Mobile Blogger & Maps

A few posts ago I pointed out a smart piece of software for mobile blogging. I've used it a few times and so far have been happy with it.

Until today; I had some time on my hands, so start to write a piece on maps for the blog. I`d nearly finished when I hit the wrong button and lost the lot.

Fat fingers and tiny mobile's are not a good combination.

Maps

Up until a year ago, I always used paper OS maps mainly 1:25.

I now need to sort out the maps for my Dales way walk and can't decided which will be the best option.

I have a Harvey's Dales way map which covers the whole of the route but is in 1:40 scale. Although this is larger than the OS 1:50 maps it doesn't have as much detail as the OS maps and only gives a small margin either side of the route, so finding route off the main way could be tricky. One advantage is that the map is waterproof.

Option two is to buy all the OS maps that cover the way. This will probably work out quite expensive and if using the 1:25 could mean a lot of maps. I could buy the 1:50 but this would still mean a fair few maps and with both these options means quite a bit of paper to carry.

Option three is digital maps; I do have the whole country on digital but so far have only used them for route finding.

To cover the whole 81 miles; I would need 5 double-sided A4 sheets. These are printed at 1:50 but allow enough margin to get off the main route. One big problem with this method is not getting them wet as the ink will run.

I know there is waterproof paper on the market but this seems quite expensive, especially as the maps will only be used for one trip. I do have a laminator but I find that this makes the paper very stiff and not easy to bend or fold.

Maybe the best choice would be to take the digital printouts and the Harvey map and use the Harvey as the main map and use the printouts as back up for when the route is a little indistinct.

Oh well; I still have a few months to sort it all out.