Maps For Hiking, Skiing and Other Outdoors Activities

	Easy to download and print maps designed with the needs of the outdoor person in mind. These maps reduce the clutter of topographic maps but retain elevations at 100-foot intervals to provide a sense of the terrain. Trails have been located by GPS to give accurate and up to date information. And because only the needed area and information is included these maps can be captured and printed faster and cheaper than others. More discussion of the maps, origin of the data and other map details. Click on a map name to see the map. Then capture and print it on your own computer and printer. Help with capturing and printing.
Tanbark Trail - Hearts Content	Covers the southern terminus at the North Country National Scenic Trail near Dunham Siding in the Allegheny Nationa Forest to the Hearts Content Recreational Area. The northern edge of this map matches the southern edge of the Tanbark Trail - Sandstone Springs Map.
Tanbark Trail - Sandstone Springs	Covers the northern portion of the trail from Hearts Content Recreational Area to the trails northern terminus at US Route 62 along the Allegheny Reservoir. The southern edge of this map matches the northern edge of the Tanbark Trail - Hearts Content Map.
Hickory Creek Trail	This 12-mile loop trail lies within the Hickory Creek Wilderness Area of the Allegheny National Forest. No roads are crossed. The trail head and parking lot are located along the Hearts Content Road one-half mile north of the entrance to the Hearts Content Picnic Area.
OUR NEW MAP VENTURE	As you see from the list above we have just begun our map making. About three months before this writing I sought a map of the Tanbark Trail on the Internet and could only find one showing the middle portion. Seeing a need, I began making the map. After gathering the relevant topographic maps and US Forest Service brochures it was time to take to the woods. A party consisting of Gene Cornelius, Rick Lutz and myself, John Shinaberger, walked the trail from Hearts Content to the Allegheny River, obtaining a trace of the route and coordinates of things of interest. Now there are three maps completed in sufficient detail to add to the AOC’s web site.
OUR SOURCES	These maps are based on the USGS 7.5 Minute Series topographic maps from which the topography, roads and most other features were taken. Trails shown as heavy, dashed lines are taken from recent USFS maps or have been tracked by hand-held GPS. Trails shown as dotten lines are copied from the USGS maps without being confirmed.
TOPOGRAPHY	As already mentioned the stadia line interval is 100-foot. This is sufficient for the user to visualize the land forms. Supplementary lines, drawn dashed, have been included where they aid in clarity. These usually occur when a high point is within twenty feet of the next 100-foot interval. These dashed, supplemental lines always have their elevation indicated.
PRINTING A MAP	Here is how the author printed these maps from the Internet using MS Windows Vista and an HP Photosmart C5180 printer. The results were good. With other equipment and software you may need to adjust these procedures. Go to the web page of the map you wish to print. Save the map as a GIF image. This is the format used to post the image as it takes less storage space, downloads quickly and produces adequate quality. Open the GIF file in a picture viewer. We used MS Office Picture Manager but other similar viewers should give similar results. Print on 8 ½ X 11 inch paper. The image will fill the page with about ¼ inch margins. Color printing is preferred but black-and-white is adequate. If your copier will not print within ¼ inch of the edge, shrink the image using whatever picture editing tools you have such as MS Office Picture Manager. A simple program such as comes with most operating systems will do. The less the image is reduced the better the quality will be so reduce it only as much as required to print it all on one sheet. Another solution is to copy the map on the web page and paste it into a word processing software document. Do any resizing you feel is necessary, making sure to keep the same height-width ratio (Drag the corners, not the sides.), then print it.