Color coding contour lines

This was kind of a fun exercise which helped me visualize a trail a bit better. It is a good one for people not adept at reading them.

Take the lowest 200 foot (or other convention) contour line you will cross and highlight it green. The next one up, highlight it yellow. And the next one, red. It's the stoplight coloring convention.

Then there is a clear representation of the terrain. I'll have to come up with more colors for terrain that goes up more.

You should look into a general geology class at a community college. I think you would like it if taught well. You do all sorts of similar exercises in the lab portion of the class.

yikes....that would be confusing to me. What I have done however is to put tiny arrows showing up and down grades on the sides of the trail. Still, after you stare at topo maps enough, they are pretty easy to read.