GPS Topo software

[surfrusty]

Hello, I'm about to buy a GPS unit and have some concerns about the maps each company (Garmin & Magellan) provides. I backpack in the Sierras and want a unit that supports some kind of topo map. I know that both the Garmin and the Magellan have topo maps but I understand that the garmin only has the national parks which would be useless to me. The Magellan Mapsend topo is supposedly of the whole US. I'd prefer to buy the Garmin unit as it seems that it is of higher quality but if I can't use topo maps of the areas I backpack in then it it doesn't seem worth it.

 

Any comments or advice?

 

Surfrusty

[+Miragee]

Welcome to the Forums!

 

The Garmin Topo maps cover the entire U.S. They are not very detailed compared to National Geographic Topos, which are great for printed maps, but they work well enough. I have both the Topo and City Navigator maps on my Garmin Vista C.

[surfrusty]

Welcome to the Forums!

 

The Garmin Topo maps cover the entire U.S. They are not very detailed compared to National Geographic Topos, which are great for printed maps, but they work well enough. I have both the Topo and City Navigator maps on my Garmin Vista C.

 

Thanks! That is good to hear. But I'm confused then...What about the supposed topo for just the national parks? I say this just because on a backpacking forum some guy was complaining about garmin not having topo info for the area he was in except for national parks.

 

Surfrusty

[+trainlove]

I guess Garmin also sells regional higher detail maps, i.e. lower scale 24,000:1 vs 100,000 or 250,000:1.

Being a map mavin I have Magellan MapSend Topo and it's great, and Garmin SapSource Topo (the old version on 3 CD's) and that's great, and NG Topo USA (all 17 CD's) that's excellant, and Delorme Topo (all 6 CD's) and that's just plain not so good but parts of the program are good, and many others but none that have Topo info that I can think of off hand.

BTW one can't rely on paper maps or electronic maps or GPS units to keep one out of trouble. All navigation aids are just that, Aids to navigation.

[+Miragee]

Thanks! That is good to hear. But I'm confused then...What about the supposed topo for just the national parks? I say this just because on a backpacking forum some guy was complaining about garmin not having topo info for the area he was in except for national parks.

 

Surfrusty

I'm not familiar with the Garmin National Park Topos, but I suppose a quick visit to the Garmin site would confirm their existence.

 

The Topos I have are on three CDs, West, East, and Alaska and Hawaii. I copied them to my hard drive and then did the installation of the program from the hard drive. I downloaded the latest Mapsource program update from the Garmin site as well as the map "patch," and they work just fine. When I am hiking, I switch to Topo on my Garmin Vista C and when I get back to the car, I switch back to City Navigator for the auto-routing function.

[+embra]

If map quality is a major concern, you should take a look at the Delorme PN-20. It takes maps from Delorme Topo 6--while not of the quality of NG Topo, they are currently the most detailed topo maps that can be loaded into a GPS.

 

If it looks interesting, you may want to read user comments and questions to see what issues come up in the Delorme forum.

 

If autorouting is a high priority, you may find Garmin and the new topo program they are publishing to work better. But for offroad use, I'm pretty happy with it.

[surfrusty]

I'd prefer to buy the Garmin unit as it seems that it is of higher quality...

 

Surfrusty

 

Why do you say that?

 

I guess I say that from all the reviews I read. But I don't have any personal experience with either of them. I also am concerned that the routing software of the Magellan is inferior.

 

Surfrusty

[+trainlove]

My experience with people who own Garmin 60CSx's is that the Garmin GPS's are much better than my Magellan Gold. Their maps are more recent and more accurate while Magellan seems to have used the Old Tiger Census database maps. I'm not sure about auto-routing software so can't talk on that issue. Magellan firmware also has an error where occasionally the GPS time will be off from the actual Zulu time, by anything from a few seconds to several minutes, this really makes geocaching a challenge as when you get to a cache (according to the GPS) you are really several hundred feet past it. The only fix is to shut the GPS off and on when you get near a cache and re-acquire the satellites, and perhaps do this a couple times depending on how far away you are. And of course you can do a master reset of the GPS unit but that's a paiin in the neck to re-acquire the whole satellite almanac, perhaps 20 minutes of waiting.

[+imajeep]

Garmin has two topo sets; a 1:100K US set, and a more detailed 1:24K set for the national parks. Many hikers (including me and my wife) have both sets--we download the appropriate maps to the GPSr before a hike.

[+jackrock]

Welcome to the Forums!

 

The Garmin Topo maps cover the entire U.S. They are not very detailed compared to National Geographic Topos, which are great for printed maps, but they work well enough. I have both the Topo and City Navigator maps on my Garmin Vista C.

 

Thanks! That is good to hear. But I'm confused then...What about the supposed topo for just the national parks? I say this just because on a backpacking forum some guy was complaining about garmin not having topo info for the area he was in except for national parks.

 

Surfrusty

 

Garmin has two versions. They have the general topo as well as a National Parks & Forest topo. It's clearly labeled, you won't buy the wrong one by mistake.

[Alphawolf]

If you backpack in a National Park, then Garmin puts out a 1:24,000 set of maps.

 

If you backpack outside of the National Parks, then either Garmin or Magellan make 1:100,000 series topos.

 

Now the important part...As a backpacker myself, I always, always, always, have a 1:24,000 paper topo with me (and a grid card and a compass) so as far as I'm concerned, having highly detailed topos on a itty bitty GPS screen just doesn't matter one bit to me. The 1:100,000 maps are just fine. When I need detail, I pull out the paper map that measures 81/2" by 11"!!!

 

By the way...I use a Garmin ForeTrex 101 for backpacking. I've used others (I have a Vista CSx also), and I have both Garmin map sets. But...I keep going back to the 101. It is the lightest there is (I have removed the wrist strap too). No maps, no internal compass, no altimeter...Just a good basic, reliable, lightweight, small GPS to show me where I am on a real 1:24,000 paper topo map.