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Is it just me or are the county maps in NW Missouri just not very good?

I had a road that clearly showed crossing the Platte river on two county maps (it's on the county line) that claim to have been updated in the last 5 years or so. That wasn't what I found when I went there, and looking at the satellite images it doesn't look like there has been a bridge there in the last 100 years. Even my 24k Garmin maps show the road somehow crossing the river.

I am getting better at using my gps maps to find alternate routes......

ozarksrider wrote:Is it just me or are the county maps in NW Missouri just not very good?

If you are talking about the MODOT maps found using the link here:
http://www.rideforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1180

...then yes, they are not very accurate. The KDOT maps are highly accurate in my experience. The MO and AR DOT maps are not nearly as accurate and have less details.

MO Dept. of Conservation published a "MO Conservation Atlas" that showed each county road map with conservation areas highlighted. The county maps were better than the DOT maps (go figure). Not sure it is still published and the edition that came out a few years back wasn't as up-to-date as the older one I still have (again, go figure).

The DeLorme from the early 2000s was based on the out-of-date DOT maps so it doesn't help.

Early in our DS riding days Troy, Kyle, and I were north of KC trying to follow a route based on the DeLorme. Like you, we found evidence that at one time a road or bridge did exist, but hadn't for decades.

One suggestion: If you build a route using MapSource you can then view it in Google Earth. Might make a good reality check for long lost roads and bridges.

safiri wrote: The DeLorme from the early 2000s was based on the out-of-date DOT maps so it doesn't help.

Early in our DS riding days Troy, Kyle, and I were north of KC trying to follow a route based on the DeLorme. Like you, we found evidence that at one time a road or bridge did exist, but hadn't for decades.

I have the DeLorme 2011 (I have them going back to rev 8 ), and I can assure you, it will have you drive into a creek (That is a funny story) and or some ones drive way (normally with a dilapidated meth lab look to it), both in the middle of the night. Not that I have done that or anything. But yes, their county maps still suck very badly. map info's aren't much better, probably all use the same Junk MODOT data.