Patrick Stephens’ adventures have taken him around the world. He currently lives in Prague, making maps for clients around the world. He also documents long-distance bike trips with videos and blog posts.

But throughout his travels, he’s remained dedicated to a side project mapping the place where he took his earliest exploits, his hometown of Jim Thorpe.

“Jim Thorpe is this beautiful little place that’s tucked into this picturesque valley,” he said. “I want people to appreciate what that is, and I hope the map allows them to appreciate that better.”

After putting hundreds of hours into the project over a period of years, late last year he released the Jim Thorpe Adventure Map to the public.

The waterproof paper map lays out dozens of trails on public lands from the Blue Mountain to Wilkes-Barre. It was designed for use by hikers, cyclists, anglers, hunters, ATV riders and boaters. It even includes the named rapids along the Lehigh River.

Paper maps may not be used much by drivers anymore. But for outdoor enthusiasts, they still offer advantages over a phone. They don’t depend on batteries or cell towers. They’re large format and easy to read. And if they get wet, the cost is $15 instead of $500.

“If you’re in your 20s, you might say ‘a paper map, who uses that anymore?’ But after you look at it, you realize you can use it along with your phone, and find that it’s useful,” Stephens said.

When Stephens was in college, he saw a professional map of a state forest in Central Pennsylvania, and he thought Jim Thorpe’s trails deserved the same attention. While the town is a regional destination for outdoor enthusiasts, its many trails have never been compiled in one place.

“There are a plethora of trails that connect to the D&L. It’s like a mini wilderness, and it’s incredible because it’s so close to New York, Philly and the Lehigh Valley,” he said.

Stephens can still retrace the trails around Mount Pisgah with his eyes closed. As a teenager, he would escape for hours on his mountain bike, following hand-drawn maps from a time in the ’80s and ’90s when Jim Thorpe was a destination for mountain bikers.

On his college breaks, he would record notes and GPS tracks that would eventually form the basis for his own map.

“It’s fun to follow these old maps and rediscover them,” he said.

After college he took a job at the D&L, which included riding the 165-mile trail end-to-end to record GPS tracks, and designing its trail map brochures - skills that would also help in creating the map.

One wouldn’t fault Stephens for giving up his project when he moved to Europe to chase love. When making a map, it helps to be located in the area you are mapping. But using his memory and high-quality satellite images, he remained committed to finishing it. He also found time to bike from Prague to Poland, over 500 miles, and document it in a video blog.

He called upon a former coworker at the D&L, Brian Greene, to test the trails and give feedback on the design of the map. Greene joined without hesitation.

“Here’s this person, a local kid who ends up becoming a world-class cartographer,” Greene said. “He’s been thinking about this his whole life, and working on it on and off for five years.”

Like Stephens, Greene considers the trails around Jim Thorpe a hidden gem. And from his own travels, he was familiar with the type of map Stephens wanted to make.

“There was no map for this area, and this is one of the premier outdoor recreation places on the East Coast. We said, ‘we should do this, and if we don’t do this, nobody’s gonna do it,’?” Greene said.

Stephens had a chance to return himself last summer to do some final verification for the map before it was published. His trip was delayed by COVID-related travel restrictions, but that just drove him to ride even more when he was at home.

“I said, I’m gonna ride my bike every day, and cover as much ground as possible,” he said.

When it came time to market the map, Stephens turned to local retailers, knowing they shared his appreciation for the area. The retailers include Lehighton Outdoor Center, Pocono Biking, Carbon County Environmental Education Center, Easton Outdoor Company and Sellers Books + Art.

Sellers Books + Art owner Randall Sellers shares Stephens’ passion for maps. He said the map is attracting attention from locals and tourists at his store on Jim Thorpe’s Broadway.

“He really knows the terrain like the back of his hand, like the old saying. He’s made a wonderful map and I hope everybody gets a chance to take a look at it,” he said.

Stephens’ website, www.offthemaps.com, includes his blog, online ordering, and a full list of retailers carrying the map.