Piedmont Beaver Marsh Loop | Custom Wooden Hiking Map

A walking route can tell a story just as clearly as a marathon or a long-distance cycle ride. This custom wooden map follows the Piedmont Beaver Marsh Loop, a walk of approximately 12 miles, with the landscape itself taking centre stage.

From an AllTrails walk to a wooden keepsake

The customer supplied the route using AllTrails, giving me the information needed to recreate their walk as layered wooden artwork. Unlike some of my cycling maps, which can span an entire country such as Portugal, this design concentrates on the details of a single walking route.

The finished piece is A3 size and presented in a black frame. It includes the route, an elevation profile and engraved walk statistics, with the recipients' names engraved as a personal detail. Their names are not shown in these photographs.

A landscape drawn in contour lines

One of the most interesting differences between this walking map and my cycling and marathon pieces is the near absence of roads. Instead, the precisely engraved contour lines describe the changing terrain. Rivers and streams add another layer of geographical detail, while the walking route winds across the landscape in orange.

The result is a map that focuses less on the road network and more on the land the walkers actually crossed.

Small details that make the walk personal

The map includes an elevation graph, with distances and heights carefully marked so the walk can be read as well as remembered. The route statistics are engraved into the wood, rather than added as a printed label.

Small wooden pins mark the start and finish of the walk. They are individually placed to make those two points easy to find without overwhelming the map.

Your favourite walk, made into wooden art

Whether it is the Piedmont Beaver Marsh Loop, a favourite local trail, a memorable holiday hike or a personal walking challenge, the same approach can be used to create a map of your own route. A walk does not need to be a famous event to be worth remembering.

Send me an AllTrails link or your route details and I can prepare a free digital mock-up so you can see how your walk might look in wood before ordering.