rickzman

The total ascent includes all your "ups". This includes every time the trail goes down and then back "up". It is a better log of how far "up" you have actually walked instead of just the difference between the max altitude and the starting altitude. As far as the plot, I'm not sure how to do this. There is two ways of saving tracks. ON is the automatic and other is done by a menu selection and the data is saved on the memory card by date. One saves more information than the other. Rick

PocketSierra Does your application run on a Palm Treo Pro? Rick

15-20 feet is good. Some times it is 25-30. Leave the WAAS on, it probably won't lock anyway. I hardly ever see anything less that 16 feet. When I go to CA and cache with warm sunny skies above me I'm amazed with the 8 foot readings I get with a solid WAAS lock. Quit crying and start looking harder. Jim I'm not a casher but a hiker. I use my 60Csx in the Cascades of Washington all the time with at best a 10 ft resolution. I have never had an issue with trees but I do have an issue when I'm in a deep valley and only have about a 25 degree view of the sky. Rick

Thanks for the link, I will look into this as well. How does National Geographic Topo compare to some of the others that I have previously mentioned? What do you like about it and dislike about others? Thanks again for your reply. The National Geographic is great for printing but the maps can't be loaded on a Garmin GPS. However, you can load the waypoints and routes from teh NG map. Topo maps are great but sometimes you need a street level map. You should get a copy of City Navigator from Garmin or ebay. This is a routable map which means you can have the GPS route you to a location (see your manual). From Garmin this is about $100. There also is an excellant free stree level map of the US from Ibius (sp?). Look around this forum and you'll see a link to it. Rick

Oz When do you think you can your great expertise to create a Washington topo? Thanks in advance. Rick

Oz Are you going to make a topo map for Washington?

Never got back to work on it... Part time contracting for $$ and just finishing our house building project in Winthrop Wa used up way too much of our time... Hardly even enjoyed the summer... Never even got out to use Colorado for even ONE cache... Now looking forward to more time for these types of projects... I have built up a good linux GIS server to do a lot of the processing from some spare parts and have 2 TB of storage ready... That was an artifact of the contracting endeavors... Pete If you get a chance this winter to make the topo map and need help, let me know. I'm a good "beta" tester. Rick

Pete In an unrelated subject, did you ever complete a topo map, for Map Source, of Washington? You were talking about it several months ago. Rick

Since you live in Washington State and are hiking with 60CSX, you might want to look at http://www.switchbacks.com/maps/NW_Trails.html . This web site has a map which overlays on your GPS and contains all trails for Washington, Oragon, etc. It should overlay you topo map. Check out the web site. Rick

Oz, what about Washington? I know that there is "for charge" topo map, but my finances are tight and I'm always looking for a less expensive alternative.

Are you working on a topo map for Washington? If not, can you...

My 60 CSX came with 3.0 installed and I've had no issues with getting the initial fix. In fact, most of the time it's within 15 seconds of seeing the satellite screen.

I'm looking for the Cascades area. Basely King, Snohomish, Skagit, Watcom, Chelan and Kittitas

I'm looking for a cheep or free topo map for my Garmin using Map Source. Are there any???

I have seen several posts in the last 4 months from people making topo maps for specific states including Washington. Has anyone completed one? I know that there is the commercially available one, but it is about $100. What about a cheaper one?

Are you going to do other states? I'm interested in Washington.

I'd love a copy when you finish! Thanks for putting in all the effort to do this. With the different versions of maps (Garmin, NG, Above the Timber) are you doing this "just for the fun of it?" After reading some of the different threads, it looks to take many weeks to put together! Thanks again! I worked for the U.S. EPA for 34 yrs and retired in 2004... The last 12 of which was in the field if GIS and making internet mapping applications. All the mapping data that is used in these maps was produced using public monies (our tax dollars) and I hate it when commercial outfits make big profits on it... My thinking is Garmin should stick to making GPS units for profits which they do quite well... They should have given away any maps they make for free to help their GPS sales... Think about it... If it took a person (Like Indy) 4 weeks (20 days) to make a statewide 24K map, even paying them $100/hr, would workout to $16,000... If they sold 1000 maps (I am sure Garmin sells 10's of thousands), the cost of a map would be $16... double it for profit and you have $32... (of course I didn't include anything for shiny brochures and other "overhead"... ) I loved the work Indy was doing... It is a great value to all of us... so I figure I will help in the effort. And as long as we get good feedback from all of us users, the maps can be tweaked to really fit our needs... more so than most commercial products. And wiith all the high speed internet around... It is really not that difficult for us to cooperate and improve our overall GPS expperiience. I have learned a ton of stuff here on this forum, and many others have written great procedures on making Garmion maps... I agree completely.

I'd love a copy when you finish! Thanks for putting in all the effort to do this. With the different versions of maps (Garmin, NG, Above the Timber) are you doing this "just for the fun of it?" After reading some of the different threads, it looks to take many weeks to put together! Thanks again! I would also like a copy of the Washington map. I thought that the Timber map of Washington was too expensive ($100). I also extend my thanks for the effort.

There are some "free" maps at http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com I saw Mt Rainier topos, and a statewide roads map. Some other folks on this forum are working on statewide "free" 24K topo/road/trail coverages... CO, UT are done and CA, AZ, MT near done. Poke around the threads on here. I also have been downloading data for WA, OR, and ID for generating free maps for those areas, but it will be awhile til those are processed. pasayten How is Washington state coming? do you need a "beta" tester with a Vista? I think that the comercial WA map is too expensive and I'm looking for an altenative.