In praise of USGS topos

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vibramhead
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In praise of USGS topos

Post by vibramhead » May 18th, 2016, 6:22 am

Here's a nice piece in the NY Times, reflecting on the beauty and wonder of USGS Topos.
It was an opus of Whitmanesque proportion, a heroic rendering of the American landscape; every last whorl and hachure and dotted line of actual topography — not to mention the name of every last desert wash, old mine or glorified goat track — was exhaustively cataloged. This 54,000-tile mosaic was not, of course, done in the cause of aesthetics, but it nevertheless represents as gorgeous and complete a depiction of the country as any ever made.
Time spent hiking will not be deducted from your life.

GPS tracks on Wikiloc.

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retired jerry
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Re: In praise of USGS topos

Post by retired jerry » May 18th, 2016, 6:28 am

and you can download them all for free

http://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/usgs/map ... rea=2)/.do

Lurch
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Re: In praise of USGS topos

Post by Lurch » May 18th, 2016, 7:22 am

Anyone else think it would be cool if someone actually collected up all the quads for the whole continental US and laid them out for display? We're what, 3,000 miles across? so at 1:24,000 it would scale out to about 660' to lay out the whole thing? around 255' at 1:62,000. That's totally doable! I demand an art installation. Oregon would only be 86'x64' or 34'x25'

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Charley
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Re: In praise of USGS topos

Post by Charley » May 18th, 2016, 9:31 am

vibramhead wrote: the beauty and wonder of USGS Topos.
Word. I love using them, even when I'm confronted by a 30 foot tall cliff. :)
Believe it or not, I barely ever ride a mountain bike.

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johngo
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Re: In praise of USGS topos

Post by johngo » June 29th, 2016, 7:29 am

vibramhead wrote:Here's a nice piece in the NY Times, reflecting on the beauty and wonder of USGS Topos.
It was an opus of Whitmanesque proportion, a heroic rendering of the American landscape; every last whorl and hachure and dotted line of actual topography — not to mention the name of every last desert wash, old mine or glorified goat track — was exhaustively cataloged. This 54,000-tile mosaic was not, of course, done in the cause of aesthetics, but it nevertheless represents as gorgeous and complete a depiction of the country as any ever made.
Vibramhead,

That is a terrific article, thanks for posting it.

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