Once I came mighty close to spending a frigid night lost in the backcountry after an innocent off-road cycling spin. Finding my way out of the woods depended on a crinkled, black-and-white, grainy map that had been photocopied into oblivion by the guys at a local bike shop. Recently, I've moved into a plane of signiÞcantly higher resolution with a CD-ROM called Topo!
Topo!, from Wildþower Productions, ushers cartography into the 21st century with a seamless set of 50 digitized 7.5-minute US Geological Survey quad maps covering Yosemite and the San Francisco Bay area. Maps of Seattle, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Los Angeles are on the way, with even more planned to follow.
Topo! is geared to outdoor enthusiasts and anyone interested in getting a different lay of the land. Maps with crisp contour lines let you visualize three dimensions where only two exist. The customizable print function lets you zoom in or out on any area. If you printed all the disc's maps, you would get a 24-foot by 35-foot tapestry suitable for wallpaper.
Before heading on a backcountry ski tour last winter, I sat down at my Mac with the disc and pored over a stretch of trails located above Yosemite Valley. I used its sophisticated browser to draw a course onscreen and created a custom point-to-point elevation proÞle and distance measurements incorporating elevation changes. The global perspective, minute details, and Þve magniÞcation levels allowed me to know the region intimately. Maneuvering over snow-covered terrain can be a challenge, but by the time we were skiing I was so familiar with our route that I knew just what to expect.
Unfortunately, lack of a portable CD-ROM system prevented me from hauling Topo!'s full-color interface into the backcountry. So I packed traditional USGS quads along with customized Topo! maps. Printing one section and its surrounding quadrants in grayscale was a breeze. (Color is an option, but I don't own a color printer.) I also downloaded an elevation proÞle of the route to show my group.
Future applications will integrate the GPS system to show a user's precise geographical position on the maps in real time.
Topo! for Mac: US$99. Windows formats available soon. Wildflower Productions: +1 (415) 282 9112, email info@topo.com, on the Web at www.topo.com/.
STREET CRED
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