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Bagstr

Garmin Topo 100k US Maps & Mac OS

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Looking at GPS City site and Garmin Topo maps.

My old 2002 Topo 100k is not compatible with the Mac operating system. Reading the details for the newer version ( 2008 ), there are Beta programs and a Bobcat software to make it work. Well, I am not interested to that much work around. I like the 100k maps because to are less cluttered than the 24k. That said, they are Not routable.

Unfortunately, my work around will be to use my old Windows notebook to load and update the 100k map on my Montana. By the way, the GPS City site does Not show the Montana as compatible with 100k Topo, although I have it loaded. In order to edit tracks and waypoints on the Mac, I will need to use the 24k South and Southwest maps with Basecamp. Still figuring how to separate tracks and edit in Basecamp.

Then there is the Lorain Platform.. That screen is too small for my on bike use. Can you make tracks before hand??

On We Go...

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I just follow Kug's dust, that's the best GPS I've found.

Crawdaddy's dust is a good trail to follow too... :smile_anim:

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I just follow Kug's dust, that's the best GPS I've found.

Crawdaddy's dust is a good trail to follow too... :smile_anim:

Give Bagstr some credit...I followed his Anza Borrego dust on Tuesday and never got lost.

sorry to hijack...back on track

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I just follow Kug's dust, that's the best GPS I've found.

Crawdaddy's dust is a good trail to follow too... :smile_anim:

i am new to gps on dirt bike trails and I have heard C -Daddy dust trail is good to follow on GPS info.

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Bagster,

I'd recommend Garmin City Navigator North American NT. It is amazing what Garmin has done with CN over the last few years. I recommend it over the Garmin Topo 24K versions also. It is so much more detailed than in even 2011 CN. It is in most places even more detailed than the 24K Topos.

I have both 2011 and 2013 CN and the coverage of Baja is dramatically improved. With 2013 CN, my Montana will give me turn by turn all the way to Mike's Sky Ranch. CN 2011 barely had the trails. If it is that good in Baja, imagine how good it is here in the US. I use CN for off road nav over Topo 24K. I have the entire US coverage for Topo 24K, and while I have the West loaded on my Montana as a backup, I exclusively use CN 2013. I'm sure the 2015 is much better.

And I'm a Mac guy too.

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Yup while in big bear I was also amazed how many side trails city navigator also show. Every trail or little campsite trail we passed was on my gps where all 3 paper maps I had didn't show up.

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Mmmm, Then Topos are redundant. My copy of CN is something like '04. Worth a try.

Thanks a Bunch

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I agree CN is better on the Montana for sure, my problem with topo is it is much harder to see the roads on the screen with all the topo lines displayed, especially when moving, although best not the look at GPS screen at all when moving, had a few close calls trying that! As far as California off road coverage goes I have tried topo, CN, overlays, openmaps and http://www.californiatrailmap.comblows them all away, worth every penny!

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The nice thing about City Navigator is that all the trails (and by default the roads) are routable. So, you want to go to Bar10 with Crawdaddy, you say that is your destination and it will automatically route you there via not only roads, but trails. You don't necessarily need specific tracks laid out ahead of time. Would be a real handy feature if you were broken/hurt/etc and you wanted the fastest way to a paved road. Just touch the paved road and tell the Garmin to get you there and it will via roads AND trails.

Like I said, there was huge increase in offload trails in CN from 2011 to 2013.

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All Good Info Guys,

Do you miss the Topo elevation contours, in terms of finding landmarks and scaring yourself with mountains and valleys in your path??

Bags tr ( bagger sport tourer )

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I have both City Nav and the Topo24K loaded on my Montana, in addition to other maps, so I can just switch between them as needed.

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Same here. I have CN 2014 and Topo 100K loaded. Sometimes i also load 24k for the area I'm exploring. I can load 100K and CN for the entire US onto a card and not exceed Garmin segment limit (the number which escapes me at the moment - I want to say about 1950 segments but that may be wrong). If you try to load more than that number of segments (for instance you load CN+100K+the full 24K map) you may find areas of the maps blank. CN is pretty good these days but there are still some trails, mostly ST and old 2 track jeep roads that don't show on CN. It really depends where and how remote you are. Interestingly I find quite often that some of these trails that show on 100K don't show on the 24K map and vice versa but for the most part in my experience 100K is the better of the two from that aspect. I consider CN a valuable safety net since in an emergency it will autoroute you to services (medical, fuel, etc) via POI's in it's database. 100K will not. I find myself using CN if in an area I know well and 100K if I'm less familiar. Some riders turn off maps all together and just follow the track line.

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