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TOPO 2008 worth it or not?


nimmich

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I have a Garmin eTrex Venture HC and obviously the base map is a bit minimal. I want something to show a bit more (streams, rivers, possibly a few trails) and thought about TOPO 2008 but so many bad reviews online. The NG TOPO! maps looked good but I dont think the can be downloaded to the GPS...any suggestions as to what map is good for more detail (and hopefully not outrageously priced) and one that can be loaded up to GPS?

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I have a Garmin eTrex Venture HC and obviously the base map is a bit minimal. I want something to show a bit more (streams, rivers, possibly a few trails) and thought about TOPO 2008 but so many bad reviews online. The NG TOPO! maps looked good but I dont think the can be downloaded to the GPS...any suggestions as to what map is good for more detail (and hopefully not outrageously priced) and one that can be loaded up to GPS?

 

I just purchased Topo 2008 this week. Loaded it up in my 60Csx and think its great. Has all the streets in the small city where I live. Looks like this is current with all the E911 street updates they did a few years ago. I thought I was going to need City Navigator as well but I guess not. Topo has everything I need for now.

 

Can you use City Navigator in addition to Topo 2008?

 

Anyways to answer your question. I am very new to this stuff so my opinion may not carry much weight --- but for me it was money well spent.

Edited by StugFour
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Can you use City Navigator in addition to Topo 2008?

 

Absolutely, I have TOPO and CN Both on my Garmin 60CSx.

 

If you are going to Geocache, then the TOPO is a priority. but also having the CN onboard, I can use the 60CSx for street navigation. That's not really a big deal for me, as I have a NUVI in the car as well, but for someone that doesn't have one, it's a great feature.

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This thread is bound to get moved to the Software forum, so before it does..........

 

You'll get lots of varied opinions on Topo 2008, I upgraded from Garmin's US Topo and am pleased. I found 2008 on a Garmin authorized dealer website for a little over $80.00 US, Garmin was offering a $30.00 US rebate at the time...so it only cost me around $50.00 US. It's significantly updated, showing more roads and features, and it just plain looks nicer. Accuracy is good enough to show which side of a stream a cache is on, more park land is identified, contour lines may be off a bit, but who's to say that US Topo wasn't "off" too...overall, I'm very satisfied with it.

 

Bill

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how is the accuracy of TOPO for geocaching...lots of reviews have said the scale is terrible for hiking/caching, but I mean I think I need something better than the base map....suggestions?

 

If you want to see what the detail is like in your area go to http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/ and check out the Map Viewer, and Select TOPO 2008, you'll be able to see what it covers, as for accuracy, it's accurate, but the Accuracy is only as good as what your GPS is capable of.

 

Hope this helps.

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We just recently purchased the 60Csx and discovered we need to purchase City Navigator to get the detailed streets, so now I'm curious if TOPO 2008 would be any better than CN? Would I loose any street detail by getting TOPO 2008??

 

Matthew

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The guy at Circuit City sold me the CN 2008 Update. He told me that my Garmin came with the basic map already installed and that it would just update it. ...apparently that did not work out so well. I returned it went next door to Dicks and picked up Topo. I am interested to hear if anyone thinks that paying teh extra money for CN is really worth it. I would like to be able to use it for in my car as well but Topo seems to have all the streets. I do not understand what the advantage will be.

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From what I understand, TOPO has all the street data that CN has. Topo just doesn't have all the waypoints for Food, Gas, Lodging, etc. And TOPO doesn't give you the ability to punch in an address and have the route mapped out for you. You have to select a manually entered waypoint or point and click your destination on your map screen, then it'll map out a route for you.

 

TOPO is well worth the money.

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Well I've used a Vista since '01 without any more maps than the base map, and used NG''s TOPO to make paper maps and it worked fine.

 

Now I've upgraded to the LegendHCX and went and got the 2008 Micro SD Topo for it, so far its been awesome. But I'm not one to rely on a dadgum mapping program on a battery run device to help me navigate thru some backcountry. But the TOPO 2008 really seems like it will work and where it doesn't then I'll just have to use my primeval brain and figure out where I am at and where I want to go using a basic map and compass.

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I've never used TOPO but I've used City Select and now City Navigator and I love them. I let the GPS figure the route to the cache. I also use it for trips. I plan a trip on Mapsource and then export it to my unit and the GPS drives me across the country. When I decide to geocache in a town along the way (I do my pocket queries in advance) CN drives me all around the unfamiliar area and then, when I'm ready to resume my trip, it doesn't matter how totally lost I am it simply tells me how to get back on my route and I'm on my way again.

 

If I'm visiting in a strange state or working in a strange town I let it find the nearest branch of my bank, the nearest location of the grocery store I prefer, etc. If someone says to meet them at 123 Sesame Street or whatever address they have I can put it into the unit and get driving directions. I have the street level maps for the entire US, Canada, and Puerto Rico stored on the microSD card. I use a 76CSx and would HATE to be without City Navigator. I may get TOPO as well for some caching and camping but, for me, CN has been invaluable.

