Hello and welcome. I hope all is well with you. Ups and downs here - I suppose it's the natural course of life. Tomasino mentioned that a part of emergency preparedness are maps [1]. This was followed by slugmax's [2] point that paper maps are underappreciated. I concur with both these points. Paper is a fantastic medium that is reliable and doesn't require electricity to use. This is great in times when electricity is a scarce resource. That being said, electronic maps can be useful too. Much like an ebook reader vs. paperbacks, digital maps can be stored far more compactly than detailed paper maps for a large area or areas. For example, my current and former personal devices (phones/tablets) have APRSdroid [3] on them, particularly the offline OSM version. KS9N created a map of the USA [4] that is loaded onto each of these devices. This provides me a general lay of the land and paper maps obtained from the local ranger station renders a detailed view. Now that I know about the availability of USGS maps, I will add those too. It's also important to stress familiarity with the area too. The best map is the one that can't be separated from you or destroyed. On another note, it's cyclocross season! I went to a local cyclocross race with a friend and we had a great time. The community is friendly and inviting, so I can't wait to start racing this weekend. There was also a rodeocross event on Wednesdays that looks fantastic too. They light up the course at night using generators and string lights for the remote, dark areas and the course looks really fun! I've convinced a friend to race with me and we'll bring up the rear and have a good time. As kvothe noted [5], just get out there and have fun! Tags: #maps #aprs #osm #bicycling #cyclocross TEXT [0] Text-only version DIR [1] gopher://gopher.black/1/phlog/20181007-maps DIR [2] gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space/1/~slugmax/cgi-bin/slerm?maps-and-bugout.post HTML [3] https://aprsdroid.org/ HTML [4] https://aprsdroid.org/osm/ DIR [5] gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space/1/~kvothe/phlog/2018-10-03-mediocrity