Put yourself out there. Locals are always interested to interact with foreigners, and it’s best to take advantage of this. Meet people that you can share life with while you are in their country. Immerse into their culture and be open to new idea’s. A lot of times we are closed to new idea’s and we miss out on opportunities for better things to come along. Be open, willing and accepting.

If you want to be changed, and to experience you need to leave tourist at home. Bring out inner traveler in you and see world in way that it was meant to be seen.

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• Blue –water, lakes, rivers, streams, etc. The names of bodies of water and water courses are also shown in blue, as are magnetic declination and UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) grid information.

• Brown - contour lines, contour elevations, spot elevations, sand.

• Green - areas with substantial vegetation like a forest, orchard, or vineyard

• Grey - used on back of map where different symbols and a glossary of terms and abbreviations can be found.

• Orange - unpaved roads and unclassified roads and streets.

• Purple - features added to map since original survey. These features are based on aerial photographs but have not been checked on land.

• Red - major highways; boundaries of public land areas. A red tint is used to show an urban development.

• White - areas with little or no vegetation; also used to depict permanent snowfields and glaciers

Topographic Maps Glossary

• Bearing - Angular direction expressed in degrees.

• Contour Lines – A line on a map joining points of equal elevation. These lines are used to illustrate relief on a map.

• Distortion - The difference in shape between actual curved surface of earth and flat representation of a topographic map.

• Grid - A system of horizontal and vertical lines that provide coordinates for locating points on an image.

• Magnetic Declination - The angle between magnetic north and true north, expressed in degrees and minutes, east or west from true north.

• Magnetic North - The direction your compass needle points.

• Projection - A method by which curved shape of earth is represented on a flat surface, overcoming distortion.

• Relief – The variations in elevation of earth’s surface.

• Scale – The relationship between distance on a map and corresponding distance on ground. For example, a map with a scale of 1:50,000 means that 1 unit of measurement on map equals 50,000 equivalent units on ground.

• Topographic Map – An illustration of earth’s different elevation levels by means of contour lines. They present both natural and manmade features.

• True North - Direction of northern rotational axis of earth – North Pole.

Outdoors Adventurer, Writer and Webmaster Will Robertson lives with his family in Little Rock, Arkansas.