What Trail maps are you using?

Sorry. I like my job...

 

This is another gripe of mine, I just omitted for brevity.

The idea that they charge customers for what would otherwise be freely available federal data is, shall we say... annoying...

 

I get that there are business costs associated with georeferencing PDFs, splitting into raster tiles, serving them from a CDN... but Avenza provides such a horrible experience that I am morally opposed to using them and will georeference the data myself or get it from the USFS EDW or other sources.

 

Plus they have a government contract for the MVUMs for western national forests, I could make one of their maps in a day, they don't even have to create the source

 

Context pumpkin. It was in response to his remark on orienteering which I quoted to avoid confusion. Some of us climb out of our trucks and self propel.

What’s wrong with being able to call in an air strike?

 

Hell, I’d just like to be able to go into a store and buy a high quality well printed map on good paper instead of the washed out indistinct tear fest available now.

 

I walk on occasion, mostly to the vault toilets or a convenient spot for a cat hole. And I'm glad someone knows how to call them in, otherwise I'd have to service transport planes.

 

That's just it, there are already federal sources that do a lot of the "value added" that Avenza is making people pay for.

You do have to pay for USGS topo maps (for example) for a print version, but you can download 7.5 min topoquads from:

https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/basic/#/

for FREE.

You know of any apps you can display geoPDFs etc...?

 

See? It’s win win, I’m telling ya...

 

Those trails unlimited maps are quite nice. Good quality waterproof paper, good color, etc... I have like 20 of them, lol.

 

You sir need a Map-folio from
Blue Ridge Overland Gear!

 

Directly, no. Caltopo only allows uploading GPX, KML, KMZ, or GeoJSON.
I think Maplets on iOS has the ability to load in your own GeoPDFs and show your GPS location on them.
GaiaGPS allows you to add a map source as a layer from a TMS map source and some others. https://help.gaiagps.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003639088-Import-a-Custom-Map-Source

I think we're getting too deep for a lot of people in this thread, so ping me on The Spatial Community Slack - it looks like you're a member on there. I'm `Jason Ferrier`.

 

I know, thread highjack....

I’m actually not a member over there...

 

Damn right

 

Nerds you guys may be, but there’s some impressive GIS knowledge here. I do miss the days when I could drive a few miles to the USGS building in Menlo Park at lunch and pick up paper maps in person. I still have quite a few.

 

I hope you stopped by when they were clearing out their inventory a few years back.

 

That’s why some of the things offered are so disappointing, knowing how easily much better maps could be produced and made accessible.

 

Yeah, even working for USGS, I've only been there a handful of times. I wish I went more, but then I'd need my own map room, lol.

 

Exactly.

I generate maps (of sorts) for a living, although on a much smaller scale. With the limited GIS knowledge I have, I could probably make a business out of it.

If I were good with money, that is, lol...