Hiking Trails > Track Or Routes?

[planewood]

Lets say that I have 100 or so hiking trails with each of them stored in a different GPX file on my home computer. I'm presuming that each trail would be stored in the GPX files as a collection of 'track points', or maybe as 'route points'??).

 

How do I store all of these trails onto my 60cx so that if I'm out in the boondocks somewhere and decide to hike one of them, it'll be there for me to use. Assuming of course that I can't go home to load up a new batch of trails.

 

Do I store them as Tracks? Isn't there a limit of 20? Or do I store each of them as a Route? I wouldn't store them as Waypoints or POI's.

 

How would I do this? Would they go to the so-called 'internal' storage or to the MicroSD card?

 

Is there such a thing as TOI's?? (Trails of Interest)

[CenTexDodger]

Lets say that I have 100 or so hiking trails with each of them stored in a different GPX file on my home computer. I'm presuming that each trail would be stored in the GPX files as a collection of 'track points', or maybe as 'route points'??).

 

How do I store all of these trails onto my 60cx so that if I'm out in the boondocks somewhere and decide to hike one of them, it'll be there for me to use. Assuming of course that I can't go home to load up a new batch of trails.

 

Do I store them as Tracks? Isn't there a limit of 20? Or do I store each of them as a Route? I wouldn't store them as Waypoints or POI's.

 

How would I do this? Would they go to the so-called 'internal' storage or to the MicroSD card?

 

Is there such a thing as TOI's?? (Trails of Interest)

There may be a way to store them as active tracks on the SD card. This has been discussed in another thread. Neo Geo and some others have been researching it. As you stated you can only store 50 routes and 20 tracks in the internal memory.

[peter]

Easiest way is to store them as tracks, but as you state there is a limit of 20 Saved Tracks. The Active Log could also be used to store a few additional trails but then it wouldn't be available to record your current travels.

 

Better would be to store the 100s of trails as a transparent map and load it together with your usual MapSource maps. That also allows each of the trails to be given an appropriate line type (to distinguish fire roads from hiking paths, etc.) and labeled properly.

http://home.cinci.rr.com/creek/garmin.htm is mainly about making custom maps using contour and other USGS data but the techniques can also be used with your own track data.

[planewood]

It looks to me like the same argument could hold for Trails as for Points. When I go to a POI, I don't want to necessarily 'mark' it as a new Waypoint. Likewise, if I'm treking up a previously marked trail, I don't want to necessarily leave a new trail of breadcrumbs behind. I just want the GPS to navigate me up the old trail. Now, I may turn active tracking on while on the hike so I can backtrack if necessary. But if the old track was fine, then I could turn active tracking off and clear the track log when I got to the end of the trail. Or, I may want to save the active track log to the SD card before erasing the log.

 

So, can Garmin give us of means of writing 'Trails of Interest' to the card? If they could, then it would be nice if one could organize them into the heirarchy each of us might want. Maybe one folder for each of the trails in Yosemite National Park. Or, maybe all the proposed road segments in a particular Sec/Twp/Range. Or, maybe....................

 

And if they can do that, then I hope they don't draw every trail on the map screen when I zoom into an area! I can select the one I want to show on the map screen.

[rickertk]

I have a few questions, and a few possible suggestions. Are all of your 100 trails completely different, non-intersecting trails in totally different areas? If they are, then it would be hard to combine them. If not, then you might be able to combine some of your trails into a single saved track and use that. I've just started doing this this spring, using Topofusion and Mapsource (yay for the new track editing tools) to put together trail maps as tracks for the areas I MTB ride in. Secondly, do you just want the trails to display on the map, or do you want directional guidance out of them? Saved tracks are always displayed on the map. Routes, however, are only displayed when actively navigating, and this kind of sounds like what you are looking for. I can elaborate a bit on either approach if you want,. but it's easier if we know what you're trying to accomplish. Personally, what I want is a rough map of the trails in the area while I'm riding, and maybe a few indications for things like muddy, dangerous, or difficult sections. I don't necessarily want to repeat a previous ride, but I do want to see when I'm at a junction what my options are and where they lead. I'm using saved tracks because it's easier; overlaid maps would be a better solution to the problem but I haven't found it necessary to put in the time to figure out the details for myself yet. I've been using Topofusion to average the trails together and create a network, and then editing those into a single track again in Mapsource. I can then filter this to below the 500 point saved track limit, make sure it preserved the most important details, and send it to the unit.

