dpi.

The beauty of a map isn’t just to indicate a route, but also to show the surrounding drainages, peaks and ridges. A larger map gives a backcountry traveler more to work with.

Moreover, the ink on computer printers smears when wet, requiring maps to be laminated or kept meticulously protected in zipper-type plastic bags.

These computer-generated maps are not up to rendering the classic USGS quad as obsolete. But they have their virtues.

A custom map from Mountain Gear costs $10, compared with $4 for a USGS quad. Money is saved if the custom map replaces three or more quads needed for a single trip.

In some cases, the personal features one can add to a map might justify the extra cost.

The custom maps can be renamed and adorned with icons, notes, routes, waypoints and other details.

Every map built at Mountain Gear will be stored in an online database by number, allowing friends to share their routes.

Mountain Gear employees also plan to organize trip reports staff and customers would like to share with the public.

At the touch of a button, customers can overlay a grid on any map they create to make it compatible with GPS.

After consumer testing, Navitrak bagged the original mouse and keyboard for a touch-screen interface to simplify the map making, said Michelle MacDonald, Navitrak spokeswoman.

Users still will need a little coaching and practice to understand the potential and a few little quirks.

“But this saves a lot of time and expense for people who don’t want to buy their own CD-ROMs and learn how to use the software at home,” MacDonald said.

Steve Mitrovich, owner of Northwest Map and Travel Center at 525 W. Sprague, has mixed feelings about the new computer map systems.

He sells CD-ROM map sets by two companies.

“I see them mostly as toys for hikers, primarily because of the printing,” he said. “A standard map is still a better bargain for quality and readability.”

So far, he said, the best applications tend to be for professionals such as surveyors, developers and farmers, who can highlight areas and get all sorts of information, including distances, elevation and line-of-sight profiles and acreage.

CD-ROM systems designed for home use, such as Maptech’s Terrain Navigator, offer far more of these bells and whistles than the Navitrak system at Mountain Gear.

Maptech, which is a bit more refined than a competing product called Topo, allows a route to be drawn on a USGS map. A click on a button projects and elevation profile graphic with reasonably accurate information on distance, elevation gain and loss, coordinates and more.

“The altitude profile feature gives a climber or hunter a sense of how steep the route is going to be,” said Martin Fox, Maptech spokesman in New Hampshire.

Maps customized with Maptech software can be printed or sent to friends via e-mail.

Maptech beats Navitrak for flexibility in drawing routes and adding colors or type.

The software has an extensive place names database, that searches for locations by geographic feature, keywords, even zip code.

All the maps are geo-referenced with coordinates in latitude and longitude, UTM or MGRS. These can be directly loaded to your GPS (or laptop computer) and bookmarked for instant retrieval.

Need a printout larger or of better quality than you can produce on your home printer?

Copy the map file to a disc and take it to Kinko’s, which has the equipment to print photo-quality on map paper for $8 a square foot or on weatherproof vinyl for $15 a square foot.

The current versions of home CD-ROM systems such as Maptech have the advantage of showing the entire map page, which includes the year the map was last updated by USGS.

On the Navitrak system, users have no idea whether they are working with a map revised in the ‘90s-or a 1965 relic that USGS has not updated.

Currently, Maptech’s disadvantage to Navitrak is coverage.

Navitrak covers North Idaho and the wilderness of Western Montana.

In the Northwest, Maptech covers only the states of Oregon and Washington. Maptech has not yet produced CDs for Idaho and Montana, except for special packages covering national parks such as Glacier and Yellowstone.

The systems save storage space. A single CD can hold up to 300 quadrangle maps. All of Washington is covered in six CDs, which can be purchased individually for $100.

Either Western Washington or Eastern Washington sells for $300. A set covering the entire state costs $460.

National Parks CD packages cost $30. Regional packages covering all parks in Alaska or southern Utah, cost $70.

Map users still have to weigh these costs with the benefits of buying the old standby USGS maps.

But there’s no doubt that come winter, when the nights are longer, many people will find pleasure in sitting at their desks to define a path and let their computers calculate the distance, bearings, and elevations of the next adventure.

NEW MAPS Gazetteer update The popular DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer, which debuted in 1976 with a version for Maine, now has a topo map publication for each of the 50 states. Updated editions released last year for Washington and Idaho include shaded relief. The Washington booklet has GPS grids. The publications cost about $17 and are available at map shops and sporting goods stores. Info: (800) 452-5931.

Mount Spokane A new trails map for Mount Spokane State Park has been produced by the Inland Empire Chapter of Backcountry Horsemen. The map indicates trails for skiing, snowmobiling, hiking, biking and horse riding. Many of these routes are not shown on USGS maps. The colored map is available in area shops for $4.75-$7.50.