- I've talked to people about paper maps and the utility of them.

Of course, everyone's always says your battery might tie in your phone, so you need a paper map.

But I think the bigger thing is a map gives you a sense of place.

It helps you understand the environment and the world, the landscape around you.

With a big map open, you can see, you know that's [indistinct] over there and this is this mountain over here.

Looking at a map really helps you connect with the place.

I started Pisgah Map Company long after I started thinking about making my own maps to get out and use in the woods.

When I was 15, I went on my first backpacking trip in Linville Gorge.

It rained the whole time we slept under tarp cause we got wet.

And I just loved it.

I loved being outside, being away from everything where you there was nothing to hear, but the river and the woods.

And I came out of that trip just really wanting to get back out.

I used a lot of maps and the more I used them especially in areas that I went into a lot, I'd look at a map and I'd think, you know, this map would be easier to understand, easier to read if this layer stood out a little bit more or this set of labels were a little bit bigger.

It just started to become obvious that there were things I could do to improve them and make a better map.

And really just trying to make a better map was the whole impetus to Pisgah Map Company.

I'd been wanting to make a map of the actual Pisgah Ranger district for a long time and I had a student and we started talking about it and he was saying how that would be a great idea and he thought about doing that too.

I think I always thought it would be a business, but we just started making the map.

It was a very long process.

I was teaching full-time, I was trying to get out and enjoy life as much as I could as well.

So the first map we worked on in the evenings, some afternoons for over a year.

And I'll never forget the boxes of maps when we printed it and we opened it up, just open in the map and seeing this thing that we created, it was like a piece of art.

It was beautiful.

That was really when I realized that the thing I've been thinking about for so many years about making my own map that it was doable.

- We've been a longtime customer of Pisgah Map Company.

When we have people in from out of town who aren't familiar with the area, to be able to give them the best and most accurate up-to-date map gives us a lot of confidence to be able to send people out knowing that they're gonna be okay and always come back with great stories and a good experience and glad they had the map.

- We've been saw maps in West North Carolina since 1977 and when Pete's Maps came along, it was a godsend because they're more up to date, they're better quality and quite often focused on areas that for West North Carolina hikers are more precise.

- I almost took some of it for granted if that makes any sense.

You know, because I didn't even realize how many people use and rely on his maps and it kind of makes me be like, wow this has been happening in my life for 20 years and this happens like in our house.

- Oh, there it's.

So, this one, this is the original Pisgah map right there with the original cover on it.

And this person riding the bike there is off the trail.

They're on the rock off the trail.

So the Forest Service was like, we don't like that picture on that map because they're not riding on a legal trail.

You know, you can see, this is our first one.

Look at all the comments on that one.

Things we wrote up on it.

Lots of mistakes on that first edition.

The process of making a math really melds together the science of data and understanding information with the art of communicating that information.

When I started using GIS, I loved it because of the map, you know, the map on the front and whenever I'd open the table of information, I was like, oh, look at all that information.

I tried to stay looking at the map, you know, and over time I've got much more accustom to the database part of it.

[gentle music] The world is a dynamic place.

It changes all the time.

So GIS data has to be updated all the time.

I heard the term once the world can't afford perfect data and the job to keep it maintained and updated is it's a big job and things get missed.

So, we go out on the ground and we ground truth it.

We make sure that it's accurate and correct, things aren't missing.

[upbeat music] All right, just head up the trail.

- In the beginning we did a lot of ground truthing especially before we had the kiddos, but there was one time in particular we went to this area called the Middle Prong.

We both wanted to explore it.

Never been, but I was like it was like a Saturday, I'd worked all week.

I was like, I kind of just wanna take it easy.

He was like, sure, like let's take our bikes we'll ride up this gravel road for like a mile and then we're just gonna check and like see this trail head and then we're gonna blaze home.

I was like, awesome.

10 miles later.

- My family has supported the business for years.

Sometimes they've liked it, sometimes they haven't.

Do you like going on adventures to help daddy make sure the match you right and correct?

- Kind of.

Kind of.

- Now when dad goes just a little longer.

- [Pete's Wife] Oh yeah.

- Daddy goes a little longer sometimes.

- We know that.

- Sometimes?

- It's all part the attention kids.

The kids have counted maps done through map fulfillment with me.

We've spent a lot of our weekend hikes in places that I need to ground truth something.

Haven has gone on many, many adventures.

We always make it back.

- [Pete's Wife] Goodnight.

- Goodnight.

- Do you guys have a favorite river?

- I like the one that was named after me.

There was one nickname after you and we were in the hospital with y'all when y'all were born.

I was making this map.

- Where are we?

And the two rivers, I'll have to find them but I put your names on here.

I named two streams.

One Ava May Branch and one Clara Creek on this map, there.

Ava May Branch and Clara Creek there.

- [Pete's Wife] It's really important to me and Pete that our kids have a connection to the outdoors.

They've done a lot of cool stuff from river trips to hiking trips.

I mean, we've had some of our best times in the camper.

It's the place that they can run around and have a sense of freedom and it's so funny, every time they do it, they find something new to explore and I think instilling that adventurous behavior in them will serve them a lifetime.

- A big thing that we hope is that our maps help people better connect with the outdoors, with the environment.

We hope that the maps help people to get their feet on the dirt and have a little bit of time to reflect think about yourself, maybe just not think about anything.

Just walk in the woods.

Wow, that's neat up here, isn't it?

Yeah, this is great.

- [Pete's Wife] The amount of heart and soul that Pete puts into these maps is pretty amazing to see and it's a lot of grit too.

I mean, he works so hard on these maps and you can really see it in the end product.

There are some other map companies out there that are a lot bigger than his small company but it just goes to show that he's worked so hard and he knows the area so well and he puts that love into his maps.

So.

[gentle music] [gentle music]