How to convert Google Earth paths into Mapsource tracks!

[+Blackjack Bailey]

For those of you that are interested, read on...

 

I recently needed to find the best way to climb up to the top of a mountain, in order to place a new cache. When I looked at Mapsource (with Topo v1.5 loaded), no hiking trails were shown.

 

So I viewed the mountain in Google Earth and worked out a good route by looking at a combination of jeep tracks and livestock trails. I then used GE's "create a path" tool to trace the route that I wanted to follow.

 

Then I saved the path as a *.kml file, and used GPSBabel to convert the *.kml file into a *.gdb file - the path is then shown as a Mapsource track, which I then transferred to my GPSr!

 

This is a great way of preparing for a recce hike!

[Geoff Ogden]

Wow - how cool is that!!!

 

Thanks Neville and also thanks for taking the time out to assist.

[+the pooks]

I have done something along a similar vein. I saved the google track in kml format and then used a utility KML2GPX to convert it to gpx format. I think the one I used I got here

 

In my case I loaded that into Mapsend Lite and exported to my Magellan Explorist. Apparently EasyGPS (and I'm sure GSAK or GPSBABEL) could also convert it into the right format for your unit.

[+vespax]

You can do lots of things with these little units of ours!

 

Thanks for sharing.