Best 14ers maps?

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Harrison1991
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Best 14ers maps?

Post by Harrison1991 »

Trails illustrated or outdoor trail maps? Any other suggestions?
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CaptainSuburbia
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Re: Best 14ers maps?

Post by CaptainSuburbia »

The 14er series at REI is good.
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pw
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Re: Best 14ers maps?

Post by pw »

You can download quads from the USGS site, free, but navigating through the site is a challenge. That would require a printer of course, and you can just get part of the map if you are using your own printer, you zoom in on the part you want and print that.

https://store.usgs.gov/

You can also poke around here and see if you get anything from this place.

https://listsofjohn.com/PeakStats/selec ... =1000&s=CO
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pwahl/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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mnsebourn
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Re: Best 14ers maps?

Post by mnsebourn »

I love the National Geographic maps.

https://www.amazon.com/Colorado-Bundle- ... +14&sr=8-1
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TravelingMatt
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Re: Best 14ers maps?

Post by TravelingMatt »

I think Latitude 40 and SkyTerrain produce better maps than Trails Illustrated does, with better local info, but mine seems to be a minority opinion. The TI maps sometimes cut off in inconvenient places. In particular I like the Lat 40 map of the western San Juans, labeled as "Ouray/Silverton/Telluride" I believe.
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Scott Conro
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Re: Best 14ers maps?

Post by Scott Conro »

I bought the Outdoor Trail maps complete 14er set in 2018, and I enjoy them. They helped me plan efficiently for the Wilson group and helped me navigate south of Missouri getting back to Elkhead when I was new to off trail travel. I had the La Plata one with me for Sayres the other day for a navigation backup. Very durable, stuffed in a small pocket, and no issues with them when they git a bit wet.
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DeTour
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Re: Best 14ers maps?

Post by DeTour »

The Outdoor Trail maps are significantly better than the Nat Geo maps. That was Bill Middlebrook’s assessment a few years ago. More detailed scale, lighter, durable, affordable.
https://14ersmaps.com/
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Re: Best 14ers maps?

Post by rdp32 »

Caltopo
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Re: Best 14ers maps?

Post by TravelingMatt »

rdp32 wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:43 pmCaltopo
During my recent couple months of homelessness wandering around the mountains of NV/ID/MT/WY I've taken to downloading my routes beforehand on Caltopo's app. Worked great, especially because my outings were spread out and acquiring a paper map for each one would have been a pain. I plan to continue this practice when I get back to doing the 13ers, although I'll still carry paper maps because phones can die, and I'll only have the immediate area around my outings on the phone.
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Re: Best 14ers maps?

Post by BillMiddlebrook »

DeTour wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 8:30 pm The Outdoor Trail maps are significantly better than the Nat Geo maps. That was Bill Middlebrook’s assessment a few years ago. More detailed scale, lighter, durable, affordable.
https://14ersmaps.com/
And I’m sticking with that. The Outdoor Trail maps are top of the line.
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Re: Best 14ers maps?

Post by 9patrickmurphy »

I've never used physical maps, only Gaia, but here's my two cents anyway - Trails Illustrated is great for trip planning, but not very good for navigation. It shows things at a higher level, has good information about the shape that trails are in, shows how trails will ink up, etc, but it is not very detailed at all. I use Trails Illustrated all the time when planning out trips and route, but when I'm hiking I stick to USFS topo (basically CalTopo) because it's much more detailed, much better for real-time use (reading topo lines, estimating distances, etc). The $40/year for the highest-tier version of Gaia is incredibly worth it, IMO, but I undertand some people just prefer physical maps.
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Re: Best 14ers maps?

Post by JacobW »

Caltopo and the Avenza app, but if you want physical maps, these are great.
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