We Gotta Up Our Game (Mapboxes and Kiosks)

On a recent vacation in New Hampshire we saw some interesting examples of map boxes and kiosks.

Here's the Fox Map Box at Gap Mountain in New Hampshire with the beautiful painted fox pictures decorating portions of the kiosk.  Interestingly, this Live Free or Die State wants money to walk in the park, which our City does not.  Maybe we should set up some easy system where people could donate to trails and open space if they choose to, but for now everyone is welcome to enjoy our open space for free in Shelton.

Here's the kiosk at the Gap Mtn. N. Access Trail with the cool map box.  One interesting aspect of the kiosks is that they assign a street address to the kiosks for 911 Emergency Address purposes.  This allows someone in the woods to call in a situation to 911 with a defined street address for quick emergency response.

Here's a detailed note at another kiosk.  So that if you broke your leg and had to call for help you could let the Fire Department know where you were.

This is the sign out by the road to assist the public with the street address for the kiosk and trailhead parking.  Many of the trail parking areas are set back off the road a short ways and may be away from nearby house mailboxes, so giving the trailhead a distinct street address helps first responders.

Here's a very basic map box at one trailhead kiosk.

Nothing too fancy, but durable and practical.

Here's the trailhead kiosk; maps, rules, contact us info.

Here's another really cool map box at Rhododendron State Park.  Someone up there has a lot of artistic talent.  We thought that we had some interesting folk art along our trails, but we may need to up our game.