Thanks! It may be that I've stared at topo maps for so long that it there's just some odd comfort in seeing familiar routes, but the
other "map" has always felt off to me, in just about every way imaginable. I think the tourist / disneyland factor is pretty prevalent, and a good portion of missions recently have been from out of state visitors. Oddly, commonly Texas and Florida? I literally had a guy come running out of the woods, in the snow, coming out the top of Larch Mtn on Tr 424, after getting turned around attempting to follow that map for the Multnomah / Wahkeena loop. And he had actually talked with one of the lodge people who helpfully highlighted his "route" and sent him on his way. We just happened to be training in the area, and he ran straight into a team fully decked out and branded with SAR, and thought we were there for him. In reality, he was in PDX on business, and went on a day hike, it probably would have taken a day or two before anyone even reported him missing, let alone where he might have been
That was the first time he'd ever actually seen snow, and it was not a pleasant experience.
Like I said above, the square block of map up there was done as a bandana print for our members and as a fundraiser, since most people are packing a bandana anyways, might as well have one with a map printed on it (that's also one of the reasons I kept it single color). You're more than welcome to print and hand out as many of those as you want. I'd recommend laser printing, since it won't bleed if it gets wet, or if you really want to go bombproof I would highly recommend a product called Revlar made by
Relyco. It needs to be run through a laser printer, but this stuff is as bombproof and waterproof as you'd want. It's expensive, at about $0.60 / sheet for normal paper, but I believe you can request samples and they'll send you a couple sheets. I prefer it over the greasy oily feel of rite-in-the-rain. I've got mini half-sheet topo map sets printed on this stuff.
Mildly shameless plug, if anyone's interested in a bandana I can try and figure out the best way to do that. We don't currently sell them online, since that's a hassle with shipping and everything but might be able to make arrangements. We will be doing a large annual SAR "Multnomah Falls Cleanup" event in the next month where they'll be available as well.