Scott:
I'm not directing what I said above at you, just those on here who have very little experience with either topo maps or on-site analysis pre-design and construction. Maybe some on here are off-the-charts with spatial sense or some immediate knack for completely understanding how a topo matches ground without any experience. But for the rest, they shouldn't feel bad because I think I can virtually prove that George Crump had very little idea what he was doing with his topo map a number of months into his Pine Valley. I think he had a very good idea what he was trying to accomplish on the ground but he did have a hard time figuring out where what he was doing on the ground was exactly on his topo map, and I think that's completely explained by that interesting note he put on top of his first topo map effort.
Sure, I'd enjoy watching you work on a routing or design in some office with just a topo map, but again, what you were doing wouldn't mean much to me until we took what you were doing with the topo out on the site!
I'm sure topo map talent for architects is great but I feel if some architect doesn't have that it may not mean much if he really knows what he's doing on the ground.