The modern challenges of topos

Mt Jefferson reflected in Mudhole Lake

In the "good-old" days you'd get some topo maps for a backpacking trip and would be ready to go, right?   It's not so easy anymore.   I've strongly resisted GPS'es for years, but it seems that people need gadgets and paper is becoming obsolete.   My luddite inclinations seemed foiled at every turn.

I had a trip planned in the Mt. Jefferson Wilderness area with my brothers-in-law, Ken and Robert earlier this month.   I tried to order paper topographic maps from the USGS.   I thought I'd placed the order well in advance, but it didn't seem to get placed and put into the mail until quite late.  THEN, it got shipped via FedEx ground delivery from Beaverton OR to my house in Massachusetts.   Turns out that this is actually far slower than the US Mail.   Go figure.   Well, the maps arrived at my house thirty minutes after I got on a plane to Portland, OR.   

The woman watching our dogs kindly agreed to Fed Ex overnight the topos at a cost of $55 to Oregon.   I eagerly awaited their arrival.   When they showed up, I tore into the shipment.   But, the map of Mt. Jefferson looked strange.   Turns out it was Mt. Jefferson in Montana.   Someone at the USGS had screwed up.    

Undaunted, I managed to download the USGS topo of the Mt. Jefferson in Oregon, and took it on a thumb drive to a local Kinkos for printout.   When I asked to print it out, they refused, saying that they can't print out something that was available from another source. 

I returned to my brother-in-law's place, and then downloaded a set of topos that covered the area.   I cut and pasted them seamlessly together to capture the area we planned to hike in.   Then, I put in lines of magnetic declination, separated by a spacing of 1 mile - my usual trick for on-the-go navigation.   Then, I returned to Kinko's.   Since I cut out the "USGS" logo from the maps, and it was suitably altered, they seemed comfortable enough printing it out.   

Phew.   So, maybe $75 wasted on the USGS with no map to show, but a free download, some messing around in Adobe Illustrator, and for $6, a wonderful topo which is far more useful than what I could've got from the USGS. 

Turns out, it was perfect.  In the high country, we encountered a bunch of snow banks that obscured the PCT and some side trails, but by following the contours, we made out just fine.   

Where there's a will, there's a way!