I agree and understand, but it is pretty much a certainty there will be more over time. I have to "rant" here for I place at least a part of the blame for people becoming lost (and some even perishing from thirst or exposure) on our good old United States Geological Survey and the private clubs they are catering to. The USGS topographic maps are (in my opinion) the best maps available; they are published at the expense of the US taxpayer and sold at a reasonable cost. However in recent years, due to pressures from private clubs like the Natures Conservancy and Sierra Club, the USGS has been deliberately erasing important geographic features from these maps - including ancient ruins, remote springs and water sources, and even trails. The excuse given, if you can get them even to admit they are in fact doing this erasing, is that it is done to "protect the resource" from "vandalism and overuse". It is perhaps understandable when we are talking about ancient Amerindian petroglyphs - however even these belong not to any private club but to "we the people" and how can our people enjoy them if they can not find them?We don't need any more lost hikers!
With the erasures of trails and springs in remote areas, this amounts to almost criminal negligence on the part of the USGS. A man could perish of thirst, fifty FEET from a spring and with the best USGS topo maps in his hands, because he cannot look for a spring which is not marked on his map. I just received a new print of the USGS 7.5 minute 1:24,000 scale topo map for Weavers Needle, ordered because our old one (a 1960 edition) is getting pretty ratty from age and use. (Plus the danged graffiti and little notes "someone" marked all over it, I will blame it on Beth as she is not looking, ha ha ) Well to my unpleasant surprise, those busy editors at the USGS mapping department have been very busy indeed. I am half-tempted to file a class-action lawsuit over this deliberate alteration of taxpayer funded maps. What is ironic about this is that erasing (to satisfy the desires of private clubs) is being done at the same time that the same govt is busily photographing by satellite every square inch of our territory, to such detail that it is literally invading our privacy.
Springs, ruins and trails are NOT the only things those busy little hands have been deleting either - they are also removing MINES. The Miller mines are GONE for example. How long before some innocent person falls into an old mineshaft simply because it was not marked on the maps? I think this erasing act alone amounts to criminal negligence on the part of the USGS.
Sorry for the rant, but if you think I am kidding, take out a 1960 edition Weavers Needle map and compare it side-by-side with the newest version 2004 and you will see just what I am talking about. People can get lost now even with the best available maps in hand, thanks to these erasing efforts done by a public-funded branch of government in order to make some private clubs happy.
Roy