@#%^&&*! Commercialism!!

[Hikin_Jim]

Deleted (accidental duplicate post)

[Rick M]

Got your pencil ready? You can download an entire digitized 7.5 quad and then view any portion you want...for free

http://store.usgs.gov/locator/?store_url=http://store.usgs.gov/scripts/wgate/zww20119d47dc/~flNlc3Npb249UFJEOklHU0tBSENJR1NTQVAwMjowMDAxLjAwMjkuYWYxY2ZkMWIuNTZhYyZ

Then have fun with your geotools and your gps

[Hikin_Jim]

Rick!

You're a stinkin' genius! Way to go! A little tough to print, but danged nice resolution. Any tips for printing? Or do you just have to get a really fancy printer? I was able to print about 1/3 of a quad at about 75% size on an 11 x 17 (tabloid size) piece of paper. I guess I could piece them together. Maybe I'll experiment a bit.

HJ

[Rick M]

Hmmmmmm, "any tips for printing", what exactly would you like to do? You can print out an entire quad on a single 8x11" page but it would be impossible to read (too small).

If I know where I'm going and I want a map I usually only print that section on a page and because my eyesight isn't getting any better (maybe I should get glasses?), I usually enlarge it before I print and on the back side print a possible adjoining area I might be interested in doing (remember that you should leave an itenery with someone before you go...especially if going solo). Or on the back side I might print the area I'm going into smaller and include a lot of surrounding area but possible hard to read especially at night.

When I was with San Bernardino County Desert Rescue, we made copies of every topo (15’ quads) for the county. Even at that scale, it took a binder 2” thick for all the copies (took four for each topo). I can’t imagine doing that for the 7.5’ maps. Computers, CDs, and hard drives have really made life easier in this regard. Because most of the missions we had were in the desert, the AAA auto club county maps were actually used more.

I usually drive my hiking companions crazy by photo copying (B&W) topos and either enlarging or reducing that makes it hard for them to gage distance on the map and delineate streams and other features. Many times they would say how do you know there's a lake or stream there since "light" blue would not appear. That's something I just learned from a lot of map and compass work and field geology in the days before GPS. When you're staking a claim, you really don't want to make mistakes. If I was in terrain that had considerable relief, I would frequently only use a map for navigation. About the only time I would use a compass in the mountains was in a white out or sometimes at night. If on flat ground I would often have to triangulate using the compass to determine my location on the map.

One thing I would like to mention, I think everyone in a group going out somewhere should have a copy of a map. I’ve been on way too many trips (and missions) where only one map was in the group and it got lost or someone got separated or whatever.

ps Even in this day of GPS and cell phones, I think people need to have map and compass skills…they’re fun! Try orienteering (takes more skill than geo-caching…I like that too!)

oh, by the way, congratulations on the wedding

[FIGHT ON]

Yey Rick. I like map and compass too. Either it is too easy or there is something that I don't know that I'm missing. The first thing I checked on your map site was that Vivan Creek trail and sure enough it doesn't reflect the current trail. Is that the only trail that is off or are there others?

[Hikin_Jim]

Hmmmmmm, "any tips for printing", what exactly would you like to do? You can print out an entire quad on a single 8x11" page but it would be impossible to read (too small).

Well, is there a way to have the printout go over multiple pages both horizontally and vertically? After printing all of the pages the map would span over, I could just trim the margins, tape everything together and have the entire USGS quad.

Or, is there a way to set the enlargement/shrinkage so that the printer will print at that value? For example, if I want to print at 80% of full size, is there a way to do that?

I have figured out how to print just the current view, but fitting together mapsheets after printing that way would be laborious and imprecise.

If I know where I'm going and I want a map I usually only print that section on a page and because my eyesight isn't getting any better (maybe I should get glasses?), I usually enlarge it before I print and on the back side print a possible adjoining area I might be interested in doing (remember that you should leave an itenery with someone before you go...especially if going solo).

I typically file a "hike plan" before I go out, even when accompanied. Printing out a map and going over it with a highlighter seems like an effective form of communication. When I'm leading others, I'll also print and highlight maps for everyone else.

Or on the back side I might print the area I'm going into smaller and include a lot of surrounding area but possible hard to read especially at night.

Yeah, it's nice to know what you're looking at, be able to orient yourself, and be able to adjust if you need to detour. I've had to adjust my plans more than once due to heavy snow. Really good to have the adjoining area maps if you need to detour! Not having the map can turn the detour into a disaster!

...something I just learned from a lot of map and compass work and field geology in the days before GPS. When you're staking a claim, you really don't want to make mistakes. If I was in terrain that had considerable relief, I would frequently only use a map for navigation.

That is one of the great things about mountains. Lots of relief. If the terrain is open and clear, say at high altitude, with a lot of relief, then terrain association is in some ways better than a GPS. If one kind of bears in mind the terrain as one moves along, one can make a sort of common sense check on what the GPS is telling you. It's like using a calculator. A lot of the time I'll get a ballpark figure in my head before I use the calculator so I can flag it immediately if I unknowningly hit a wrong button. I've seen guys start charging off based on their GPS when I knew "that can't be right" because I had been terrain associating the whole way along. When we went over how they had arrived at their conclusion, I was able to see where they'd made some kind of procedural error.

One thing I would like to mention, I think everyone in a group going out somewhere should have a copy of a map. I’ve been on way too many trips (and missions) where only one map was in the group and it got lost or someone got separated or whatever.

Here, here. Compass as well. It really bugged me recently when one of the guys put his compass back in the car after he saw I had one. Not good! Far better to have everyone in the group with map & compass. Even if you don't split up (say someone needs to go for help), it's still better to have the ability for others to form a "second opinion." I've seen mistakes caught that way too.

ps Even in this day of GPS and cell phones, I think people need to have map and compass skills…they’re fun! Try orienteering (takes more skill than geo-caching…I like that too!)

And compasses' don't have batteries.

oh, by the way, congratulations on the wedding

Oh, thanks.

[pdforeme]

Rick M's usgs link is (for me) busted. That is, link works fine http://store.usgs.gov/locator/?store_ur ... WIuNTZhYyZ

But anyone able to make selections and get it to do anything? (i'm using nice clean IE7 and maybe firefox can handle it...i'm just unable to select an option and get the form to spit back the option i selected

[AlanK]

It works fine for me using Firefox. That is, I can go somewhere and download the corresponding topo map. Make sure to check circle next to "MARK POINTS."

[pdforeme]

the mark points is exactly the option it won't accept., will try later from home machine w/ ffox

[Hikin_Jim]

To mark points, I just left click anywhere on the map displayed to the left of the search text box.

A standard red Google map marker appears.

I then left click the Google map marker, and I get a list of maps available for download for that spot. I click the link marked "download," and I get a zip file. I unzip the file, and I get a pdf of the map. It's pretty sweet.

You might check your security options. I needed to add *.usgs.gov to my "trusted sites" list in IE to get it to work right.

From the main IE options: select Tools, Internet Options. Then click on the Security tab. Then highlight the greet Trusted Sites icon. Click on the Sites button. Type in "*.usgs.gov and click "Add" and then "OK" and then "OK" again. Then reload the page and try it.