Resource questions

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I am planning a section hike from Amicalola to Erwin this fall, late Sept thru Oct. I was getting ready to order maps from the ATC and I noticed that you can buy just maps or a combination of a book and map. There is not much information about the books. Are they worth buying? Has anyone seen them? I would imagine that they have information about the local area but the combination more then doubles the cost. Are they worth it? Also in the ATC companion on the elevation maps there is a symbol that I can't figure out. It is in a white square and consists of a small circle with a wiggly line below the circle. I can find no explanation in the book. I thought that it could be a symbol for privy or bear cable but comparing the symbol with the written information regarding location of privies and bear cables there does not seem to be any correlation. Does anyone know what this symbol refers to?

[Slo-go'en]

The Companion (or the AWOL guide) is a must have. Books for specific sections aren't. The books give a detailed, blow by blow description of the trail, such as "AT enters woods, turning sharply right (east) up hill following woods road. Trail crosses brook, levels off descends to cross second brook and so on and so on". This is more information then you really need. The books also generally contain a lot of generic information and history of the area, which can be interesting but of no great importance to actually hiking the trail.

Can't help with the symbol.

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Slo-go'en, Thanks for the information on the books. The history part may be interesting reading prior to the trip but I certainly wouldn't want to carry the extra weight on the trail. Thanks again.

[MuddyWaters]

maps are good. Books are worthless.
You really want a trail guide, maps are in case need to bail out, etc so you know where you are, where roads go , etc.

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When I started this thread I also sent an e-mail to ALDHA regarding the funny symbol. Got a response tonight. The symbol refers to water sources. Now it makes sense. They acknowledged that the explanation had been inadvertently left out of the AT companion