The url www.topozone.com was probably mentioned which allows you to specify a location and see a topo map of that area. They do not cover too large an area but are actual scans of topo maps. I might also suggest www.gisdatadepot.com which allows you to download topographic maps from almost anywhere in the world. They will sell your selections on CD to you or you may simply download them for free. Upon entering the site, choose 'DOWNLOAD GIS DATA... ENTER HERE' and then choose from the alphabetic table the letter beginning the country you wish. Now the topo maps from the US are DRS (Digital Raster Scan) maps in the traditional TIF format which contains the embedded information for coordinate information for programs which use that. I use Linux and have such a program and you can zoom back and forth, move the cursor around, etc. to see the lat/long and all sorts of stuff including making routes and measuring the distance. The TIF format is a standard for this sort of thing and the files are rather large, compressed they average anwhere from 4 meg to 15 meg and expanded are, of course, larger. After choosing the United States, select statewide data, then countywide data. You then have to know the county in which the topo resides, so will have to find this information from another map elsewhere. (Not very convenient, as opposed to quadrangle names, etc., but it is free!) The resolutions are 24000, 100000, and 250000 as our topographic maps are produced. I used this service last year for my annual float trip and I'm sure you could do the same for anywhere. Hope this helps. ...Edwin >From: John Waddington <waddinj_at_recorder.ca> >Not living in the States, I didn't pay enough attention a few >weeks ago when suggestions were made about charts which could be >downloaded for free. A friend is interested in navigating parts >of the Erie Canal in the N.E. U.S. Does anyone know of charts >available for this area? I checked out the Paddlewise web site, >and then Microsoft Terraserver, but it isn't detailed enough. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ Edwin Johnson ....... elj_at_shreve.net ~ ~ http://www.shreve.net/~elj ~ ~ ~ ~ "Once you have flown, you will walk the ~ ~ earth with your eyes turned skyward, ~ ~ for there you have been, there you long ~ ~ to return." -- da Vinci ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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