The mapping programs are great to have. Especially if they support a GPS. If you take a GPS and learn how to use it you won' t be afraid of getting lost and then you can just go hunting. Its great.
There' s also a couple of good websites out there that will give you some great topo and aerial photography for most of the country (they have topos for all of it and photos for most). You can toggle between the different views. This will get you close to where you want to go and you can pan different directions and zoom in for more detail:
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ima...+United+States
Hope this helps. I use it a lot to show me how much cover there is in a place I' ve never hunted. You can also buy photo' s and maps from the site.
Good luck and have fun,
Will