[pct-l] PCT ATLAS, GUIDEBOOKS, YOGI'S BOOK, and DATA BOOK...

[Brian Lewis]

I did SoCal this year carrying pages from pretty much every guidebook option
--- Yogi, PCT Atlas, Wilderness Press "official guide", and data book.   A
couple of augmenting points I haven't seen mentioned yet (or at least,
recently) --- though as always, Tatoo Joe's comments make a lot of sense
(glad you're back, Joe!).
PCT Atlas and the data book don't provide identical mileages for the same
location.  My recollection is that Eric wanted the PCT Atlas to be more
accurate and so didn't tie himself to the established NOBO mileages.   The
downside to this is that if you're using a particular mileage point as a
reference --- in a trail journal, or calculating mileage walked, referring
to Yogi data or whatever --- it's helpful IMO to have a universal standard.
 For now, at least, that standard is pretty clearly what everyone has been
using (data book).    Not a huge factor, but I did my trail journal using
PCT Atlas data starting out, and then switched over because there was at
that time no "mid-Cal" PCT Atlas book available.

PCT Atlas is wonderful in that it efficiently captures most of the
information I want for navigation (not for back-story enrichment) on a
single sheet of paper, but it does have its limitation.  If the data book is
the "book of lies" in terms of ups & downs not captured between points, the
PCT Atlas is worse --- or at least the 2008 edition of the SoCal book was
worse --- in that it has less data points over the same period. It offered
an actual visual profile on a per-page basis, much much more granular and
potentially useful than the per-section profiles in the data book.   But
ultimately IMO actually worse than useless, because it just connects
straight lines between less data points.  Even after I intellectually
understood that a straight line on the profile doesn't mean a perfectly
smooth grade on the ground, my eye-brain connection kept tricking me in this
regard.   You might have a different reaction.

The maps are a trade-off.  Color maps given in the official guidebook,
whereas you get an integration of PCT datapoints shown on PCT Atlas maps
along with UTM coordinates (I understand that latter are coming to official
guide maps, but aren't there yet).

My ultimate thought is that either choice is a good one.  PCT Atlas is a
fine standalone solution, though I personally would carry Yogi's guide pages
in any events.  Or guidebook plus databook pages.   Or databook pages plus
Halfmile's excellent maps for California.


Brian Lewis
http://postholer.com/brianle