When the New York Central System was sold off to form Conrail in the 1970’s, a lot of history was lost. Who wanted to store an office building basement worth of old documents? And today these may be one of a kind.My neighbor was gracious enough to let me remove some maps and elevation profiles […]
Green Lane Reservoir and Peace Valley Reservoir both have lots of trails. Green Lane has a developed section with a bandstand, picnic area, small lake and campground. In the surrounding areas, there are miles of rustic hiking, equestrian and mountain bike trails around the reservoir that work well for day hikes. There’s boat rental on […]
It was November 2020. The woods were so silent that the sounds of my sleeping bag woke me up as l lay in the sandy soil. Looking up into the sky from the 20 oz sleeping bag I was testing, this is what I saw at 4:02 am shortly before getting up to bike the […]
Last fall I posted about our bike ride from Jenkintown to New York City. This morning I wanted to make a digital pencil sketch map of the trip. My goal was it give some landmarks and have some sense of geography by using the coastline and major water areas. I’d rather be outside than sitting […]
This morning I was learning about Snellenburg’s, a department store that was on Market Street across from Reading Terminal. I had been reading the WPA Guide from 1937, comparing it to the Baedeker’s London Guide from 1911 that Paul Bunting loaned me. The Baedeker’s Guide has more interesting information as well as somewhat mundane information. […]
My book club pick was once by Clive Cussler, author and adventurer. It was a fun summer read. A friend passed along this news link, so I made a map based on this website. Making a map gives me a way to think about both people and places.
I’m reading the book, How to Hide an Empire, by Daniel Immerwahr. This book brings into focus our common 48-50 State parochialism. I really like how Tom Patterson has posted a version of his Equal Earth Map that shows US Territories. I made this image this morning starting with small section of the Equal Earth […]
Mostly I made this map to test linework. The rivers are a bit too thick. I like the terrain. And I like the tree canopy across the East. The dots are places I spent some time. Ironically, it feels like I never go anywhere.It would be nice to look through more photos. One morning though, […]
This map shows the status of the trails over a base that reflects development and tree canopy. We need more trees. The Midwest, to make a generalization, needs more trees too. We need each trail to be not just a path but to be a linear oasis of natural water purification and air quality restoration […]