Wow. that is just nuts.
So what data do they use to know what roads are open?
I can't find a map with that road on it but I see it in satellite view.
I see the road going to the turn around they I guess are standing in.
View attachment 96603
Marco, I think this is the spot. I put a point in the turn-around for reference.
Google Satellite
Same with the ESRI National Geographic map layer. This is
not the Trails Illustrated but a nice map used sometimes for magazines and stuff because it's visually pleasing.
It shows what I think the TMP more or less leaves open. I switched to the Open Street Maps (sorry that the view jumped) to show this because it's got even fewer of the routes back there but is more clear.
Neither OSM nor ESRI NatGeo are authoritative. Especially OSM, which relies upon individuals mapping and entering data. It's like Wikipedia for GIS, anyone can enter
or remove data. So you have to check the edit history sometimes (I have not done so personally).
But both of them disagree with at least one authoritative source: the USGS National Topo Map.
As one of the cornerstones of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Geospatial Program, The National Map is a collaborative effort among the USGS and other Federal, State, and local partners to improve and deliver topographic information for the Nation. It has many uses ranging from...
www.usgs.gov
This clearly shows the road labeled as County Road 169.
The other authoritative data source is the BLM itself, who has an inventory of routes. They put them on what's called their Ground Transport Linear Features (GTLF) map. I put that layer on top of a couple of maps.
I need to mention that I download GTLF as well as use online live ArcGIS servers and sometimes the two aren't in agreement. In this case I used downloaded data that's probably a few months old. IOW these images are not necessarily authoritative without version control and references. So they're just informational at this point.
But either way it's pretty obvious that the USGS (which is from the official hosted source and therefore current at the map generation date) and GTLF agree. At this spot it looks like pretty much
exactly since the GTLF doesn't add or remove any routes and just puts a number on some of them.
When the BLM generates a TMP they have to evaluate all of these routes and any braiding or routes that are actually on the ground. So even though most of them are not mapped and probably not used a decision has to be made about what to do with them.