I was thinking of having a map just for my own edification on the trail. You can just buy them along the trail, right? I'm trying to keep mailing to a minimum.
Pokey2006
05-06-2008, 01:35
Very easy to buy them along the trail. Start out with maps up to Hot Springs, buy the next in Hot Springs to get you to Damascus, in Damascus, buy the next set, etc.
The only time I had trouble with this system was in the Delaware Water Gap, where the outfitter's store had been nearly wiped out by flooding, so they were all out of maps. I managed to find some low-quality maps of NJ, and for NY I found some hikers who had the maps, and I traced the elevation profiles and wrote in key info like road crossings, etc. It wasn't the best, but it carried me through.
Plan to buy maps in towns with an outfitter. Maps can be hard to come by in towns without a gear shop.