Topo Maps

Wendy Milner (wendy@wendy.cnd.hp.com)
Fri, 22 Nov 1996 10:26:24 MST

I have used topo maps frequently to find my way through the mountains.
They are great *if* you know how to use them. If you do not have
instructions and practice, then they are most confusing. For a
person with no experience with a topo map, trying to use one with
the trail marked on it would be pretty useless, or worse, the
person could get lost because there was just too much information
on the map. It sounds strange to those of us who have used topos
successfully, but too much information is just as bad as too little.

Ride management needs to look at where the ride goes, how hard it
would be to get lost, how well marked the ride is, etc. And then
determine how much information to put on the map. In some cases
that quickly hand-drawn map is all that the riders need. In other
cases, using a topo map that is a bit faded (so as not to confuse the
non-topo reading riders), and drawing the trail on the map is what is
needed. It really depends on the ride.

--
Wendy


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  Wendy Milner                     HPDesk:   wendy_milner@hp4000
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