I remember when how I got maps for cross-country hikes was to go down to the Oakland library and they had a collection of all the USGS quadrangle maps. The lith

I remember when how I got maps for cross-country hikes was to go down to the Oakland library and they had a collection of all the USGS quadrangle maps. The lithography of the paper maps was excellent. I'd find the ones for the areas I was interested in (climbing guides list which quads you should have) and Xerox the parts I needed. Sometimes I would order the originals from the USGS or travel to Menlo Park to purchase them at the source. Those stacks of map cases and thousands of maps are now gone. I would have loved to have picked up that full collection when they got rid of them. The large size and fine detail of a those lithographs are just not reproducible on a portable screen or printout. It's great to have digital versions available to everyone but the originals are works of art.