 

Keith

Edited March 27, 2006 by rickertk

[planewood]

I have a few questions, and a few possible suggestions. Are all of your 100 trails completely different, non-intersecting trails in totally different areas? If they are, then it would be hard to combine them. If not, then you might be able to combine some of your trails into a single saved track and use that. I've just started doing this this spring, using Topofusion and Mapsource (yay for the new track editing tools) to put together trail maps as tracks for the areas I MTB ride in. Secondly, do you just want the trails to display on the map, or do you want directional guidance out of them? Saved tracks are always displayed on the map. Routes, however, are only displayed when actively navigating, and this kind of sounds like what you are looking for. I can elaborate a bit on either approach if you want,. but it's easier if we know what you're trying to accomplish. Personally, what I want is a rough map of the trails in the area while I'm riding, and maybe a few indications for things like muddy, dangerous, or difficult sections. I don't necessarily want to repeat a previous ride, but I do want to see when I'm at a junction what my options are and where they lead. I'm using saved tracks because it's easier; overlaid maps would be a better solution to the problem but I haven't found it necessary to put in the time to figure out the details for myself yet. I've been using Topofusion to average the trails together and create a network, and then editing those into a single track again in Mapsource. I can then filter this to below the 500 point saved track limit, make sure it preserved the most important details, and send it to the unit.

 

Keith

 

It would be nice if one could turn mapping on/off for all Trails in a folder, or, individually. Sometimes I might like to see all related tracks on the map screen and sometimes I might only want to see one or two tracks. Like 3 options - Turn track mapping on/off globally, by folder, or by individual. Globally, so if I zoom into a new area, then all tracks would show on the map view. Then I could turn them off by 3 different means if desired. i.e. - let that attribute be at the track level, folder level, or at the global level.

 

It would be nice too if Waypoints, Geocaches, and POI's could be displayed in the same manner. And, yes, I would want to use guidance for any of these. Isn't that the whole purpose??

[peter]

It would be nice if one could turn mapping on/off for all Trails in a folder, or, individually.

...

And, yes, I would want to use guidance for any of these. Isn't that the whole purpose??

At least on my eMaps and GPS V the display of Saved Tracks can be controlled both globally (i.e. set the maximum scale, if any, at which Saved Tracklogs are displayed) and individually (a checkbox for each tracklog). You can use the TrackBack feature to give routing along a trail, but there isn't any auto-routing feature to determine the best route to take among a network of trails stored as saved tracklogs to get from point A to point B.

 

Nor do I see any need for that personally, so no, I don't think that's the whole purpose. Unlike driving around in a city, my objective on hiking trails is rarely just to blindly follow an approximately optimized path from A to B, but rather to hike a certain distance, see particular things along the way, etc. And again unlike car driving there may well be constraints of which the GPS would be unaware (this trail floods after a recent rain but another one has a great waterfall then, that one is too steep for the people who are hiking today, that other one has lots of biting bugs in June, etc.). Frequently I may also choose to get off the trails for awhile and don't want to hear lots of 'Off route - recalculating' messages, but I do still want to see where I am in relationship to the trails in the area.

[rickertk]

On the VistaC, and I'm guessing the 60c/cs/cx/csx, track display and color for saved tracks can be turned on/off individually. However, if you want the GPS to be giving you guidance on a path, you want to organize your points as a route. As I said above, I don't want the GPS giving me guidance on a MTB ride, I just want display so I organize things as tracks. There are some software tools to turn tracks into routes automatically and you'll need to limit the number of points to 250 or lower within a route, if I understand the specs. for your unit.

 

Keith