# Made some DuPont Tyvek Topo maps



## 3percent (Dec 28, 2014)

Before I begin, let me put out a full disclaimer: I am a professional cartographer and make maps full time as an independent business. I am NOT posting this as an advertisement and really don't want this to seem like spam. I fully understand if the mods don't like this and want me to remove it. I am not posting contact info.

Also, I did not make these maps. They are fully free to down load from here: The USGS Store - One stop shop for all your maps, world, United States, state, wall decor, historic, planetary, topographic, trail, hiking, foreign, satellite, digital

I have only downloaded the maps and printed them off.

With all of that out of the way...the other day I was going though my map collection for around my AO, and then compared them with the newest USGS topo maps. I realized that some of mine were out of date by virtue that the USGS has updated some of the maps around here as recently as this year. I printed off a few maps using my standard 30 inch rolls and then laminated them with the 25 inch lamination machine that I have. I have done these in the past like this and they come out really good and since they are plastic coated, grease pens and markers work really well on them. Only real problem is that after a while, they don't hold up really well.

Then I pulled out my roll of DuPont Tyvek paper. I did not initially use this as it is quite a bit more expensive per foot than the normal paper. BUT! It is way WAY more resilient to use and abuse. Back in the 90's, while in the Marines, we were issued Tyvek maps as part of our E&E kits. I still have two of mine from Bosina and Haiti. After 20 years, they still look new. The only real problem is that marking on the maps with pens and stuff is permanent, unlike lamination.

Anyway, I have this Tyvek roll that I use as part of my normal maps, but like I said, it is kind of expensive. However, I knew that making "bug out" maps out of this would be great. I actually should have done this last year instead of being a tight wad, ha ha.

Here are the results and a bit of a demo. My yard is a dried barren wasteland after a few weeks of no rain, so I had to make my own mud. I then hosed off the map and gently wiped it down. The map is about 24 hours old. I have done this too with freshly printed maps with little to no ink smears. Only thing you cannot do is scrub on it. Just water a little bit of patting. This paper is very strong too. It can be ripped, but takes a good amount of effort. The size is 24x36 with is a bit larger than actual print size, but allows for me to mark up the margins.

Enjoy the show!


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## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

if you have a flashdrive of the digital maps - check with your Office Depot - Staples type shops for large format printing - might be able to do tyvek or poly sheet ....


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