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tomdisco
David,
Thank you. I was not familiar w/ ACME Mapper 2.0 and I had no physical map in my possesion on which to measure it. I normally use Natl Geo Trails Illustrated maps but they don't cover that spot. As for steep switchbacks I've noticed Natl Geo does account for the mileage fairly accurately although I don't know how they accomplish it.
Jim
When topozone.com began and produced several Caifornia map products, they had a trail measuring tool that could measure colored lines one would draw as an overlay on their maps. I used it in several places I'd actually hiked and found the results of both mileage and vertical up/down rather incorrect. Thus phoned up the company and reached one of the software engineers that related the positional and elevation data base was not based on the data the map displayed but rather the early USGS digital data system. Somehow that caused otherwise direct lines to wobble back and forth as it connected to the digital points. The result was the mileage and vertical were both higher than it should have been.
I am not familiar with the current state of mapping software automated distance and vertical calculations but I'm sure given GPS and the considerable digital mapping applications today that there are probably canned aps that can measure the length of any drawn line regardless of bends and turns. Simply a matter of adding up incremental short straight line distances at the map resolution. But I would not trust any such application until I had proof it was reasonably accurate.
http://www.davidsenesac.com