In my experience, those old guides sometimes lead you to better spots than the crowded ones everyone hits now. A friend and I followed a battered forest service booklet from the 70s to a hot spring in Colorado, and it was exactly as described, totally peaceful. Sure, trails shift over time, but often the land doesn't change that much. The key is mixing that old local knowledge with a quick look at a current park alert page. It's less about the guide being wrong and more about using it as one piece of the puzzle.

My cousin followed an old hiking guide for the Smoky Mountains printed in the 90s. It said to turn left at a rock formation that had washed away in a storm years back. He ended up in a closed campground and had to wait for rangers to find him. That kind of mix-up seems common with those vintage guidebooks. Makes you question all those trusted directions people swear by.

Is lead paint even that common anymore? Sounds like rivera.sam's friend got really unlucky. Most old paint just crumbles, it's not automatically toxic. I've seen guys scrape walls in a dozen old houses and it's just plaster dust. Adding a bunch of test clauses might just make your painter charge you more for the hassle.