Trip Planning - How To

[Lunar_Herbalist]

I am trying to plan out a trip to get a good mileage and locate my water sources and so on and so forth.  I'm having a really hard time finding an appropriate map of the area though.  Most of it is on google maps and such but the actual foot trails I will be taking are not.  The maps on the website are absolute garbage.  

Anyone able to give me a hand and help me find some sort of secret underground backpackers united website or perhaps a cartographer who is also a backpacker and really enjoys making trail maps?

I live in Florida looking to check out Osceola National Forest, specifically Deep Creek Trail Head (Click Me!).  The official site fails to give me much and the maps are kinda laughable.  I'm trying to find a way to get mileage and water sources (there's a lake nearby and streams run through according to photos, but I cannot tell how far apart they are or where they are).  Besides these two things, what else should I be looking for when planning a trip?

[Aaron Zagrodnick]

I always start with the USGS topos - was just looking at the area you mentioned on my Gaia GPS app. But, if you don’t use an app CalTopo.com is an option where you can view and print maps, and you can measure out distances on either resource. I like to use the Gaia GPS app for planning, and it’s nice that you can also save the maps to your smartphone etc. for offline use. This post goes into detail about my planning process with the app and utilizing and saving maps, etc. 

[Lunar_Herbalist]

Thank you Aaron!