piratemonkey 0 Posted February 16, 2008 Does anyone use these two topo maps from Garmin? http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/topo24knp.jsp http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/topous.jsp Team Loctite is planning a Trans Am western states dualsport trip and my job is to get the GPS business dialed down. The national parks west topo map sounds more detailed, but is it to the exclusion of areas outside of national park boundaries? Do I need to buy both to properly cover our asses? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- We’ve mapped every hill and valley. Download data from the MapSource® TOPO U.S. 2008 DVD directly to your compatible Garmin GPS. Now you can enjoy topographic mapping detail no matter where your adventures take you. TOPO U.S. 2008 features digital topographic maps for the U.S., including Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. It is available in two different formats making it easy and convenient to load data to your compatible Garmin device: MapSource® DVD and preprogrammed micro SD data cards. Features include: * Digital topographic maps, comparable to 1:100,000 scale USGS maps * Terrain contours, topo elevations * Summit locations with elevation * Trails and rural roads; city neighborhood roads * Interstates & major highways * National, state, local parks, forests, and wilderness areas * Coastline, lake and river shoreline; wetlands; perennial and seasonal streams * Searchable database of cities, geographic names, summits, lakes and more * Elevation profile on PC and compatible units; estimate terrain difficulty * Allows you to plan your next outdoor adventure on your PC and download routes, waypoints and map detail to your compatible Garmin GPS * Includes lakes, reservoirs, waterways, rivers and streams with icons to represent boat ramps, dams, campgrounds and trails ------------------------------ The MapSource® US TOPO 24K National Parks, West v3 includes extremely detailed topographic maps of Western U.S National Parks. This CD is ideal for hikers, campers and outdoor enthusiasts of all kind. Plan your outing on your PC, then download maps and data to your compatible Garmin GPS to guide you on your next trek. See the product compatibility table (right) for a list of products that Garmin recommends with this software. Version 3 features include: * Digital topographic maps covering national parks, national forests, and major state parks (see list below) * Based on the 1:24,000 scale USGS maps — user-selectable coverage by quad, including USGS quad name for easy correlated reference * Routable roads and trails * Searchable points of interest, by name or nearest to your location * Park amenities include visitors centers, camping and picnic areas, wilderness campsites, ranger stations and more * General park boundaries * Searchable peak names with summit elevations * Vertical elevation profiling on PC and select units w/DEM shading on PC * Object-oriented cartography — cursor movements reveal map feature descriptions * Trip and waypoint management function lets you transfer waypoints, routes and tracks between your GPS and your PC** * Compatible with MotionBased.com, where you can upload data and get in-depth analysis of your activities, view tracks on a variety of online maps and share routes with others. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PastaPilot 17 Posted February 16, 2008 Somehow this double posted Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PastaPilot 17 Posted February 16, 2008 Welcome back. I just got caught up on your blog. I'm very sorry to hear of your situation. I'm glad you've maintained your great sense of humor through all that has happened. I hope your recovery is as swift as your wit. I've been using paper maps and google earth for ride planning and then laying down routes on Google Earth for use on the GPS. You have to convert the .kml files for use on your GPS but that's also a free program you can download. I'll get you the name later of the software I use when I get home. I like this system as I can't bring my laptop with me as a back up for when the GPS craps out. You can also buy alot of paper maps for the price of the Garmin software. So where are you going and can I get in on this? Do I have to join the PMC and loctite certain body parts to other body parts to get an invite. I'd rather not do the loctite thing, but I'd love to do a long distance ride. Speaking of, I'm going to post new dates for my Beach to River ride. It'd be great to have some more friends on this. Thats your invite. Jon Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RogerTOWM 0 Posted February 17, 2008 I’ve used topo and find that it is alright. From reading your post the big thing that sticks out is the map scale. Parks is 1:24,000 scale USGS maps. TOPO U.S. 2008 is 1:100,000 scale USGS maps. You will get more detail with the smaller scale (1:24,000). But it appears to only have the national parks. I would get the 2008 topo instead. Would you like me to bring my copy of topo over for you to try out? I know that you haven’t met me but I haven’t burglarized anyone’s home in along time. So you should be safe. I would love to drool over you new Husky. KLRoger Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
piratemonkey 0 Posted February 17, 2008 I’ve used topo and find that it is alright. From reading your post the big thing that sticks out is the map scale. Parks is 1:24,000 scale USGS maps. TOPO U.S. 2008 is 1:100,000 scale USGS maps. You will get more detail with the smaller scale (1:24,000). But it appears to only have the national parks. I would get the 2008 topo instead. Would you like me to bring my copy of topo over for you to try out? I know that you haven’t met me but I haven’t burglarized anyone’s home in along time. So you should be safe. I would love to drool over you new Husky. KLRoger Thanks for the info, Roger. I think I'll go ahead and buy the Topo US 2008 software so you don't have to bring it by (and rob my place ). I did a little more research and read that the areas outside the parks aren't included in the national park version. Won't help us much if we have to get from place to place. Just to practice, I've been using the GPS for local trips. I've found that the most maddening thing about it are the routes it creates -- they're ones that I'd never follow. Even after changing various settings, like telling it I prefer freeways over surface streets, it still draws me some strange routes. I haven't quite figured out how to adjust the routes it gives me so I can send them to my GPS exactly how I want it. I try to put waypoints in to force the route to hit the waypoints, but I still have problems tailoring my routes. Oh well, practice practice practice... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
piratemonkey 0 Posted February 17, 2008 So where are you going and can I get in on this? Do I have to join the PMC and loctite certain body parts to other body parts to get an invite. I'd rather not do the loctite thing, but I'd love to do a long distance ride. Speaking of, I'm going to post new dates for my Beach to River ride. It'd be great to have some more friends on this. Thats your invite. Jon Team Loctite is hoping to do some version of the western part of the Trans Am trail in August. I have my fingers crossed -- knotted, soldered, fused, etc. -- that I will be fully healed from my final few surgeries and am fit enough for the two-week haul. I will write more about it as plans come together. This is the story that got John-Mark going on the idea: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147232 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PastaPilot 17 Posted February 18, 2008 I was really thinking of doing some portion of the TA trail this year. I can't get two weeks off in a row this summer but maybe I can get my bike in position and meet up with you at some point along the way. I'd be glad to help you out with planning in any way I can. You may want to contact those guys that did the ride in the report you posted for some of there GPS information. It should be a great ride good luck with the planning and preperation. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Crawdaddy 96 Posted February 18, 2008 Just to practice, I've been using the GPS for local trips. I've found that the most maddening thing about it are the routes it creates -- they're ones that I'd never follow. Even after changing various settings, like telling it I prefer freeways over surface streets, it still draws me some strange routes. I haven't quite figured out how to adjust the routes it gives me so I can send them to my GPS exactly how I want it. I try to put waypoints in to force the route to hit the waypoints, but I still have problems tailoring my routes. Oh well, practice practice practice... Maybe you changed preferences in Mapsource but not in your 60CSx (or visa versa)?......if not, trying going to the Edit tab in Mapsource and click on "Preferences" then click on "Routing".......you can fiddle with the default "route settings" for things like; - Auto Routing vs. Direct Routes - Calculation Style (faster time or shorter distance) - Road selection (minor roads vs. highways....sliding scale for your preference) - Click on things to avoid when auto routing (like toll roads, u-turns, etc.) You can also set the default/average driving speeds for things like interstates, residential streets, etc. to plan out route timing. If you already played with this stuff in Mapsource......make sure you also tweaked the settings in your handheld....... Hope this helps...... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
