Friday, April 24, 2020

mapping my way back to big sur

a long while back, fuji showed off some upper deck cards that featured united states geographical survey maps embedded in them like relics.  when i first started my career, i used these maps for rough contour information, so i was drawn to the idea and the cards that fuji showed. when i saw the second card that he showcased and recognized that there was a card featuring big sur, i had to have one.

voila!
that's the famous bixby bridge and the pacific coast highway (pch) at the left.  here's the back of the card:
i posted a different big sur card back in august of 2018, and noted why this area is of such interest to me.  like the back of the map card says, it is a popular camping destination (i've camped in that area many times), and i have a bunch of photos of the bridge.  you can hike a bit inland and get some good views of the bridge with the pacific ocean in the background.

here's the full big sur usgs topo map
i should probably show where my piece of map is on the full map, so here you go:
and here's a zoomed-in view of the area that yielded the piece of map embedded in my card
and now with the card overlaid:
or if you prefer a closer look:
my card has a bit of pch and the big sur river, and is just north of the village of big sur.  it's a great card that i very happily have added to my collection.  and, if all had gone according to plan, i would have been back in the area this weekend participating in the big sur international marathon events, although just the 11-miler this time around.  instead, it has been postponed, so i will have to wait a while longer before i get back to the ragged edge of the western world.

thanks for posting about these cards fuji!

4 comments:

  1. I might have to get one of those Bixby Bridge cards. I went across that twice daily from 7th grade through ninth. We lived at a Navy base 5 miles north of Big Sur and I rode the bus into Carmel each day.

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  2. Wow. I like how you were able to match your piece of the map to where it's located on a big map. It doesn't look like Upper Deck made these map relics this year, but if they ever do in the future... I look forward to adding more to my collection.

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  3. That's pretty sweet. Maybe one day there'll be Great White North map cards too.

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  4. I'm not a fan of these cards, but overlaying them on an actual map sure looks neat, too bad you couldn't display it like that.

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