There is a question we have all received at one time or another as children, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I cannot say that I ever, even once, said that I want to “make maps” when some adult posed me with this question. In fact I didn’t even know it was a profession somebody could have. We hear stories of explorers and sailors who mapped the world hundreds of years ago, but we never think of the cartographer in the modern world. It took me a solid 21 years until I was sitting in a college classroom filling out my general education credits with an Introduction to Geography class at Penn State to realize cartography was a real profession. And although I didn’t want to be a mapmaker as a child, I knew there was nothing else I wanted to do with my life once I realized I could be one.
I have always had a love for being outside and growing up in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania - a picturesque little town nestled in a river valley surrounded by forested mountains - was a good fit for me. I spent a lot of my childhood hiking around the old rail beds and coal roads littered throughout the area. When I became a bit older and got a job at the local bike shop, Blue Mountain Sports, the mountain bike I exchanged for my paycheck only increased my curiosity and range for exploring.
For those of you that don’t know, Jim Thorpe was the mountain biking capital of the East Coast in the 1990s. People came from all over for the annual event, Mountain Bike Weekend, to ride the area's rocky singletrack trails. Due to some land use issues, a push westward in the world of mountain biking, and a general dip in the popularity of biking, Jim Thorpe lost its fame by the time I was riding. Still, I was fascinated to hear the old stories of Jim Thorpe’s time in the spotlight as a mountain biking destination. I found old maps traced on USGS Quadrangle maps or simply drawn by hand. These fueled my adventures.
The American Standard Trail (now closed) made by an unknown author and last revised in 1999
By age 16 I was getting hired by tourists from as close as New York City and as far as Canada to guide them on the old mountain bike trails. These were the tourists that heard the rumours of Jim Thorpe’s past and were bored by the rail-trail riding through Lehigh Gorge State Park. Keep in mind this is all happening in 2007 before even the first iPhone hit the market and everyone had a GPS in their pocket. I found a great pride in being able, especially at such a young age, to share the beautiful natural lands and trails around Jim Thorpe with others. Getting paid in cash for my guiding services (and to ride my bike) was also appreciated. I think it was about this time that I realized you could truly make a living doing something that you love.
This is a video (circa 2008) made by a New Yorker who asked that I show him the local trails
After a stint of wanderlust immediately following high school, I started college at the ripe age of 21 and entered the Landscape Architecture program at Penn State University. I liked architecture and I liked nature - it seemed like the right fit at the time. Fortunately for me, one of the general education credits for the degree was Introduction to GIS in the Geography Department. GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems - let’s just consider GIS modern-day mapmaking for now. Anyway, this class made it clear to me that maps are not only still being made, but Penn State could teach me how to do it. I switched my major from Landscape Architecture to Geography before the class ended that same semester.
A few weeks later, my close friend, roommate, and lifelong mountain biking rival came home with a purple map of Rothrock State forest. It was a cool map with modern design dedicated to hiking and biking. This map was a top quality cartographic production made by Michael Hermann (a fellow Penn State graduate) of Purple Lizard Maps. These maps are famed all over Central Pennsylvania and beyond for the constant adventures they fuel. After staring at that beautiful purple map for some time I said to my roommate - “I bet I could make that same kind of map for Jim Thorpe.”
That first Purple Lizard Map helped me discover mountain biking in Rothrock State Forest - here’s me riding there!
At the beginning I must say that I did not know what the hell I was doing. On returning to Jim Thorpe during college breaks I’d just go out into the woods and get GPX tracks of hikes and bike rides using my phone. I recall a little notepad and pencil I used to mark intersections and trail types. I have to issue a public thanks to all of my friends who joined me on these mini expeditions where we had to stop to take notes every 5 minutes. That was the beginning. Let’s just say that I spent the next few years learning everything I could about maps, attending map conferences, talking to real-life cartographers, and even scoring a one-on-one conversation with Mike at Purple Lizard maps to see how the master did it.
Soon after graduating college I started an internship with the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor - the invisible hand pushing along the development of the world-class D&L Trail. My first task was to get the GPX data for the entire 165 mile trail. Since the trail could not be driven on this had to be done by bike. For those of you who know me, you have probably already guessed that I was very pleased with this assignment. After riding the whole trail, doing some other tasks during my internship, and even making a few small maps, there came a time when an official map was to be made of the Anthracite Region of the D&L Trail. This wasn’t a little map that gets printed by an office printer, but a professional production to be printed by the thousands. The D&L took a chance and offered me the map contract. I will never be able to thank them enough for doing this. It set me down a path that led me to accomplish one of my dreams.
