Owing to DeLorme’s location in Maine, we have a deep affinity for our neighbors to the north and east. After all, those Canadians are gracious enough to share their air masses with us each winter. At the time of writing, the thermometer is hovering around 16 degrees below zero; that would be minus 27 for you Canadians. Not having any need or desire to venture outside in such conditions, what better way to mitigate the inevitable cabin fever than to conduct some research into the availability of map datasets for Canada to help answer a frequently asked question?
A quick Web search reveals the GeoGratis site, hosted by Natural Resources Canada, a department of the government of Canada. This data portal offers access to an expensive online archive of GIS data in both vector and raster format, including a complete collection of geographically referenced topographic maps in GeoTIFF format derived from the 1:50,000 series.
You can download these maps free of charge and they are fully compatible with all current versions of XMap, including XMap Professional. They cover all areas of the country from the U.S. border to north of the Arctic Circle, are incredibly detailed, and are of the highest cartographic quality. As with all raster datasets in XMap, they can easily be easily copied and transferred to the Earthmate PN-20 or PN-40 GPS receivers.
One of the challenges inherent in serving datasets such as this is providing a mechanism for the visitor to easily locate the particular map that they need. To help with this process, XMap users can download this OpenSpace transfer file containing an index grid that shows the geographic area covered by each sheet. Within each grid tile, the name of the individual map sheet is displayed and a hyperlink offers the ability to directly download the map without having to navigate through the GeoGratis site.
Complete instructions for this process are included in the Read Me document that is downloaded with the OpenSpace transfer file. This text file also provides the URL of the page on the GeoGratis site that describes the relevant copyright and map reproduction policies of Natural Resources Canada.
If your travel itinerary takes you north of the border, you can now bring along your copy of XMap with all of the topographic maps that you might need. And if you have some room to spare in your luggage, can you also take back some of their frigid air? Please!
