In the rural woods of North Amherst, the rare but remarkable Geolope can be found.

A Geolope isn’t a strange cloven-hoofed creature, though it was, at one time, unique to the region. Rather, it’s one of many niche products created and sold by Chris Ryan, owner of New England Cartographics. These are surplus maps cut and folded into unique envelopes and stationery, and they’re being seen more frequently in other locales, such as gift shops and desk drawers, across the country.

Ryan conceived the product about a decade ago, and it’s the signature offering of New England Cartographics. Beyond Geolopes, though, the company also publishes and sells a large series of guidebooks, many specific to Western Mass., which already have a healthy following and detail several of the less-beaten paths in this region and well beyond.

And if it’s just a point in the right direction you’re looking for, Ryan also creates and publishes maps, many of which are printed with environmentally friendly soy-based inks and recycled paper products.

It’s an intriguing, growing business that operates largely out of a modest office in Amherst with a staff of one. But Ryan has built a solid Web and retail presence in recent years, especially with the Geolope raising first eyebrows, then interest among specialty retailers and lovers of both maps and the outdoors.

Leading the Way

Ryan, a Boston native, created his business 12 years ago, though its true beginnings were even earlier, while he was a geography student at UMass in the 1980s. Ryan created a hand-drawn trail map of the Holyoke Range for a Cartography class, and, after getting an ‘A’ on the project, managed to sell a few to classmates.

A few years passed before he tried another entrepreneurial venture, this time partnering with writer Bruce Scofield in 1991 to publish what would become New England Cartographics’ first guidebook — Hiking the Pioneer Valley.

Ryan explained that Scofield had written a number of guidebooks for the New Jersey area before relocating to Western Mass., and he hiked trail after trail across the Pioneer Valley in order to write accounts of each, which the duo edited together.

“It turned into a smashing success,” he said, noting that, for a business of New England Cartographics’ size, this translated into selling out the book’s first edition and updating its contents three times since.

The business was incorporated, and more guidebooks followed throughout the 1990s and the early years of this decade, including a Metacomet-Monadnock Trail Guide now in its 10th edition; Skiing the Pioneer Valley; Bicycling the Pioneer Valley and Beyond; Golfing in New England; Birding Western Mass.; and Waterfalls of Massachusetts, among others.

Most of the guides are penned by local writers and experts in outdoor recreation, who spend weeks exploring and documenting various areas. Ryan continues to edit many of them as well, and said the bulk of the guides have sold out and been subsequently revised and updated at least once.

“Some of our authors are now being recognized as authorities on their subjects,” he said, referencing, as one example, Craig Della Penna, who researched and wrote Great Rail Trails of the Northeast and Great Rail Trails of New Jersey for New England Cartographics. The guides are available on the company’s Web site as well as through local and national booksellers such as Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com.

But more importantly, Ryan said he believes sharing a once-esoteric knowledge of rail trails through the guides has helped to push some larger projects forward.
Della Penna worked for several years marketing rail freight in the railroad industry, and later with the national Rails-to-Trails Conservancy as its New England field representative. As his knowledge of rail trails and their economic and preservation benefits became more well-known and sought after, in part through the four books he’s written, greater opportunities presented themselves.

Today, Della Penna owns and operates a nonprofit consulting firm to help move rail-to-trail projects along, the Sugar Maple Trailside Bed and Breakfast in Northampton, and a land acquisition company, the Central Highlands Conservancy, which buys former railroad corridors in order to preserve them. The company currently owns 3.5 miles of the future Mass Central Rail Trail in two Central Mass. communities.

“He’s regarded as one of the premier experts on rail trails,” said Ryan, “and some of our other authors have had similar experiences.”

Clearing a Path

But while its influence spreads, New England Cartographics remains true to the products and philosophies surrounding its humble beginnings. It continues to publish and sell several maps of the region, including the trail map of the Holyoke Range, now in its fourth edition.

In fact, a number of the company’s original maps, among them Mt. Tom, Mt. Toby, and Mt. Greylock trail maps, are in their third or fourth editions, and most are produced on recycled paper and printed with soy-based inks, in keeping with the company’s overall culture of preservation.

There are a few new offerings as well, including a Connecticut River Guide, a Grand Monadnock Trail Map, and a waterproof Quabbin Reservation Guide Map, printed on ‘polyart,’ a plastic paper product. New England Cartographics also carries maps published by other parties, such as Rubel BikeMaps, focused largely on the Western New England region.

The company’s map division is what eventually led Ryan to creation of the Geolope — first called Topolopes, because they are created from outdated topographical maps Ryan buys literally by the ton from various governmental mapping agencies like the U.S. Geological Survey.

Ryan said he contracts out much of the cutting and folding needed to create the envelopes and stationery, working with both local firms such as Southworth Paper in Agawam and Judd Paper in Holyoke, as well as other plants in New York City. He generally converts 100,000 sheets of map paper to envelopes and stationery at a time, and then usually has to sit on his product for a while; despite its growing popularity, the Geolope remains a niche product, Ryan said.

“The end-user is usually a map maven of some sort,” he said, “someone who works in forestry or surveying, sportsmen and outdoorsmen, or fans of recycled products in general.”

But Ryan explained that New England Cartographics has always catered to a specific set of outdoor, preservation-minded people, and while no major expansion plans are on tap, he intends to continue marketing its books, maps, and the increasingly well-known Geolope to new audiences. At this time, orders are brisk enough that filling them takes the better part of two days for Ryan, who said the company is profitable.

The Extra Mile

“I’m going to continue to fill orders and keep the books, the maps, and the Geolopes alive for as long as I can,” he said. “I take a certain satisfaction in being able to introduce the products to the national marketplace, even if it’s a small-scale acceptance. I think they’ve made the world a little bit of a better place.”

At any rate, they’ve made it a slightly more navigable place — one where even Geolopes are more easily spotted, and sold.

Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at stevenson@businesswest.com