Best Maps Ever

Derek Percoski is a graphic artist who “loves staring at maps.” When he moved West ten years ago, he started taking road trips across the region. And while on the road, he’d get ideas for maps.

He puts it this way.

“When I’m in a new place I’m often mentally stitching together what I see with what I recall from the maps I’ve studied. Maps relate an enormous amount of information and are such a powerful tool for understanding our environment.”

Combining his love of maps with his professional skills, Percoski started his own company, Best Maps Ever.His goal is not to get you from here to there. As he says, you’ve got “a computer in (your) pocket” for that.

Instead, he creates simple, information-laden maps you’ll want to hang on your wall, use to track your travels and inspire new adventures.

“The posters are designed to make it easy for you to mark off or stick a pin in the places you’ve been. Once you have all the national parks or ski resorts mapped out on your wall, you will soon notice a stronger urge to get out and visit new ones.”

Derek sent us four maps to review: Colorado, Utah and U.S. ski areas and Colorado 14’ers. Complete with topographical details like mountain ranges, major rivers and lakes, the maps are full of information. You could spend hours studying the U.S. ski resort map…and those hours would be completely pleasurable.

With most maps priced $18.00, they are not fine art, so you won’t mind adding checks and pins if so inclined. Best Maps Ever has state, regional and U.S. maps for snowsports, state and regional maps for peak bagging and U.S. maps for national parks/monuments and sky diving.

ADS Sports Eyewear

If you, or someone in your family wears glasses, this review is for you.

ADS Sports Eyewear makes prescription inserts for goggles that are lightweight, durable and easily snap into most goggles.

I don’t wear glasses, so for this review I had to turn to my husband and oldest son, both of whom need some correction for distance.

Both of these guys appreciated the improvement in vision and found the insert easy to use. It’s shaped like an insect and you just press down on the outer “legs” to snap it into the goggle frame.

The vision portion of the insert is about the size of a large pair of sunglasses. Still, both my husband and son commented that they’d like a bigger lens for better peripheral vision.

My son wasn’t wild about having inserts in his goggles, not because of vision, but because of vanity. He didn’t like the overall look of a goggle with an insert. My husband had no such complaints. He also thought the lenses were remarkably fog-free.

With respect to fogging, ADS shares that smudges are the points where fog starts forming (good to know!). This makes it important to keep the lenses clean, using only an approved eyeglass spray or water, and a lens cloth.

ads eyewear in goggles — **You have to look really closely to see the lenses.**

ADS uses Free-Form Digital Lens Surfacing to provide a larger “sweet spot” and overall sharper optics.

They’re currently working on new technology for Winter 2015. If you need correction, we definitely recommend checking them out.

Quick Hits

A lot of product comes across my desk, and I don’t always have time to try all of it. Here are two unique products, designed for unique situations. I haven’t tested either, but did want to share them with you.

Ruckys GoPro Mount Covers

I don’t use a GoPro, but this makes sense to me: you want to protect the camera mount from snow (if skiing) or dirt (if mountain biking) when you’re not using it. Currently, seeking funding on Kickstarter, Ruckys look like colorful hockey pucks snapped onto your helmet. You can get many more details and check out the Kickstarter campaign here.

ruckys camera mount covers — **Photo courtesy Ruckys.**

Stingray For Your Helmet

Designed to “stop the goggle snap,” a Stingray is a piece of rubber you affix to your helmet to keep your goggles on the front of your helmet when they’re not on your face. At $14.95, a Stingray is an inexpensive solution if you have goggles that move around.

More Gear Notes:

Xperio UV Lenses, Ski Dana and Munk Pack, January 30, 2015.
Get Some Soul, Save Your Knees, Read up on the Luxe Life, October 22, 2014.
Summer Trail Essentials from Osprey, Adventuress, Honey Stinger and Advocare, August 13, 2014.
Hydrate, Look Great, Keep Bruises at Bay, March 17, 2014.
Adea, 81 Head Threads, Capsul, Primaloft, Columbia and Coppertone, January 29, 2014.

To faciliate this post, I received maps, one set of corrective lenses and a Stingray to review. As always, all opinions are my own and are exactly what I would tell my family and friends.