Map Frustration

[anne_77]

For the life of me I cannot find a map of my county. I have tried gas stations, Walmart, and the internet. I even tried the state's website. There are plenty of maps of the Phila, Lehigh Valley, Harrisburg metropolitan, and Pittsburg areas - even some of Centre County (Penn State) - but none of all the other counties. I knonw I can get a map of the state but that doesn't show the country roads I ride on. Does anyone else have this problem? Any suggestions?

I tried driving my route ahead of time today because I wanted to go farther than usual. That worked fine until I took a wrong turn and went 6 miles in the wrong direction! When I finally came across another soul she was kind enough to point me home.

[Veronica]

Have you tried Google Maps?

V.

[anne_77]

Can I print out a big map of the area without a destination?

[SadieKate]

What about USGS, US Forest Service, topozone, AAA?

[DeniseGoldberg]

Another option out there is http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/. This site uses Google maps but allows you to click on the maps to build a route. It will give you the total distance for your route in either miles or kilometers, plus it has an option to print the map.

There is also mapping software that you can purchase (if you want to buy software and you're looking for routes in the US, you might want to look at products from DeLorme (http://www.delorme.com/)) - but it's probably worth starting with the (free) web sites first.

It's really too bad that there aren't more publishers like Rubel BikeMaps (http://www.bikemaps.com/) out there - they publish cycling maps of Massachusetts, and according to their web site they are working on a map of Connecticut. Unfortunately neither of those options will help you in Pennslyvania!

--- Denise

[anne_77]

Thank you for the suggestions. I was just so frustrated after I got back today I had to vent. I'll give your ideas a shot.

[makbike]

Does your community have a chamber of commerce? If so, check with them for they often provided free maps of the community they serve.

Hope this helps.

[TrekJeni]

When I first moved here to Cincinnati, I carried one of those mini yellow pages around with me. It had maps (even shong my 1000' dead end road) in it at the back.

Good luck

BTW, have tried the pedmeter map thing. I love it!

[kmoty]

Anne-77, what is your county? Most areas anywhere near major cities have published atlases; most non-urban areas will have United States Geological Survey Maps. Natinoal Geographic has a neat online tool called MapMachine that allows you to drill down to the street and trail level, but it might not give you the overview you want without a lot of "mosaic" cut and paste
(http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/index.html?&themeId=103&ext=-76.833202,40.581429,-76.816539,40.592279&size=s&maplayers=Roads%20and%20Railroads%3A%3AT%7E%7EPlaces%3A%3AT%7E%7EPolitical%20Boundaries%3A%3AT&poilayers=Country%20Profile%3A%3AF). Your best bet is either your local chamber of commerce, as per Makbike, or, if your local library has a reference librarian, s/he should be able to help. If you have a very small local library, try the closest college or university library. Bet they'd be willing to help. Good luck, and let us know what you find.

[anne_77]

Ok - I know this sounds crazy. I mean, who lives in an area that doesn't have maps? Surely EMS workers, construction workers, etc must need maps. And everyone I ask seems to think it's perfectly normal - none of them has ever seen a map of this area.

I'm in grad school - a branch of a major university - and they don't even have maps to give to new students. There are some maps my town hands out, but they're just of downtown (which takes about 2 minutes to cross on bike). I checked out my yellow pages - insanely they have a map of about 20 counties! Basically everything between philadelphia and pittsburgh. I'm too far outside Harrisburg for anything to show up on Metropolitan Harrisburg maps. I checked out the United States Geological Survey site and their "maps on demand" is saying there are no maps currently available for Pennsylvania. I checked out the pedometer website and it's saying "there are no maps available for this region" when I choose Pennsylvania. Do you think this is a conspiracy on the part of the state of Pennsylvania? Are they hording map data?

Yesterday, when I got lost, I called one of my friends. I knew I was on the right road but couldn't figure out if I was going in the right direction. She had to look at a map of the entire state and couldn't find any of the towns I had passed through on it!

I will continue to search but really this does not make sense. I'll keep you posted. I know I can order a custom map from RandalMcNally for $99 but that's alot of money! And who knows - maybe they'll refuse to map my county too!

I'm starting to wonder if there's some high-security site around here.

[Bluemsmanager]

Try you local county seat offices or a cooperative extension office for your county. I got my McKean County, PA map from the 4-H group from that county.

