I just found out that the National Geographic State series of topo maps on CD has been discontinued. I've been using the California maps for many years with great success. I really like how that product works for tracing a route, getting an elevation profile, and printing a map seamlessly across 7.5' map boundaries. NG has replaced the state series with a pay website called AllTrails.com. It has a worthless free section and a $50 per year pro section. If you register for the free section, then you get an offer for 1 year of the pro for half price. In the spirit of Take One For The Team, I signed up for the pro to see if was as good as the CD maps.
At this point, it leaves a lot to be desired. You can draw a route, but only by straight line segments. This short coming makes drawing a curved route really tedious. Also, the only datum available is WGS84. There is no support for the NAD27 datum used by Tom Harrison maps and the paper 7.5' maps issued by USGS. I still have a stack of those maps from pre-Topo days.
An email to NG actually got a reply! They state that a new "feature rich" Map Editor for the pro section will be available soon. At first, it will support only straight line routes, but will be upgraded shortly to allow for continuous, curved routes. They said I was the only person to ask for NAD27 support, but would pass the request to the development team. Don't hold your breath.
I will report back to the group once the new Map Editor is available. In the meantime, you can't buy the old Topo! CD maps at retail anywhere. They are completely sold out. Used copies do appear on Ebay from time to time. Right now, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Wisconsin are for sale. Oregon, Arizona, and California were available last week.
