True North contributes 10 percent of sales from its products, which also include reproductions of the full wall map, to the Save the Boundary Waters group. Shaded areas mark forest cover, Primitive Management Areas and historical forest fires, while campsites are marked with dots and portages are listed - along with the number of rods visitors will trek along them. So they left behind contour lines that still give readers a clear sense of rises in elevation. They figured that, while helpful, those features make the maps too cluttered. To foster ease-of-reading, the True North guys did away with elevation numbers and lake depths. Together, they refined the canoe maps, to which Spadino added some unique insight on their features.įor Boundary Waters aficionados, some features might look a slightly different. “And, boom, things start rolling,” Arlich said of what would become True North Map Co. Spadino then reminded him of the bandanna idea they had talked about two years earlier. He revealed the 8-foot by 3-foot map to Spadino in October.Īrlich had also since cleared the most important hurdle: Receiving a copyright to the map, so it’s his to produce and sell as he likes. “The data is as good as you can get it,” Arlich said. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, became a massive spreadsheet project that would map the entire Boundary Waters. Those skills in tow, he went to work gathering data from public departments and agencies that have mapped the Boundary Waters. He would work on the comprehensive map during late nights during the summer of 2018 tending to his newborn.Ī self-proclaimed “geek” who works in 3M’s IT department, Arlich, with the help of friends, had taught himself GIS. So he embarked on a personal project to map the entire Boundary Waters. “Pretty soon, you have origami,” Arlich said with a laugh. He is familiar with the task of keeping paper maps protected in the wilderness, where they would be examined, refolded and examined again - ad nauseum. ‘Geek’-ing out over BWCAĪrlich, like Spadino, visits the Boundary Waters multiple times a year. The only problem was they didn’t own the copyright to reproduce the maps. Spadino’s was a really good idea, Arlich explained. The wilderness area became their favorite subject during get-togethers, where Spadino shared his idea about a T-shirt map.īut the more they talked about it, the less funny it seemed. When he met up with Arlich - whose wife is a longtime family friend of Spadino - the two learned of their shared Boundary Waters interest. “Why isn’t there an easier map?”īut the concept of a functional map remained in his head. “Why doesn’t somebody do that?” he remembered thinking. Desiring a peek at a map, it occurred to Spadino how helpful it would be if his brother just had a map on the back of his T-shirt. Spadino, who runs Hudson-based Blacktop Concepts, said the idea for a dynamic map took root one day when he was paddling the Boundary Waters in a canoe with his brother in the front seat. The maps’ polyester base provides moisture wicking capability since they’re printed on sub-dye equipment, they can be rewashed without losing detail, Spadino and Arlich said. The product protects for up to UPF 50 - for when the sun shines down on necks during long paddles. partners said if users prefer, they can fashion the maps into bandannas or kerchiefs. The product has buttonholes on all four corners, which allow the map to be attached to clothes or connected to a carabiner and then clipped into anything from bag straps to canoe crossbars. The result is a map that, in addition to being accurate and reliable, is designed to be worn, easily accessible and reused, the men said. Spadino and his True North Map Co.business partner, fellow Hudson resident Jerod Arlich, decided to print their product on fabric. “This,” Hudson resident Joe Spadino, clutching a map, said, “is the lifeline up there.”īut the map he held in his hand was unlike any other depicting the Boundary Waters.įor one, it’s not paper.
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