Tweeters,

The BC Road & Recreational Atlas that Doug Canning refers to is useful
for some purposes. However, each map covers such a large area that,
for southern B.C., it is not much help in finding your way around
off-highway (most rural roads are NOT shown on this atlas). I have a
copy, but it is in almost new condition because I rarely use it.

Far more useful to the backroad birder in southern and central B.C. is
a series of atlases published by Mussio Ventures Ltd. called "Backroad
Mapbooks". There are 6 volumes in this series, as follows:

Volume 1: Southwestern B.C.
Volume 2: Vancouver Island
Volume 3: Kamloops/Okanagan
Volume 4: The Kootenays
Volume 5: The Cariboo
Volume 6: Central BC

Some of these mapbooks are already in their 2nd or 3rd editions. There
are also mapbooks for two areas in Alberta and five in Ontario, with
plans for more to come.


The maps are not as scrupulously accurate as those in the DeLorme
atlases.(The Mussios, unlike the DeLorme people, are not
cartographers.) There are numerous small errors, mostly in place-name
spellings and in
showing stream courses. There are no contour lines shown, unlike the
DeLorme atlases. However, the road networks shown are generally
accurate and up-to-date. They are far more up-to-date than the roads
shown on topographic maps (which are often 10 or 20 years old). The
majority of logging roads (those that have not been deactivated) are
shown. This is important in B.C., where most of the road network by
far is logging roads!

The Kamloops/Okanagan mapbook, as an example, includes 53 maps at a
scale of 1:155,000 (almost the same scale used by DeLorme). The maps
are 7x10 inches (a smaller format than DeLorme uses).

The real strength of the Backroad Mapbooks is in the detailed
information on fishing lakes, provincial parks, wilderness camping,
and hiking trails. Most of this is quite accurate, and based on the
authors' personal experience as well as information supplied by
Provincial Government agencies. The Kamloops/Okanagan book, for
instance, has 58 pages of text (not counting the Index) as well as 53
pages of maps.

The Backroad Mapbooks are very popular in B.C., and can be found in
any bookstore. They retail at $15.95 Canadian.

For more information on the Backroad Mapbook series, visit their
website at http://www.backroadmapbooks.com . You can order mapbooks
online from the website, or if you prefer, buy them from a bookstore
when you arrive in B.C.

Although these maps do not match the high quality of the DeLorme
atlases, the shortcomings are minor, in my opinion, and I strongly
recommend them. When you consider that Canadian topographic maps cost
up to $7.00 CAN each, the mapbooks are good value for the money!


Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net

_______________________________________________

----- Original Message -----
From: Douglas Canning <dcanning at nisquallyestuary.org>
To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2003 6:58 PM
Subject: Re: BC Canada map recommendations


On 4 Apr 2003, Ned McGarry wrote:

Is there a map book available for BC with features comparable to the
WA
DeLorme Gazetteer?

Yes, sort of.

The British Columbia Road & Recreational Atlas sets out to
accomplish what DeLorme has done for the US states. However, BC is
huge
compared to US states, so the scale of the maps is smaller. (BC is
nearly 10X the area of Washington.) Where the Washington State DeLorme
atlas
page scale is 1:150,000, the BCRRA atlas maps are 1:600,000. (Think
25% the detail.) On the other hand, the wildlife viewing site
information is much more detailed.

I buy my BCRRAs at World Wide Books and Maps in Seattle for
convenience. However, they do charge the Canadian $ price in US $$
so you can save money by waiting until you're in BC to buy a
copy...unless, like me, you just have to _have_ to have a copy for
trip planning.

*****************************
Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington
dcanning at nisquallyestuary.org
*****************************