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An ode to my favorite map
Oh to my well-loved, trip-worn map!
The lands you share with each embrace;
New opportunities unfold upon my lap.
The adventures you guide us on with each day’s use,
Countless sights unveil with each twisted, wild turn.
Adventures of old and others of new!
No matter the locale you hold within four sides,
You lead us to venture outside our confines,
following painstakingly gathered data that build your print lines.
Oh, note-etched, scribed-words, memory-filled map!
The trails, the roads, vistas and creeks,
the routes and ventures you trustingly keep!
When I think about it, it’s pretty amazing to consider all the experiences a sheet of printed lines and symbols can help facilitate.
A weekend of singletrack in the state forest, a spontaneous picnic lunch in a forgotten meadow with the family, a week of lake-side camping and fishing…
While I don’t necessarily remember the very firsttime I picked up and actually read a map, I do know that I rely on maps regularly. There are too many places with unreliable cell reception to think our digital resources can guide us, unwaveringly. And my hikes shouldn't be limited by my low battery life. Those tiny maps on tiny screens can be useful, but I love a big map to get the big picture to plan my big adventures. With a good map in hand and a few other necessary supplies, we can be unstoppable.
There’s something so real and tangible about marking up your map, trip after trip, trail after trail, to solidify the memory of an experience outdoors. The places we went as well as notes about the places we want to go next, the forks in the road not taken, but oh so alluring, the ones that whisper 'next time'.
That is why I appreciate my old, trip-worn, well-loved map...and my crisp, ready-for-anything new maps, too.
by Ryan Michelle Scavo, Outdoorswoman & Adventure Mama. Instagram: @Ryoutside
copyright Purple Lizard Maps 2025