I started backpacking as a kid in the Boy Scouts doing overnighters. In the last few months, I have caught a bug that wants me to go out and see things that relatively few people have seen. This has drawn me back to backpacking. I have found it to be the most enjoyable thing I know. I have gotten my wife involved and we get out and hike at least once a month. I generally carry about 40 lb (18 kg) and am in the process of decreasing that weight.

I have used the book only at home planning for trips this winter and for the spring and summer. I have found myself spending long periods of time looking at the maps and daydreaming about way more trips than I am going to be able to take. I used the book for planning a sledding trip for my family and was very pleased with what I found. Nobody fell off a cliff and everyone returned home with all their fingers and toes. Thank you contour lines. I found that the intervals allowed for determining steep areas, but they were not very useful for once we got to the area. There were still obstacles far bigger than one would want to venture around, but this is to be expected in a map of this scale.

I have used this to plan general areas that I wish to go to in the near future and hope to use it extensively for specifically planning my trips this summer into fishing trips. I am an avid fly fisherman, so I can use this atlas to plan areas to explore. I do not find this helpful for on the trail, as the contours are too great. The book itself is too heavy to carry backpacking and is just not very useful for small-scale navigation. I thought that maybe photocopying a section of the atlas would eliminate the need to carry the whole book, but I don’t see it as a useful tool on the trail at all. I think that an excellent improvement for the atlas would be a grid that corresponds to forest service maps that are much more detailed and cover a smaller area. This would make this a very useable tool for backpackers. We have planned several weekend excursions with the information in the front of the book and used the map for road navigation. This has been very effective. I think this atlas is a great tool for me as the backpacker that wants to plan a trip a little farther from home than is typical and would like to know what I will find there. I should have it with me all the way until the time that I leave the car. Then it will be saved for the way home.

1. How accurate are the maps?
2. Are they carryable?
3. Do they allow for GPS use?
4. Is this book suitable for trip planning only or can I make color copies to carry with me?
5. Is there information that will make getting outside easier to plan?