Adventure Cycling Association Forum

Bicycle Travel => General Discussion => Topic started by: jwrushman on July 22, 2019, 08:21:38 am

Title: Use for old maps
Post by: jwrushman on July 22, 2019, 08:21:38 am: I've just completed my modified Northern Tier trip - New Jersey to Anacortes. I'm looking for ideas on what to do with the maps I've used. I was considering something like a mural, piecing the map panels together, end-to-end, but I think this will be WAY too long. Perhaps a collage.

Does someone with artistic ability have thoughts? What have others done?
Title: Re: Use for old maps
Post by: adventurepdx on July 22, 2019, 01:27:54 pm: How old? If they are pretty current, I'm sure someone wouldn't mind buying your set.

Adventure Cycling also sells wallets made out of old maps:
https://www.adventurecycling.org/cyclosource-store/search-results/sp/adventure-cycling-association-recycled-map-wallets/ (https://www.adventurecycling.org/cyclosource-store/search-results/sp/adventure-cycling-association-recycled-map-wallets/)
Title: Re: Use for old maps
Post by: jwrushman on July 22, 2019, 02:40:02 pm: They're current, but I wasn't looking to sell them. They've got sentimental value to me for what was (likely) a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

JR
Title: Re: Use for old maps
Post by: BikePacker on July 23, 2019, 09:55:17 am: Could a seam-ster/stress - knowledgeable person construct fun rain jackets (w/ seams properly sealed, of course) out of the old water proof ACA maps?
I just might be willing to shell out a maybe even unreasonable amount of loot to someone who could construct an extra-large mans size rain jacket outta my old sentimentally valued maps !!!!
Title: Re: Use for old maps
Post by: BikeliciousBabe on July 23, 2019, 01:21:07 pm: My NT maps from 1999 are in a drawer. I should probably toss them.

One thing we discovered quickly is that they make good chest warmers when descending after getting sweaty from a long climb.
Title: Re: Use for old maps
Post by: jsieber on July 23, 2019, 01:53:29 pm: This was an April Fools item back in 2009 where old maps were used a replacement for Tyvek as a vapor barrier in home construction. https://www.adventurecycling.org/sites/default/assets/resources/200904_Waypoints.pdf
Title: Re: Use for old maps
Post by: BikePacker on July 23, 2019, 05:38:16 pm: Quote from: BikeliciousBabe on July 23, 2019, 01:21:07 pm
One thing we discovered quickly is that they make good chest warmers when descending
A worth tip. Will endeavor to keep that one in mind. Thx.
Title: Re: Use for old maps
Post by: zzzz on July 23, 2019, 09:19:05 pm: I’ve done 5 of the ACA routes either in full or 90+-% of them as well as 2 long tours of my own design and I have kept all my old maps intact, bundled by route and thrown in a shoe box. And I find I’m digging around in that shoe box probably 5 or 6 times a year to pull out one of those old maps. Sometimes I’m refreshing an old memory before I post a reply on this forum, sometimes I’m giving advice to someone going on vacation, sometimes I see an item in the news in an area I’m pretty sure I went right thru or close by to and I want to verify, sometimes I see a picture I took come up on my rotating computer screen background and a check on the maps confirms where it was taken.

Every one of the big trips I’ve taken feels like a separate and really important chapter in my life and the maps were the guiding narrative along the way. You may feel like their usefulness is now done for you but if I would hang on to them just as they are. You may find there’s multiple reasons for revisiting them.