Washington Road & Recreation Atlas
 The
devil's in the details
If you enjoy getting off the beaten path, a good map is
hard to find. But if there’s a group of people out there who produce local maps
and live what they create, then you’d probably be glad to know they exist. They
do.
I consider myself something of a connoisseur of back roads
and like nothing more than disappearing up a deserted road and exploring its
views, terrain and whatever secrets it holds. But you can’t do that with a
pullout map from AAA.
There are a number of detailed road atlases on the market,
some better than others. My favorite at this point in time is the Washington
Road & Recreation Atlas. Similar in size to DeLorme’s Gazetteer, the WRR Atlas
includes thousands of miles of tertiary roads in the state that rarely appear in
other guides. Whether you ride on-road or off-road, the WRR Atlas has something
for everybody.
 Pavement
riders will appreciate its attention to detail. While others fail at noting if
a road turns to gravel, the WRR Atlas shows exactly where a surface change
occurs so you don’t wind up taking your Road King onto a pea gravel surface when
you’d rather not. Sure, you can ride from Selah up Wenas Road and over Umtanum
Ridge, and on the AAA fold out map it looks like its pavement all the way – its
not. The WRR Atlas makes this very clear.
Above/right - While some maps show the road
paved, it's not entirely between Oakville and Brooklyn as you can see in the WRR
Atlas.
 Off-Roaders
and Dual-Sporters will really appreciate the guide’s inclusion of gates and gate
closure details. For instance, you can ride off-road from Skokomish on the Hood
Canal all the way to Humptulips entirely off-road. But don’t try it on April 30th
– the gate isn’t opened until May 1st and you would know that
if you had the WRR Atlas. In general the off-road maps are more detailed and
current than anything I’ve seen on the market, including USFS maps. You really
can get to Brooklyn from Oakville just off Highway 12, the WRR Atlas will show
you the way.
Above/left - FR23 is a fun one to take
off-road between
the Hood Canal and Lake Wynootchee. But forget about making the trip
between October 1st and April 30th due to Wildlife closures asd is noted in the
WRR Atlas.
Out-of-date maps can be a bummer. Roads wash out, places
change, roads get built and before you know it a map that’s five years old is
simply a waste of your time. Did you know maps like the one’s put out by King
of the Road actually start their cartography using US Geological data from the
50’s!!! That’s why theirs says you can ride on pavement from Green Water to
Little Naches River. But you really can’t – the road was planned but never
built. Unlike most maps and guidebooks, the WRR Atlas is updated every two
years!! While that may not make the best fiscal sense, the publishers of the
WRR Atlas show a level of responsibility toward their customers unmatched by
most.
For the 2004 printing, 10,000 miles of roads were surveyed
for accuracy. The publisher stays clear of relying on US Geological surveys,
aerial photography and other untested means as the final say if a road is
passable and legal to travel down. While these formats may serve as a starting
basis, the WRR Atlas takes it one step further tracking the actual roads.
The Recreational Maps at the front of the book provide
information on hundreds of roadside attractions, natural wonders, recreation
areas, wild life, historic sites and museums. You could spend a few evenings
with your head buried in this book, only to realize you’re going on a long
vacation, right here in Washington State!
Another favorite about the atlas is the page overlap,
which is to say how much appears on a page edge that is shared by another page
in the book. The WRR Atlas features a generous page overlap so it’s easy to
find where a route continues on from a previous page.
If there’s one place the atlas falls short, it’s at the
digital domain. While the book provides GPS grids, there are no plans at
present to reproduce the book on CD-ROM. That means there’s no way to upload a
route into a GPS without manually clacking it out. For now just copy the pages
for personal use, stuff them into your tank bag and ride!
The people who worked on this book live here and have a
passion for traveling locally. In my opinion that beats the pants off anything
some 900 pound corporate cartography gorilla from back east can crank out.
Patrick Thomas/Spring 04
For more information, or to purchase the Washington
Road & Recreation Atlas
CLICK HERE
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