In Praise of the Paper Map

[Kane]

I spent my high school years doing high Sierra backpacking in California with friends, going off trail and traversing passes and glaciers — when there were still glaciers up there 😢 — all around Mt. Banner, Mt. Lyell, Mt.Ritter, et al. This was done with USGS topo maps and a compass. It is really great to have an analog in a topographical drawing to look at the land to see things with added dimension. As a youth I spent many happy hours leafing through the map drawers at the USGS office in Menlo Park, CA. Probably about my favorite place to be, second to the library. I like paper road maps. I have AAA maps, Benchmark maps, and some of the Butler motorcycle maps. I also like reading about routes and looking at them on maps. Then I can use my phone’s map app to make a crude distance and arrow chart to put in the tank bag window.

Call me an ignorant Luddite or a romantic curmudgeon, but I like not-too-much information, particularly when going off on a road trip. The great thing about a paper map is that the next leg of the journey may only be three inches…..of what? Let’s find out. The older that I have gotten the more I have grown to dislike and resent digital technology and devices. I have a real love/hate relationship with my phone because I have adapted it into so much of my life and so much depends on this tool to interact with and accomplish things, yet it and its ilk draw me away from the real things in the world that I could, and did, engage with. I am to blame for letting myself succumb to the digital malaise that I see and feel in my life. I know better. But I have gone back to writing on typewriters outside of work. It slows you down and is a nice visceral and physical experience in making a text. I am old enough to remember the good old days before computers, when there were plenty of pay phones and public drinking fountains around and everyone did fine. I have always had an analog aesthetic for things, whether audio, visual, or mechanical. And while I am glad to have a bike like my V11 with FI and a good ECU, I am turned off to TBW, different ride modes, etc., on bikes. I understand having ABS and traction control as a safety feature, but I have never had those things on a bike and have never felt the need for them. I am currently looking for a touring bike, and I am leaning toward a Stelvio NTX (it does have ABS and traction control! 😬) rather than a V85TT, partly because it is not TBW and is more old tech.

When I throw a leg over a bike and ride away, one of the things I am riding away from is all of the crap of the modern world. All I want to look at is the road. All I want to hear is the bike and the road, although I ride with earplugs to dampen the wind noise. A mileage and arrow chart in the tank bag window and a trip meter or odometer have been enough to get me down the road, as well as keep me from running out of gas. If I need more info I’ll pull off the road, have a smoke and look at a map. I am sure I am ignorant, and probably part or full-blood idiot, but that’s how I like to go. Use maps! They give you something to mull over and mark up while you’re taking a break and having having a cup of coffee, and they will become old and creased. 

[gstallons]

Amen brother !

[guzzler]

Couldn't agree more mate.....!

Ha ha I have an ANCIENT mobile phone and it's hardly ever used much to the  er amusement of friends and family.

I only carry it on the bike for an emergency and to let the wife know I'm ok when out and about on it.

Cheers Guzzler

Ps I also love looking at maps re-living past trips and planning new ones, ha ha definitely an Analogue bloke in a  Digital world

[Scud]

+1 on paper maps. This picture was the start of a great adventure. San Diego, CA to central Utah primarily on twisty two-lane roads. One sheet per gas stop. Just rotate in the tank bag window. I had another set for the way home.

 

And here is Capitol Reef, the last point on the map in this picture.

 

And I'll tell you my favorite paper map story...

I'm on a 450 KTM doing a solo loop from Sedona AZ to Flagstaff and back. I get my trusty Federal Motor Vehicle Use Map from the ranger station and plan my loop. On the way back South I'm getting a little concerned about time so I'm moving quick and I get flagged by a ranger. He tells me I'm not allowed to continue on my motorcycle and that I need to turn around. This a HUGE time-sucking detour if I do it. I pull out my Motor Vehicle Use Map. I point to a spot on the map and ask, "Are we here?"  He says "Yeah, I guess that road is open now, but only to motorcycles, go ahead."  I make it back before dark. PAPER MAPS RULE.

Now I confess, I also had a GPS mounted on the handlebars at the time and I was following the line I had laid down (based on the MVUM). On a sidenote, a "breadcrumb" GPS track can save your ass if you are off in the woods alone and get confused.