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I have both City Navigator and Topo on my GPS, though its an older version of Topo. I use Topo for geocaching when I am in the hills and need to know about rivers etc. I use City Navigator because it auto routes me to the cache parking area. Topo may have all the streets, but it doesn't tell you where to drive to get to the cache. Being able to auto route has saved me a lot of gas and time.

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I've found CN to be invaluable for all of the reasons others have stated. I bought my GPS60cx for Geocaching, and found the base map very wanting. I bought CN as part of a bundle "auto" kit from Amazon. The functionality of CN has me taking the Garmin with me everywhere. I use the autorouting to get me to the cache. In most of the urban areas I've Cached, its been great. As the weather improves and its backcountry season, I've been reminded how nice it would be to have topo information on the screen, too.

 

I'll probably pick up Topo later this spring as well.

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how is the accuracy of TOPO for geocaching...lots of reviews have said the scale is terrible for hiking/caching, but I mean I think I need something better than the base map....suggestions?

 

The scale isn't the greatest, but it's OK for hiking and caching - and far better than nothing. Could it be better? Sure. I'd love it to be 1:24k. Is it useful? Absolutely.

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I've made a number of trips to Montana to visit my daughter. We like to take different routes there and back each time so we can see more of the country. TOPO would probably be insanely useful to us on those trips since we like to take our time, travel slowly, and camp along the way. Being able to locate campgrounds would pay for the software as far as I'm concerned. That is, of course, assuming TOPO has the info showing the campgrounds. We aren't interested in KOA or other commercial type campgrounds. We want dirt. :anitongue:

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I've made a number of trips to Montana to visit my daughter. We like to take different routes there and back each time so we can see more of the country. TOPO would probably be insanely useful to us on those trips since we like to take our time, travel slowly, and camp along the way. Being able to locate campgrounds would pay for the software as far as I'm concerned. That is, of course, assuming TOPO has the info showing the campgrounds. We aren't interested in KOA or other commercial type campgrounds. We want dirt. :anitongue:

This post shows some screen shots of an area in a National Forest in Arizona, with Mapsource Topo and City Navigator maps. The Topo ones do show some campgrounds, so maybe the area you're interested in in Montana would be similar.

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I've made a number of trips to Montana to visit my daughter. We like to take different routes there and back each time so we can see more of the country. TOPO would probably be insanely useful to us on those trips since we like to take our time, travel slowly, and camp along the way. Being able to locate campgrounds would pay for the software as far as I'm concerned. That is, of course, assuming TOPO has the info showing the campgrounds. We aren't interested in KOA or other commercial type campgrounds. We want dirt. :anitongue:

This post shows some screen shots of an area in a National Forest in Arizona, with Mapsource Topo and City Navigator maps. The Topo ones do show some campgrounds, so maybe the area you're interested in in Montana would be similar.

 

Awesome. Thanks for the link. That is exactly what I was hoping to see with TOPO!

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Hermit Crabs,

 

That was a great link to see TOPO vs City Navigator. Since you have both, would you recommend both? If Topo doesn't allow you to enter an address, I was thinking that having City Navigator would keep me from having to buy a Nuvi for myself. My wife loves her Nuvi, but I was thinking about getting a Vista HCx for hiking and geocaching. What do you think?

 

Rob

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Hermit Crabs,

 

That was a great link to see TOPO vs City Navigator. Since you have both, would you recommend both? If Topo doesn't allow you to enter an address, I was thinking that having City Navigator would keep me from having to buy a Nuvi for myself. My wife loves her Nuvi, but I was thinking about getting a Vista HCx for hiking and geocaching. What do you think?

 

Rob

I wouldn't want to have to give up either one of them -- they're both very useful for different purposes.

 

If I could only have one, I'd keep City Navigator for the auto-routing and for the POIs. But the Topo maps are great for hiking.

 

One thing to keep in mind -- the City Nav turn-by-turn directions won't have a voice telling you to turn left or right like the Nuvi -- it's a just a beep, and you'll have to glance at the screen to see what the beep is trying to tell you.

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Hermit Crabs,

 

That was a great link to see TOPO vs City Navigator. Since you have both, would you recommend both? If Topo doesn't allow you to enter an address, I was thinking that having City Navigator would keep me from having to buy a Nuvi for myself. My wife loves her Nuvi, but I was thinking about getting a Vista HCx for hiking and geocaching. What do you think?

 

Rob

 

I'm not Hermit Crabs, but I can tell you that I love my Vista HCx. I use it with Topo 2008 and MetroGuide NA 2007 hacked for autorouting via MetroGold.

 

Auto route to the cache parking, switch off MG and use the topo map while hiking and searching for the cache. Very nice.

