What is the RF scale on the Appalachian Trail Pocket Profile Maps?
Each of the 22 maps in the ATSET has a slightly different RF scale for a few reasons. They all do not cover the exact same mileage since some areas of the trail have a denser database of information to cover. Also, some areas of the trail are curvier than others affecting how much space the distance being mapped actually takes up on the page.
The AVERAGE RF scale for all maps in the set is 1:293,252 or 4.63 miles per inch.
In order to make the most of the scale we had to work with, we enhanced for visibility features most important to a hiker like road crossings, highways & interstates, national forest boundaries, state lines, cities, and major rivers and bodies of water to name a few. We work at a resolution much higher during the design process than what we use for final print resolution. This makes it possible for us to very accurately lay these enhancements over features on the map in order to make clear what would not otherwise be visible at these scales.
In order to simplify the scale for the hiker, we overlayed a 10 mile dotted line grid on each map to give hikers a visual idea of the area they have to cover between points on the map.
The specific RF scale for each of the maps in the 22 Map ATSET is as follows:
AT01: 1:297,926 (4.70 miles per inch)
AT02: 1:219,322 (3.46 miles per inch)
AT03: 1:234,849 (3.71 miles per inch)
AT04: 1:231,910 (3.66 miles per inch)
AT05: 1:278,249 (4.39 miles per inch)
AT06: 1:211,200 (3.33 miles per inch)
AT07: 1:213,924 (3.38 miles per inch)
AT08: 1:269,136 (4.25 miles per inch)
AT09: 1:269,893 (4.24 miles per inch)
AT10: 1:335,450 (5.27 miles per inch)
AT11: 1:235,128 (3.71 miles per inch)
AT12: 1:303,230 (4.79 miles per inch)
AT13: 1:340,133 (5.37 miles per inch)
AT14: 1:477,072 (7.53 miles per inch)
AT15: 1:297,856 (4.70 miles per inch)
AT16: 1:333,597 (5.27 miles per inch)
AT17: 1:387,783 (6.12 miles per inch)
AT18: 1:333,825 (5.27 miles per inch)
AT19: 1:248,949 (3.93 miles per inch)
AT20: 1:308,877 (4.87 miles per inch)
AT21: 1:314,692 (4.97 miles per inch)
AT22: 1:308,531 (4.87 miles per inch)