Your GPS Organization Preferences?

[Goofy Footer 539]

How do you like to organize, label and sort your GPS tracks?

I'm stepping into the GPS game and am interested in people's preferences and tips when it comes to organizing their tracks.

Do you label a route by its name (ie trail name or BLM route #)

Do you label it by where it takes you (Start --> Destination)? If so, do you start North then South, West then East etc?

Do you prefer long GPS tracks that may actually encompass a number of streets or route #s?

Do you prefer to individually label each exact physical track (so when you see a trail sign you know the name of the trail and it corresponds with your GPS)?

Do you organize tracks by region (ie OW Route 1 or AB Loop)?

Tracks or Routes?

Please post up your thoughts. I'm asking these questions up front to hopefully save me time later. I hope it turns into a good discussion.

Attached is an example of a few desert tracks I want to better organize. Thanks!

[paulmbowers 236]

I just ask Strega.

[Goofy Footer 539]

So I learned some things pretty quickly, thanks Jim for the pointers.

My Garmin 76Cx is limited to 20 Tracks. It can hold 1,000 Waypoints however. Use Waypoints to denote trail intersections, points of interest etc. In the open desert where one has high visibility, Waypoints can be helpful to find your way or point in the correct direction.

In the image I attached, I basically cut/copied and drew Tracks for individual Trails. I have ~50 labeled Tracks (ex Pumpkin Patch Trail, Arroyo Seco Del Diablo etc) which pertain to their respective trail. This is great for creating a psuedo background map of the existing trails. To create a specific GPS Track or loop which I will follow, I can use these smaller trail Tracks, copy/paste them and glue them together to create a larger GPS Track.

When exporting these Tracks from my computer to GPS unit, I should select Preferences on Basecamp (Mac) or Mapsource (PC) and specify limit to 500 points.

When naming Tracks to use on my GPS, the Garmin 76Cx is limited to roughly 15 characters.

It might be best to color GPS Tracks Blue or Green which are visible in the sun and set my Tracking Log or Active Track to Red.

To organize Tracks, it is helpful to create different "My Collections" in Basecamp which pertain to the area of interest (ex ABDSP, Big Bear etc).

A Southwest Topo Map or Highway Map provides an underlying base of trails and streets which I could search if I am lost or even Route if applicable (ie have the GPS create a pathway or Route from my current location to Location X).

I will continue working on creating Tracks for the individual trails through the desert. This is my personal attempt to "Map" the local riding areas. Some of the trails may be found in downloadable or available-for-purchase Maps online but I will attempt to label trails not found on these Maps. Hopefully I can get OW, Plaster City, ABSDP and Superstition well mapped out and labeled appropriately. I would like to share this info when I eventually complete it.

If you have any other tips or comments please post up.

[Riggerdan 147]

I just ask Strega.

Then I get the info from Paul.....

[Crawdaddy 96]

So I learned some things pretty quickly

Yep, sounds like you're getting sucked into the GPS world (willingly). It's kinda fun isn't it?

- Set your 76 to the max for track points 10,000 (I think the default something like 3K.......you'll likely never need that many to collect active track points but you might as well change it since you have the option)

- Be sure to set up your 76 so it's writing a .gpx file to the micro sd card (toss the stock card and drop in a 2gig card). Remember, you must have the track log "on" to write to card.

- Be aware that the .gpx file written to the SD card will NOT contain any new waypoints you set along the way.....those go into internal memory on your handheld. So, be sure to upload the active file from memory before you "clear" waypoints.

- As you mentioned, I like to use Royal Blue as a track color.....I think it's the most visible along with dark green. a "chasing/active" track set in red is helpful when following a blue/green track......makes it very apparent when you blow a turn as the two colors diverge.....

The track files in my computer are segregated in folders by riding areas (Ramona, Big Bear, Mammoth, etc. for general "stuff") and/or clubs for formal/organized rides (CORE, SDAR, D37, BBTR, Dualies, etc.).

I generally save my track files as .gpx (now) because some folks have trouble with .gdb (they may not have latest Mapsource version......or may not have a Garmin).....you need the .gpx format to work with DualSportMaps, ADV Rider, GPSXchange anyway so you might as well just start there....

When I'm back at the house slicing and dicing my active track files and/or organizing misc. track segments for a future ride, I generally start off with a 01-20 numbering system so they're listed in the order we'll encounter them. Individual track names are generally some abbreviation of the start/end points. "01 Pinyon 2 Fish Creek". If I have a hardway option off the base track it'll generally be labeled as "02 HDWY blah, blah". A cheat/bypass option may be labeled as "02A bypass blah, blah" or I may just use a waypoint marking a bailout with intructions in the waypoint comments if I don't have enough room to include a bail track. Something like, "turn right here to the pavement, go left on hwy XX, camp/gas is 5 miles up on left"