So we’ve found some new places to roam and explore, including the variety of public lands available for recreation in the first part of this Where Do We Go Now? Series. By their very nature, many of these public lands, are presumably undeveloped, or rather only developed by the use that these areas receive. It is certainly possible that some of these places receive few if any visitors all year long.
Needless to say, it is unlikely that there are much in the way of maps made specifically for your exploration of these areas. However, there are many mapping resources out there that you can use to plan, carry out, and document your explorations.
Many of these resources are now available through the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) which is an information organization system used to present and manipulate spatial or geographic data. GIS can be used to interrelated multiple sources of data based upon location. This enables topographical, aerial photography, hydrological or soil data, roads, boundaries, governmental classifications, and many other forms of information to be all available within one mapping tool.
In fact, the searching tools for Wisconsin Public Lands, Managed Forest Lands, and more linked to in Part 1 are examples of GIS mapping. Rather many government agencies including the DNR, as well as many counties have their own GIS -based mapping tools. The following website, maintained by the Land Information and Computer Graphics Facility at the University of Wisconsin has links to the GIS mapping applications for each of the counties in Wisconsin. https://gis.lic.wisc.edu/coastalweb/www/wisconsin-ims/wisconsin-ims.htm
With these tools, you can make a topographical or aerial photo map of any area of your next adventure. For example, I made this map of the Greenbush area of Kettle Moraine State Forest Northern Unit using the Sheboygan County GIS map.
But these are not the only tools. Two other tools offer maps of any location in the country. CalTopo https://caltopo.com is a mapping and trip planning tool already popular with among hikers and backpackers because of its ability to export into a wide variety of apps and devices.
Finally, the USGS offers a mapping tool and database of historical maps. In fact I used it for some of my maps in my Milwaukee Adventure Race Course. The USGS – The National Map program replaced the USGS program of printing static topographical maps with an ongoing digital program.
With these mapping tools, you have all the resources to plan and execute on your next adventure.