Delorme Atlas Question

[Troy]

Hi Everyone,
I just bought a Delorme Atlas and I have a question. I was looking for a class A stream to fish on Saturday and I came across roads that were labeled SR with a number behind it. I have seen this before and found out it stands for state road. My question is: Is there a way to figure out what the name of the road is? The place I want ot go has about 3 of these roads that I have to go on. What does everyone else do when they use these roads off the atlas? Thanks and I hope everyone has a good year fishing!

Troy

 

[tomgamber]

Usually there are small, square, white signs about waist high at the intersections. They should have the SR# on them...also if its a township road (TR) the number may be on the regular green raod sign in smaller lettering. Of course while it may violate man law, you could ask someone when you get into the vicinity.

 

[ryanh]

Yah,
They are almost always numbered at the intersections. Those maps are priceless. It can be difficult sometimes trying to follow all of the intersections through unfamiliar territory looking for numbers. All of the numbers in a given area are usually similar so watch closely.....also the locals tend to keep an eye on suspecious vehicles (mine is VERY suspicious) going up and down roads quickly and skidding to stops at intersections.

The maps also have GPS grids on them, which has helped me in the past as well.

One word of caution some of the 4wd roads shown on the maps are not accesable to the public, they are the gated forestry roads.

 

[Bruno]

Troy:

I would suggest using something like Google Earth as well. You can enter the latitude and longitude of your destination and get an arial map of the area you wish to fish. This may provide you with some land marks to navigate by when searching for the particular stream.

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear Troy,

Even if the road has a name, the SR or TR# will be on the road sign. Going by the road name can get confusing when you cross township lines because sometimes the name changes. If it's a SR the number will not change from end to end.

If you lived in NY State I'd tell you to go to the County Highway Department and pick up a County Highway map. Pennsylvania Counties all have official County maps, but I think the only way to get them is through PennDot. I think they are called "Type 10" or something like that. If I can find more information on-line I'll post it.

If the stream you are looking for is on State Forest land nothing beats the State Forest maps that are available for free at the Forest offices or through the mail from the DCNR. Here is the address and a phone number, if you call them they tell you how to get the maps. Generally it involves sending them a stamped self-addressed envelope along with a note specifying what maps you want.

Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Executive Office: 7th Floor, Rachel Carson State Office Building, P.O. Box 8767, Harrisburg, PA 17105-8767

General Information: (717) 787-2869
Fax: (717) 772-9106

Regards,
Tim Murphy

 

[JackM]

As Tim mentioned, these are great maps. They also show the SR and T designations, but often also contain the local road name:

PennDOT County Type 10 Maps in PDF format

Becoming familiar with the little white, square road markers is a good thing too.

Here are photos showing what they look like:

Also, you may find the SR or T route number on the standard road-name sign as in this photo:

 

[Wulff-Man]

Or before you leave you could just use Mapquest or any other internet mapping tool and zoom in on the area you want to fish until the road names are clear. Print out the map and take it with you. Of course, this won't help if you don't know where you want to go or where you are going to end up before you leave the house.

 

[troutbert]

As others have said, both the T (township) and S (state) numbers are shown on signs along the roads.

The other thing to do that helps navigate is to use streams as landmarks to help orient your location in regard to the map when you are driving. For example if you are on a main road, you might see that you go through a village, then cross the creek, then you need to take the second road to the left. You look for the stream crossing out on the landscape, then look for the second road left.

This helps out especially when the roads are poorly signed, or not signed at all, which is common. With some practice you can start to recognize drainage divides etc. and see how this ties into the map. The overall idea is to orient yourself to your location using the stream drainage system. It's pretty common on forest roads for there to be no sign at all. Also, in some places the signs just show the common name, and not the T road number.

Also, you can measure distance on the map and then use your odometer to find the turnoff to some little road. On the map you can use the scale and measure that you need to turnoff 0.7 miles after some larger intersection. Just reset your trip odometer to zero, and drive down the road and when it hits 0.7 miles you should see your turnoff.

Don't do all this map-work while you're driving! Pull over.

 

[Troy]

I do a lot of traveling and I never noticed that they have these routes on the signs. I might have seen them, but I never "noticed them". Anyway, thanks for the help. I always found the class A streams from the fish and boat webpage. They gave you a direct link to mapquest and I would go from there. I switched jobs a year ago and my computer at work here never seems to load the map from mapquest. I don't have a computer at home so I was kind of screwed. I have been meaning to get an atlas for a long time, but I never really needed it. I am glad I bought it. I can't wait to explore more streams this year. I usually get the forest maps when I am fishing state forests, but the stream I am looking at isn't a state forest. Anyway, thanks for all the advice. I started fly fishing about 6 years ago and this site had really helped me over the years. I truly appreciate it.

Troy

 

[Wulff-Man]

If you want a large folding paper map you can take with you, look for the County maps, I believe from Penn Dot. They are very good and include the SR and T numbers. Look in WAWA and other convenience stores at gas stations, or even places like Wal-Mart and Staples. I haven't looked for them lately so I'm not sure exactly which stores have them, but I think these do.

 

[Chaz]

There are signs along these roads in the general location of many stream crossings and at intersections indicating the SR #. That's how I use the SR # you'll also find many roads marked TR which means Township Road. Unfortunately some dummys are getting names put on the roads cause they can't find their way around, I wish they'd get lost and eaten by mountain lions to reduce the surplus population. :-D Not all the roads ahave names, which I think is a good thing it helps keep city slickers off the good water.

 

[1stfly]

Those little white signs are are a great help when they are present. I typically navigate by bridges and RR X's to find unknown intersections.

Question - From looking at a state forest map are the green state forest areas public areas? I think they are, but would like to be certain before I go walking around on someones property.

 

[tomgamber]

I think that there are places that are either leased from the state or even privately owned withing state forests. Some ski slopes come to mind. So I would guess that with like anywhere else, if its posted or not posted would be the determining factor. Anyone else have a better guess.

 

[troutbert]

Question - From looking at a state forest map are the green state forest areas public areas? I think they are, but would like to be certain before I go walking around on someones property.

In most cases, yes. There are sometimes inholdings that are private that don't show up on the forest map. But if the land is privately owned and they don't want you there, they'll post it.

When you're driving the forest roads, the state forest boundaries are often marked.