Something I do when I'm tracking my course on a nautical chart is to use a couple of those sticky "sign here" plastic arrows to move along my line of travel whenever I take a fix, or pass a bouy. I usually have already plotted a pencil line between waypoints, so I'm just keeping track of where I'm at. It allows me to just leave common tracks I follow on the chart, but, use the removable sticky arrows to track progress. I'll sometimes jot the time down on them too.

Always good to keep a dead reckoning track anyway for myself, but, I always thought it would be good "just in case" so my son or wife would have a clue where we were if I have a problem and they have to make a call on Channel 16 for the CG or a tow boat... (something, thankfully, that hasn't happened yet!)

Any maps OBG.
If you have a trick that helps you with crappy gas station maps it would be very welcome too.
Anything and everything is fair territory.
Some of the comments coming in are for marine or aviation charts, some are for topos, and some are for street type maps...
It is all good stuff.

I have my wife handle the maps to back up the GPS while I drive. We agree not to complain about the work the other is doing.

I do it under my breath.

I keep a province wide roadmap in my car. I will likely add one to the emergent kit now.
With a few things added, like hydro lines, cut lines, some UTM numbers or maybe note down a few places latitudes and longitudes, it would be a good thing for rough navigation.
At least good enough that with a rough idea of where I was I could find the nearest town.

On this job, I use road maps. Usually, once I go to a place, I either never have to go there again, or I know how to get there again.

Since all my directions tend to have something to do with RR tracks, any permanent markings would soon make the maps useless.

So I bought a purple pen from a fabric shop to mark where I'm going. The ink in this pen slowly fades away in about 48 hours (24 hrs in a humid environment). Then, when I need to use the map again, it's unmarked and I can start over.

Sue

*perks*

Sue, do you have a brand name?

Yeah, me too. Found this online. Sue, is this the same one you use?

http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/1642-AA.shtml?lnav=markers.html

Anybody know any more about them? Like whether repeatedly marking different materials (plainpaper, tyical map paper, photocopy) with them leaves any marks or damage?

Gas station maps are the worst in the world. Their folds seem to be cast in iron. My expert navigator just folds them so that the area we are currently in, plus as much of our destination as possible, are showing in an area of map approx 12" in diameter. Trouble with this is that in no time at all folds, both factory and self made, begin to thin out, then tear. So then we buy another map...

Truck stop used to have large, laminated, spiral bound maps that were great. Even included information RV'ers need like clearance and narrow turns. Last time I looked for one was 1992 though. Don't know if they still exist with GPS and all that.

Topo maps and county land maps I cut into 11x17 inch pages and code to the corresponding pages for continuing beyond the current page. Then I bind with individual rings so I can replace pages. (and fix the ones I get out of order to start)

Another thing I do, is I have a clip board I ripped the clip off of, if you use pliers on the rivets you can do this without ruining the board itself. Then I clip my map to the board with binder clips. That way the map is fixed to the board on all sides and doesn't flap in the wind or get damaged.