From the category archives:

maps

Map of L.A. in 1880

July 12, 2010

It is kind of insane to think about just how fast L.A. grew from a sleepy village surrounded by orchards into a world-class megalopolis, but L.A. is so good at paving over its history that it’s tough to get a good perspective on it. Recently, the excellent L.A. History tweeted out this link to an [...]

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Updated Station Fire Closure Map

June 4, 2010

As was noted earlier, some of the original areas of the Station Fire Burn Area have been re-opened to the public. Unfortunately, the accompanying Forest Service map was low-resolution, so it wasn’t all that helpful to hikers looking to revisit their favorite peaks. Thankfully, John Tangenberg of the Sierra Club-Angeles Chapter’s Geographical Information Systems Committee [...]

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Birthday Coupons from Me to You

May 21, 2010

Today is my birthday, but in an extreme act of subversion – or just because the merchants were kind enough to offer them to me, I’ll be handing out some goodies to you! Earlier this month, the guys at Summit Terragraphics sent me an awesome 3D topo map of Southern California. I just got some [...]

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Put SoCal on Your Wall in 3D

May 3, 2010

When the team at Summit Terragraphics asked if I wanted to check out their new 3D relief map of Southern California, I was more than happy to oblige. Their maps are high-resolution satellite images overlaid on terrain models generated by NASA topography missions. They are meant to mimic the view you’d have if you were [...]

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120 Years of NatGeo for $200

December 31, 2009

National Geographic is one of my favorite magazines – I’ve been a devout reader since middle school and have more than a few shelves devoted to the yellow border in my apartment today. But, if you want to go the modern, digital route, you can now buy every single issue of the magazine on an [...]

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Review: AccuTerra for iPhone

December 15, 2009

Earlier this year, I went up to Big Bear for some snowshoeing. I went on the Pine Knot Trail, and while it was fun, I definitely got lost more than I like to when I’m in the middle of the woods – both due to the snow covering most of the trail junctions and a [...]

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Google Trail View?

October 22, 2009

Google, our future lovable life overlords, are extending their virtual reality-ish maps service Street View off of the road and onto the trail … and into theme parks, too. The street view section of Google Maps currently allows users to get an actual view of their chosen location on almost every street in the United [...]

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National Parks Owner’s Guide

July 8, 2009

The National Parks Foundation, the nonprofit parks advocates chartered by Congress, has released the 2009 version of its National Parks Owner’s Guide. The free 75 page PDF is an exhaustive resource on our National Park System, and is chock full of information – including a directory of camping areas, fees, and ranger programs for each [...]

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The Most Remote Place On Earth

April 21, 2009

We hikers and backpackers give ourselves a lot of credit for hiking hours into the wilderness, miles away from cars and electricity and the trappings of modern civilization. But the cold, hard fact is, really, we’re not that far away from the rest of the world. And apparently, neither are most of the rest of [...]

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Backpacker Hikes On Your Cell Phone

March 18, 2009

Are you one of those last-minute hikers? The ones who wake up at 7AM on Saturday and just decide that now’s the time to get in your car, drive toward a mountain, and find a trail? If you are, this new service from Backpacker might be for you. The outdoor magazine and GPS-crazy web site [...]

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