Discussion: Why Learn to Make Orienteering Maps?

Here is a quick question for which I an looking for quick and brief answers.
Why should / would an orienteer like to make orienteering maps?
I'm giving a mapping presentation on June 16 and looking for reasons why some orienteers enjoy making orienteering maps and why their efforts are helpful to the sport.
I have my thoughts but what about yours.
You help will be appreciated.

Learning to map makes you a better orienteer because you witness first hand that a mapper is faced with a lot of decisions. It helps you be more flexible in your interpretations.

You learn the reverse process: the mapper sees a 3D World and has to render it into a 2D depiction, while trying to verify with a runner's eyes and imagination; the runner sees a 2D depiction and has to imagine what to expect in the 3D World, while maybe having to verify what they remember from the mapper's and course setter's notes. Being familiar with each other's process helps both.

I do it because I like seeing what I put on paper turn into a reality out in the field during an event.

Because its the only way I will get to see events run on certain terrains.

It makes you orienteer better but you also spend time in the woods and see things that you wouldn't see otherwise. How about the coyote pups that were like the little doggies in the window? How about finding lots of dropped deer antlers? Perhaps, as we age, it is a great mental puzzle to put what you see onto paper and it keeps your brain active. That might not be a real lure for people under 50 but it may be for others.

I'm under 50 but I don't see either coyote or deer when out mapping.

Just kangaroos.

tRicky . You probably see dingoes. They are a lot like coyotes.

Thanks folks. I'm finishing off the presentation this evening.
Peter, your recollections got me thinking back to the terrific things I have seen while traipsing through the woods looking for features to put on a map. Like the very dead snake still grasping in its mouth the remains of what it thought would be its next meal.
Or the mother duck taking flight as I came upon its pond only to see her turn around and land back on the pond so she could lead her 10 or so too-young-to-fly ducklings across the pond to safety.

I have a slightly more modern spin on mapping I think should be emphasized especially in the US. Making a map takes a really long time and thus many areas lack a large number of forest maps. Around Calgary we have about 10 forest maps, and thats it. Compared to places like West Point and Europe this is a tiny amount, and every map take a year or so to get done.

https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/basic/#productSearc...

I highly recommend using lidar that is provided for free that covers half of the US. If you process the data through kartapullatin then it generates an orienteering map with: vegitation, cliffs and contours. It does not pick up rocks, water features, trails and fences etc...

http://routegadget.net/karttapullautin/

If you pick an area that is mostly forest and does not have many rocks you can make a pefrect map with no effort and go run on it. The process is very fast and efficient, making it useful for making training maps or maps that are 80-90% accurate depending on the features present.

Also it takes no skill to do. Very little programming knowledge.

The process is get a .laz or .las file and drag it into the kartapullatin executable after you download the program.

No dingoes around our areas either and all our maps are pefrect.

The maps are perfect, it's the areas that are to be desired.

That tickRy is quite praticular about his R's, do you think he's been ticked off before, Tish?

Is he an Rs Whole kind of guy? I think not.

I prefer to do a half Rsed job (except with maps).

Speaking of being ticked off, often when mapping you have to get the ticks off. That is not one of the great things about mapping.

@Runner99, although mappers may not pay for a lot of lidar data in the US at the time they download it, it is probably not correct to consider it to be 'free'. Typically, tax money supports its production and distribution.

Our "free health care" also comes from taxes.... Point is that you as an individual pay a tiny amount to get it as the cost is distributed among the population.

It's like saying you'll get a free t-shirt with your race entry fee. It's not really free if you have to enter the race first is it? I think marketing departments confuse the words "free" and "complementary" (or else their research shows that people are suckered in more with the former over the latter).

Should have gone to the red hill map, we need to run that through this program!