Long Term Report: DeLorme Oregon Atlas & Gazetteer

Personal biographical information

David Posalski
Age 30
Male
5’11", 180 cm
265 lb , 120 kg
dposalski (at) msn (dot) com
Aloha, Oregon, USA
02/07/05

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.

Manufacturer’s data

Manufacturer- DeLorme
Website- http://www.delorme.com
Model- Oregon Atlas & Gazetteer, Fifth Edition
Copyright - 2004
Pages- 88
MSRP- $19.95 US

Field Conditions

I used this book at my home in Portland Oregon for my entire trip planning over the last six months.  It has been also carried on a trip that was planned using the book.  The weather was wet, breezy, and cold.  The trip was into the Cascade Mountains of central Oregon.  The book held up well in the weather using reasonable care to keep it dry.  The rain was blowing sideways and the temperature dropped to about 25 F (-4 C).

Long Term Report

The book has been very useful in planning trips to destinations in Oregon.  I have primarily used it for planning backpacking trips that may have some fishing potential.  I have used it to determine how far the hike would be from the car and then used the internet to determine whether fishing would be good at the location.  It has been very effective for this use.  I have found the maps to be accurate to the degree that I have used them and they have allowed me to navigate and know where I am on highways.  I can use large features such as mountains or towns for orienting the maps when using them.

The maps are not appropriate for trail navigation and do not have contour lines close enough to be able to hike safely in mountainous terrain.  I have not used them on the trail other than to determine their durability.  I have cut out a page and carried it with me in my pack to determine its tear resistance and folding ability.  It is both durable and reasonably tear resistant.  Due to the fact that I would not use the map in this manner in the future, I do not recommend carrying the book during backpacking or even a page.  I think the book is best left as a whole as the pages lead into each other for large scale navigation.  I have not found the book to be useful using a GPS as I only use the GPS for occasional waypoints on a trail to ensure a safe exit from an area.

Overall, the book is useful for finding new places and activities to do and would be very appropriate for the family trip planning that I have done with it.  It is not a collection of small scale maps that is appropriate for hiking navigation.  I would recommend that they add a forest service map reference for areas that are covered by more appropriate maps.  This would make it easier to use by allowing me to determine what map to use once I found the area that I want to explore.

I want to thank De Lorme for the opportunity to test this useful resource.