[at-l] guide books and maps - must have???

[PMAnderson@apshealthcare.com (Anderson, Paula_(MD))]

A very personal choice question...

personally - I loved them.  the profiles really didn't even bother me other
than 1-2x cuz I had so many warnings to pay attention to scale!  I assumed
every teensy wiggle / bump would be some pud, it rarely disapointed me then!

I would rip out the pages of the guidbook that pertained to the section and
simply carry the pages.  as they were used up, i volunteered them as
firestarter.

for me - I love maps so it was never a question of them or not.  The
guidebooks for me were a 'never be w/o' because they have more water sources
and camping spots noted.  And they give you the *specifics* on exactly how
to find that water source that is often not marked.  Like, when trail
branches off the woods road, if you follow the woods road .1 you will come
to a stream or something, often not blue blazed or noted in databook as the
trail does not technically cross the stream...  or look to your left down
slope .4 past x gap for a tiny hidden spring etc. They also had info on side
trails - which I did use one time in a sleet snow storm when my tent leaked
& I had a wet down bag & decided tenting that nite would be dicy.  w/o the
book, i'd not have known it led to a neighborhood quickly.. i had thought i
was in the boons!

there were a lot of times I would have gone thirsty or carried more water if
it weren't for the guides cuz I would have never found some of those spots.
I went w/o for a short section and it drove me nuts - so i'm never w/o the
pages.  I remember passing southbounders asking how far to the spring and
having them say there wasn't any spring and they wished there was cuz they
were low also - only to go a bit further and find it exactly where the book
said, but cuz they didn't know to keep an eye out for it, they missed it.

only you know if you are the type of person who wants to know all that and
would need or use it.  Check your outfitters to see if they carry them then
you can look & compare to info in the 2 books you have.  I never carried any
whole book - just pages from everything.  For me, I'd rather carry a few
small pages of paper vs another nalgene worth of water!

Cheerio

-----Original Message-----
From: Elizabeth A. Foshion [mailto:foshione@dteenergy.com]

 Do I really need to guide books and maps. Did you find them useful, or were
they just baggage.

Thanks.

S-girl