[kmoty]

You're right, it seems weird. Maps.com's (http://www.maps.com/) PA page had a "coming soon" message(!). You're lucky, though. Since you're at a university branch, the librarians should be able to help if there's anything out there. If there's no library at your branch location, contact the primary university library. Ask to talk to a reference librarian, and explain your dilemma. You've got a 95% chance the librarian will take it as a personal challenge. If so, you'll either get a usable map or you'll know for sure there's none to be found.

The library can borrow things on interlibrary loan, and you can photocopy from them. Let me know how you make out, individually if you don't want to say more about your location publicly. It might become my personal challenge ;), but try a librarian first--it's what they're trained for and love to do.

Karen

[DeniseGoldberg]

It might be worth a call or email to the Bicycle & Pedestrian Program Manager for Pennsylvania. Maybe he or she can steer you in the right direction to find some useful maps.

Here's a page that lists the bike coordinators in the US by state: http://www.bikewalk.org/contacts_links/state_bikeped_coord.htm.

Also - I mentioned DeLorme yesterday in the context of mapping software. They also sell what they call their Atlas & Gazeteer for each state. The books are $19.95, and contain detailed maps. I didn't mention it yesterday because I was thinking more in the context of something you could carry with you - but I suppose that you could make copies of the relevant pages.

[DeniseGoldberg]

Have you tried entering the name of your town in http://maps.google.com?

You say you checked out the pedometer website and were told there were no maps. Is this the site you tried? http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

Not knowing your town, I typed in Harrisburg, then moved the map to the west using the arrow keys. Then I used the + button to get more detail. If you can tell us what town you are in maybe we can help find a map! Although the librarian suggestion above is certainly a good one...

[texas_emily]

Have you looked for an Atlas & Gazetteer? I believe that they are published by state, and they include every road out there -- paved, gravel, etc.

Larger bookstores usually carry them, or they are easily found online.

Good luck!

[Nanci]

I listen to this book on CD all the time, "A Walk In The Woods" by Bill Bryson. It's my favorite thing to listen to on long car rides- it's about how he attempts to hike the Appalachian Trail. Anyway, he says the maps of the Pennsylvania section are worse than useless. Maybe it's just the state :-(

Nanci

[DirtDiva]

Lol. I thought of that too. Possibly my favourite Bill Bryson book.

[latelatebloomer]

I love Pennsylvania. All of my molecules are Pennsylvania molecules. When I lived in sunny California, I was homesick for Pennsylvania every day for ten long years. And here's the Pennsylvanian truth - This is the worst damn state in the union when it comes to trying to find your way around! When I drove crosscountry to move back here, every major intersection in every other state had signs to tell you what town or city was in each direction. Not in Pennsylvania. Street signs that name BOTH streets at a crossroads - never in Pennsylvania! I think it's part of a Leni Lenape Indian curse - they couldn't make the white folks get back to Europe, but they could make them waste a whole lotta time wandering around lost as can be and cussing a blue streak.

As curses go, deceptively sinister.

By the way, the only time I got lost on that 3,000 mile drive was 1/2 hour from my parents' house.

Sorry, Anne.

[anne_77]

Latest update - I joined AAA and got a 6-county map that shows my area. Hurray! Why didn't I think of that first? Thanks for the suggestion!

The map is kind of funny though because it shows some roads, not all, and doesn't always show the entire road. For instance, the road I usually ride was shown as dead-ending at the interstate but I knew that it went a few miles longer and connected with this other road I always ride. And I took a new road home yesterday but again the map showed it dead-ending at the interstate. I knew there was no exit there so I gave it a shot. 1/2 mile out of town the road came to a "T" and I had to ask how to get to down-town - it was literally on the other side of the hill (I felt kind of stupid). But at least with this partial map I can generally figure out my location and which direction to try to head. I cut my little area out of the map and put it in a zip-lock bag that I carry in my back pocket. Very convenient.

So problem solved. Thank you for listening to my venting and giving such great suggestions. I have to warn you though - if you plan on visiting rural Pennsylvania, beware of winding unmapped roads :) Oh - and there's also the smell of cow manure to deal with. Very pungent ):

[CorsairMac]

ROFL LLB and Anne - if I ever visit PA, I'm just gonna visit ya'll and let you Show me around! :rolleyes:

(we'll meet at the border so I don't end up in another state trying to find ya)