Mapmaker gets a bird's eye view of the terrain
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Steve Smirthwaite's company Trailmaps produce a range of maps covering many popular walking and cycling areas in the Highlands.
Steve Smirthwaite has the perfect job for any map enthusiast.
The 52-year-old gets a birds-eye view of some of the most incredible places on earth, flying passenger jets on long haul flights.
Personally, whenever I’m in a plane, I look down and try to map places out on the ground. I hope Steve doesn’t do the same, but I ask him just in case.
“There’s a point on the approach to Los Angeles airport where you have to be at 19,000ft and make a turn, and you’re right above Big Bear,” says Steve, referring to the popular walking and biking area within the San Bernardino National Forest outside LA. “Obviously, you’re concentrating on the job – but you can’t help but look out at something as magnificent as that.”
It’s not just the other side of the Atlantic where Steve is enthusiastic about, though. I met him at Nethy Bridge in the Highlands’ own Cairngorms National Park to do some mountain biking nearer to home, and his passion for the outdoors was clear straight away.
We planned to do a route from one of Steve’s own Trailmaps, which he produces from his home in Nairn. His Scottish maps cover some of the most popular cycling and walking areas in the Highlands, including Inverness, Nairn, Abriachan, Strathpeffer and Speyside.
Steve, an orienteering enthusiast, began making the maps because of the difficulty of following off-road routes on Ordnance Survey maps.
He said: “You can be looking at a track wondering if it’s okay to cycle along and if you’ll make it to the other end, which is especially important if you’ve got kids with you.”
So, seven years ago, Steve made his first Trailmap – showing the forest tracks around Aviemore and Rothiemurchus, with his own code for the level of difficulty of each section. He also uses symbols to show boggy areas, gates, bike shops, cafes and all manner of things useful to those of us who like to get out and about in the great outdoors.
He has personally cycled all of the tracks shown on the maps and recorded them on GPS – no mean feat when you see how many maps he has produced, both here and overseas.
Brought up in Hertfordshire, the Arsenal FC fan moved to the North with the RAF in 1984 having sworn never to live in the south east of England again. He has never looked back.
On our ride, he leads me along lovely forestry tracks through the Abernethy National Nature Reserve, across the River Nethy and up to the tranquil Loch a’Chnuic, where we stop for a bite to eat and to take in the incredible views of the Cairngorms across the water.
Steve tells me: “This is one of the most beautiful places in the whole of the Highlands, and it is so little known.
“When people ask what brought me up to the North – this is it,” he adds, gesturing to the view.
Trailmaps, printed on waterproof paper with recommended biking and walking routes, are available to buy in many local shops and visitor information centres around the Highlands. You can also buy them online at www.trailmaps.biz
It’s impossible to disagree with him. This is an incredible spot, one I’ve never been to before and one I’m delighted to have discovered, with a little help.
I share Steve’s passion for the Highlands. Three days before he met me, he was in Hong Kong, taking in some trails on his mountain bike before flying back to the UK. He also has a mountain bike stored in a hotel in Los Angeles for when he has to stay there for a few days between flights.
But here is where he comes back down to earth, living with his wife Penelope, who helps with the Trailmaps business, and heading for the great outdoors with her and their two daughters, Rachel (22) and Lucy (20) whenever he gets the opportunity.
Steve’s favourite biking area from his maps is still around Rothiemurchus, where he used to take his family around the excellent trails, and up to Loch an Eilean.
“It’s where you’d take anybody who came to visit the Highlands,” he explains.
We explored a little further along the track from the loch before retracing our route until following the singletrack marked on the Abernethy Trailmap back to the easier forest trails.
It’s here Steve is in his element, as he goes flying off ahead of me and I have to seriously up my effort to keep him in my sights as we zoom along this excellent natural trail - through fords that soak our feet - back to the forest lodge near the bridge over the river.
We follow easy tracks back to Nethy Bridge from here until – snap! Steve’s saddle goes flying and we both slam on the brakes. A bolt has snapped clean in two and Steve is forced to stand up on the pedals for the couple of miles back to the village... I just hope the planes he flies are made of sterner stuff!
