[pct-l] Map choices (without bickering)

[Eric Martinot]

We should all be thankful for all the maps that exist, and all the  
great efforts by all these fine people to make them.   When I  
successfully navigate, I am always grateful to the map/info that made  
it possible.

I discovered the Schaffer/Schifrin Wilderness Press guidebooks by  
accident while browsing a bookstore back in 1997 and that led to  
several section hikes in the ensuing years and falling in love with  
the PCT.  I loved Schifrin and Schaffer's narratives and felt I knew  
where I was at all times just based on the narratives, with a check of  
the included maps now and then.  A chapter could be ripped out of the  
book and carried for each section, with a few pages at a time in the  
pocket, very light.  Navigating the trail with just these guidebook  
pages, with their included maps, was no problem.

Then later came the Wilderness Press Databook which became all the  
rage, although I never saw the need for it, all the data was there  
somewhere in the guidebooks.  Now that databook is out of stock at  
Amazon and people have apparently moved to all the on-line data  
sources and town guides for non-map "data," plus of course Yogi's  
great printed Handbook. And the "distance to next water" in  
Postholer's PDF Databook, and the "water alerts" on Halfmile's maps  
and trail notes are also really welcome for managing water.

Maybe I'm sticking with the Wilderness Press guidebooks out of  
nostalgia, but no one else has put out an equivalent narrative.   
However, the maps by Halfmile, Postholer, and Erik the Black do  
address many shortcomings of the Wilderness Press guidebooks (without  
databook).  These shortcomings are:   (a) no elevation profiles, which  
we get from all three other map sources;  (b) no real color definition  
for maps except blue for water, which again we get from all three  
others;  (c) no grids or correspondence with GPS waypoints, which is  
why I really like Halfmile's maps keyed to gpx waypoint files made  
from actual hikes; (d) poor "big picture" maps to show possible exits  
and parallel roads and towns, and get a long-distance sense of the  
hike's ups and downs and twists and turns, for which I really like  
Postholer's free 250k-scale maps;  and (e) no way to see trail  
distance directly from the maps, again, available from all three others.

This year for a partial thru-hike I'm still going to use the  
Wilderness Press guidebooks, because I want the narratives, but  
augment them with some of Postholer's 250k maps, and some of Halfmiles  
31k maps with gpx files for some bits where I'll want to use a GPS  
(i.e., San Jacintos in snowy mid-April).  Maybe in future years I'll  
switch to using Halfmile or Postholer detailed maps exclusively  
instead of the Wilderness Press guide books.  It's really not a  
question of money, since not having a color printer it costs me about  
the same to print out Halfmile's free maps as to buy the map books  
from Postholer, and anyway I feel compelled to donate to Halfmile to  
the extent I use his maps.

By the way, I suppose there is an element of loyalty for some people,  
to one map source or another, for all sorts of reasons, which could  
appear as bickering.  Nothing wrong with loyalty, we should respect  
it.  And I would believe Day-Late (below) when he said all options work!

Eric



[pct-l] Bickering
David Thibault dthibaul07 at gmail.com
Thu Jan 12 21:07:54 CST 2012

Here is a little secret about maps - all the options out there will  
work just fine. The guide books , half-miles, postholers, eric the  
blacks, etc. Every option out there has been sucessfully used by thru  
hikers before you .... and they have made it from Campo to Manning (or  
vice versa). It's not the gear the gets you there (maps is gear by my  
definition). While I have a preference for maps to be a certain way I  
would have no problem with doing the PCT with any of the above  
mentioned sources - of which I have used 3 of the 4 at various times  
in my thru hike due to the post office lossing one of my pacakges  
which contained many of my maps - so I was forced to beg and borrow  
maps from whereever I could get them. Enjoy your hike - don't let the  
pre hike worries get too great. The trail is a wonderful experience  
and you'll laugh at yourself for all your pre hike worries - at least  
once you get through the Sierra's. Day-Late