Your phone’s map works because of satellites, cell towers, servers and a battery, and any one of those failing turns it into a blank screen. A paper map works forever, and a map you drew yourself contains things no printed map ever will: which fence has a gap, which creek still runs in August, which house has a dog. Here is how to make one, using nothing more than paper, a pencil, a compass and your own feet.
Start with a real map
Don’t begin from a blank page. Print or buy a paper map of your area first, ideally a topographic one; the US Geological Survey offers its topo maps free to download and print. Use it as your base layer and add your own knowledge on top, or trace the roads and rivers onto your own sheet. Keep the printed one too.
Gear
- A baseplate compass, the flat clear kind with a rotating dial, which costs about as much as a sandwich
- Graph paper, so you can keep a consistent scale
- Pencils (they work wet and erase) and a fine waterproof pen for final lines
- A ruler or the edge of the compass
- A clipboard or a stiff folder, and a zip-top bag for rain
Measure distance with your pace count
Surveyors and soldiers measure distance on foot by counting steps. Mark out 100 meters (or 100 yards) on flat ground, walk it at a normal pace, and count every time your left foot lands. Most adults land somewhere around 60 to 70. That number is your pace count. Now any distance you walk can be measured: 130 counts is about 200 meters. Expect your count to rise on hills, in mud and in the dark, and recheck it with a full pack.
Get your directions right
Use the compass to take a bearing on each road, trail or landmark as you go. One wrinkle matters: a compass points to magnetic north, not true north, and the difference, called declination, can be more than 15 degrees depending on where you live. Printed topo maps list it in the margin, and NOAA publishes it online for any location. Write your local declination on your map so you never have to look it up again.
Mark what matters
A survival map is about what you can find and what you should avoid. Make a simple legend and mark:
- Water: creeks, ponds, springs, rain barrels and public spigots, with a note on whether they run year-round
- Shelter: sturdy buildings, overpasses, barns and anything with a roof that a group could reach
- Resources: pharmacies, hardware stores, gas stations, fruit trees, community gardens
- Help: fire stations, hospitals, schools and churches that serve as shelters, and neighbors with useful skills
- Hazards: fuel storage, chemical plants, rail lines, flood zones, dams, steep slopes and bridges that might be closed or fail
- Rally points: where your household meets if you are separated, near home and outside the neighborhood
Plan your routes
Draw at least three ways out of your neighborhood, in different directions, and at least two routes from work or school to home. Walk them. You will find that the obvious route crosses a highway with no pedestrian crossing, or that a promising shortcut ends at a locked gate. Mark your walking times on each route.
Use color, carefully
Color makes a map readable at a glance: blue for water, green for resources, red for hazards. But one in twelve men has some form of color blindness, and colors fade, so give every color a symbol too. A red skull is clear to everyone.
Protect it, copy it, update it
Laminate the finished map or keep it in a waterproof sleeve, and make copies for everyone in your household and one for your go-bag. Then update it twice a year. Stores close, trees fall and creeks dry up, and a confidently wrong map is worse than none.
Have you made a map of your area? Tell us in the comments what surprised you most when you walked it.