RyaGeo

Well, the maps can be overlaid, but not in MapSource. Mapsource serves mostly to upload the maps to your gps device, and though I can see how beneficial it'd be for route planning to have the topo maps with trails, mapsource can't draw more than one set of maps at a time. Where the maps can be seen together, however, is on your GPS device itself. When you upload the maps to your GPS you can see the trail lines in combination with whichever Garmin maps you happen to be using. On my 60csx you do this by going to: Map Setup>"i" icon>Menu Button>"Show Northwest Trails" ... repeat to "Show Topo US 2008" and "Hide City Select 2009" or however it's titled, as City Select is not transparent and actually will cover up the Topo 2008 maps. Of course, I'm working on a set of Topo maps that can actually be overlaid with City Navigator and Northwest Trails, and are far more detailed than Topo 2008 (20' or 40' contours instead of Topo 2008's 100') which you can find here

I've actually been using 7.5' CONUS tiles from the USGS server and thought about doing 7.5' chunks; it can certainly be done, I've just taken the path of least resistance using large tiles so I don't have to maintain something like 50 map images; just 4 so far. =)

VERSION 1.0.1 ...your wish has been granted. Version 1.0.1 now online and including the rest of Vashon, as well as Green River Valley and Umtanum Recreation Area (where I'll be headed later in the week. How self-centered, I know. ). All additional coverage in 20' contours. Any suggestions, or reccomendations for coverage, feel free to weigh in. Also, with the detail of these maps, things will get very large very fast. I believe I'll start dividing the installers into regions (like with Garmin's West/Central/East for 24k maps); any suggestions for natural boundaries?

Hurrah! I finally got a working installer available here: RyaGeo High-Res Topo Maps ...let me know what you think!

I know it's probably too late for most folks if you're getting an early start, but I finally have a nice, tidy installer for the high-res topo maps I've been working on which should actually give you some great detail if you're hiking Cougar Mountain. They're available here: RyaGeo High-Res Garmin Topo Maps ...and if anyone gives them a shot, please let me know if you have any comments!

Just wanted to keep folks posted... I'm seeing the issues Jon mentioned with mapcenter, and trying to find a better alternative. I hope to get something out by the end of the day so folks can test this on the weekend (I know I'd like to!) ...with a "product launch" like this, I suppose it comes as no surprise that I work for the Redmond-ster. =)

Like Andrew said; these are really meant to complement the trails project. My maps have absolutely no road data, only topo lines and rivers/streams for backcountry navigation, and I actually use them simultaneously with the trails maps and city select maps. Why might you want this? We all know how GPSes can occasionally have some jaggies... maps like these will make sure that you don't blindly follow a wayward track off what is clearly a cliff on the map, or plan to hike through a nice, flat trail that's actually a seasonal flood plane.

Forgot to address this; yes, the data sources are freely available from these two sites: National Hydrography Database USGS National Map Seamless Server There's a handy guide to using both of these datasets here: Creating Custom Topo Maps for your Garmin Mapping GPS

By the way, in particular, I'd like folks to give feedback on the zoom levels for those maps. I'm still working the kinks out in using GPSMapEdit and cgpsmapper, but I wanted to avoid showing every seasonal stream when zoomed out to cover 2+ miles, but wanted to keep enough detail that the maps show a good lay of the land without zooming in to 300'.

Definately err on the side of caution. =) No, I haven't really started caching, as I only got a gps with a screen a week or two ago. =) ...previously, I've simply been using a data logger (Globalsat DG-100) to geotag all the photos I take; here's an example of a hike a couple months back in the Snoqualamie River area: Taylor River Hike I finally decided with Summer coming (cold or not) that it was time to get myself more incentive to hit the trails, so I got a 60CSx and I've been playing around all I can with it. Hope to start covering trails on my maps pretty soon!

...Garmin User? Looking for more 1:24k Maps? I am, I did. =) After recently acquiring a 60Csx, I realized that the coverage of good topo maps from garmin weren't readily available. Their Topo 2008 is only 1:100,000 with lots of road inaccuracies, and their 1:24k map sets are only for national parks, so I set out to figure out how to make some of my own maps. I'm still working on them, but so far I've made a map with 20' contours and named water features for the Puget Sound from Bainbridge to Tiger/Cougar Mountains and all in between, and a map with 40' contours of the Snoqualamie/Skykomish areas (which got too cluttered with 20' contours for me). Both are culled from 1/3 arc second DEM data from the USGS and high-resolution hydrography data from the National Hydrography Dataset (nhd.gov), and are both about as accurate as you can get. Anyway, after all that, my latest efforts are here: http://mapcenter2.cgpsmapper.com/mapsetview.php?id=378 ...they're transparent, so they combine wonderfully with the Northwest Trail Maps found here for a wonderful nearly-paper-map-less experience! Please leave me any feedback, I'd love for these to be useful to someone else! UPDATE 1.0.2 6/12: ...the puget sound region has been separated into four segments, and zoom levels have been modified so that streams and intermediate topo lines appear up to 1.2 miles. Available here. (Compilation has not yet finished.)