A Cartographer in Sunny Southern California

As I stated in a post a couple of weeks ago, Where Was I?, I recently took advantage of an invitation to travel to a warmer climate just as winter began to set into Missoula. It was a very full and fulfilling three days in sunny, windy, southern California. Here's more on that trip.

Last June I was approached by a fellow North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) member to speak at a colloquium series hosted by his school, University of Redlands (UR), and Esri, a leading Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software producer based in Redlands. I was happy to accept the invitation to speak to his Masters of Science in GIS students, as well as other mapping professionals.

To make the most of the travel, I added other events to my schedule and was able to utilize some of the great public transportation options available in this area.

Kicking things off, right out of the gate, I caught the FlyAway bus from the Los Angeles Airport to downtown. From there I rode the Metro train, arriving within a block of my first meeting, a productive gathering with transportation officials and bicycling advocates. We discussed the process of designation of U.S. Bike Route (USBR) 66 in California and there was much excitement in the room about this possibility. The route will be good for the cities through which it passes and it will dovetail nicely with Adventure Cycling's latest big project, Bicycle Route 66.

After the meeting I returned to the Metro station, catching the train to San Bernardino, where my local host picked me up for the short drive to Redlands. The next day, I lunched with a couple of Esri employees who are NACIS members to discuss NACIS board business. They have a beautiful campus for their offices and we ate outside, a real treat for a Montanan on November 30th!

Later that afternoon, I gave the aforementioned UR/Esri presentation. It was well attended and the room felt nearly full. The audience even included an Adventure Cycling member who had recently met Jim Sayer, Adventure Cycling's executive director, at the California Bike Summit. I fielded some good questions about the process we use to create and research our maps, and about Adventure Cycling in general.

On my last day in Redlands, I met with three Adventure Cycling members from the surrounding area. We shared good coffee and Thai food over discussions of bicycle travel. Conversations like these are pleasant reminders of why I love my job and this organization.

I returned home rejuvenated and excited to tell everyone how great this trip had been, eager to start thinking about how and when I could do it again.

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GEOPOINTS BULLETIN is written by Jennifer 'Jenn' Milyko, an Adventure Cycling cartographer, and appears weekly, highlighting curious facts, figures, and persons from Adventure Cycling's Route Network with tips and hints for personal route creation thrown in for good measure. She also wants to remind you that map corrections and comments are always welcome via the online Map Correction Form.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2011/12/cartographer-in-sunny-southern.html

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