The D&L Trail | Anthracite Region Map | Edition 1 | 2017
A few months later I had a good full-time job at the D&L and a steady but small stream of side-hustle map projects through offthemaps. Things were going quite smoothly and then I decided to move to Europe to chase love. I’ll leave out the personal details, but let’s just say that’s what got me, a small-town boy from Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, to move my life to Prague, Czech Republic. My current day job, working as a Sales Engineer for TerraSim, consists of making, teaching others to make, and selling software that permits others to make 3D maps used for military training operations like flight simulation. These maps are sort of the Ferraris or Lamborghinis of the mapmaking world. And although they are very enjoyable to make and it is a wonderful job, I still have a love for impromptu maps drawn in the dirt with a stick.
In the cold and dark Czech winter of 2019, I realized one night that I never fulfilled my dream of making the map of my hometown. Now, living more than 4000 miles away, that dream felt farther away than ever. For some reason this did not deter me and, in fact, sort of emboldened me to complete my project despite the distance. I decided late in 2019 that 2020 would be the year I would complete my map of Jim Thorpe. Keep in mind that was pre-coronavirus, so although it was a lofty goal, it wasn’t necessarily crazy. There were a few nights early in 2020 where I was sipping coffee in the middle of the night, staring at aerial imagery of Eastern Pennsylvania, and planning my trail-truthing expeditions back home. From my small apartment in Prague I could hear the trams outside the window. I recall being so amazed that modern technology could allow me to make a map of a small town in Eastern Pennsylvania while sitting at home, at night, in the heart of Europe.
Coronavirus came and put one hell of a wrench in my spokes. June 2020 was supposed to be a 3-week long trip where I did nothing but biked and hiked to collect every piece of trail data I needed before heading back to Prague. Once back in Prague, I could sort through the data and complete the map design from the comfort of my new home. It was about this time I realized just how necessary it would be to have a partner in my project that actually lived not just in the area, but in the United States. I am quite an independent worker and pulling anyone else into my dream project was very difficult. I believe that speaks to my confidence and admiration for Brian Greene, a colleague from my days at the D&L and a true friend.
Brian, a fellow outdoor junkie, trail runner, biker, and map nerd, was the perfect person to work with and push the Jim Thorpe map to the finish line. We had a very good synergy working together at the D&L. I think this project just gave us an excuse to go for trail runs and nerd out on maps now that we were no longer working together at the D&L. Brian has been like a big brother helping to organize my thoughts, keep me going when I’m burnt out, and acting as a springboard for all my crazy map ideas. Without his mentorship this map would not have been printed.
Brian talking maps during one of our trail-truthing expeditions
We worked together to plan and organize the rest of the tasks remaining to push this map out the door. I was lucky enough to make it home for 3 weeks in August despite the travel restrictions to finish off the trail data. Walking through the middle of the woods on old trails that nobody knows about is an excellent way to practice social distancing. Let’s just say from August until now has been a hectic and constant effort to get this map printed in 2020.
And so I am pleased to share with you my dream project and my hometown of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania. My focus in writing this has been on Jim Thorpe as it is my hometown and a great jumping off point for adventures, but this map covers the entire area from Wilkes-Barre to Lehighton. If you live in the area of Mountain Top, White Haven, Bear Creek, Weatherly, Nesquehoning, or Weissport, we have you covered! You can also check out our guide page that features videos, GPX routes, and descriptions of trails in the area. Check back in as we will add more content in the future.
This map took around 1000 hours to make and included everything from me drinking coffee in the middle of the night in Central Europe in front of a computer screen to pushing my bicycle through thorns in the middle of Lehigh Gorge State Park. I hope that it enables you and your loved ones to get outside and enjoy the incredible treasures the outdoors have for all of us. I hope you get out there and find a new trail, admire a new vista, and make some memories. Let me know if you find anything new - I’ll be sure to check it out myself and add it to the map!
You can buy the map online or at regional stores like the Lehighton Outdoor Center and Pocono Biking.
The Jim Thorpe Adventure Map (2020)