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Topo may have all the streets, but it doesn't tell you where to drive to get to the cache.

 

It doesn't? Strange... Mine does.

For the US version at least my understanding is if you don't have city maps of some sort loaded, your driving directions area based on the information in the base map. I just looked at the specs from Garmin and it says that the Canadian version has "Many routable roads and trails"

 

I have both city maps and topo maps loaded on my gps all the time.

 

I use the topo primarily for locating waterways. I use the city maps for caching, finding my hotel, locating a good place to eat, learning what nearby attractions may be interesting, figuring out where to get gas, and driving my husband crazy by telling him there is a geocache "just over there" while we travel.

Edited by Neos2
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Hermit Crabs,

 

That was a great link to see TOPO vs City Navigator. Since you have both, would you recommend both? If Topo doesn't allow you to enter an address, I was thinking that having City Navigator would keep me from having to buy a Nuvi for myself. My wife loves her Nuvi, but I was thinking about getting a Vista HCx for hiking and geocaching. What do you think?

 

Rob

 

I'd get both. Its what I run on my unit and both are very handy. US Topo does not have up to date roads and does not give driving directions. Unfortunately City Navigator doesn't show much as far as terrain features. Even good sized lakes and rivers often don't show on CN and the smaller streams, swamps, ponds, etc.. are not there on CN.

 

When I'm in the woods I have my GPS set to Topo and when I get back in the car I switch to CNav.

 

As for the OP's unit, the Venture HC, such a setup would not be advisable. His unit doesn't autoroute, so CNav would be a waste of money and it has limited memory, so running both softwares would severely restrict his map coverage

Edited by briansnat
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I just bought TOPO and put it on my eTrex Venture HC...you guys were right, great purchase. Jumped around a bit at first but great for seeing which side of the hill is best to climb and which side of the river the cache is on. I use my nuvi to get me to the parking area of caches and then let the Venture take over from there. Its worked great so far.

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We just recently purchased the 60Csx and discovered we need to purchase City Navigator to get the detailed streets, so now I'm curious if TOPO 2008 would be any better than CN? Would I loose any street detail by getting TOPO 2008??

 

Matthew

You will have to have city maps loaded to use your autorouting feature with your unit. The Topo does not show any street addresses. The City maps do--hover over a portion of the street and you get a pop up of the street address. Also the city maps show the locations (and often the names) of parks, zoos, gas stations, restaurants, local attractions, police stations, hotels, etc. I have found that very helpful when trying to find my hotel at midnight in a strange town after a long day of driving and caching.

 

Of course, that is what makes autorouting possible for units that can do that...but I wonder, even if you don't have autorouting, will your gps still let you "see" the address if the info is there? Someone without an autorouting gps try this and let us know!

 

But your question is a good one for folks who don't have autorouting units.

 

Reading through the online info on the Topo maps, they claim to have "added more roads" with this version, and they advertise having "all major routes and roads"

 

I just looked at the Topo 2008 for my area. I live in a medium size city outside Louisville, KY. My street (one of the first to be plowed after a snow storm) is on the map. There are many smaller streets created within the last 10 years or so that are not on the map.

 

On the other hand, out in the "boonies" the results are more mixed. In some areas almost no roads are shown on the topo, and they don't seem "quite right" to me--but in others there seems to be more detail than the city maps give. For instance, there is a series of roads that lead between two small cities in my area. The two cities are there on the Topo map, but they only show 1-2 roads each (although they each have about 10 roads) and the main route between them does not show up at any level--so of course the smaller roads along those routes don't show up. However, in a nearby state park, the smaller park roads show up on the Topo (but not on the city maps) although they aren't named.

 

My city maps may not have the name of "Joe Brown Road" out in the boonies and may only show it as "road"--but it does show the road. In parks I have noticed that the path is sometimes marked in the gps as something like "Fire Station Road" when the park itself does not use that name or indeed may not use any name at all.

 

Once in a great while my city maps will indicate that a country road "goes through" from one major road to another when in fact it doesn't (or used to but doesn't any longer). I've haven't ever thought to see if the topo maps are less or more accurate in those situations, and of course, I don't have the newer topo maps anyway.

 

The Topo map shows much more detail about waterways--streams, creeks, small lakes. The city maps don't show most creeks and streams, although most major rivers and lakes do appear.

 

I almost always load both city maps and topo in my gps. Most of the time I stay set to my city maps. I usually only need my topo maps to see if I am on the right side of the creek. If it's a choice between the two, and you will use the gps maps to get to your location, I'd go with the city maps first and add the Topo maps later.

 

If I were doing any serious backpaking, I would have paper Topo maps and a compass with me anyway.

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Nimmich, I notice that you have a Garmin NUVI as well as a hand held GPSr. Now that you've purchased TOPO, you can open the Map Source Software and load way points into the mapping software (like from GSAK) and then transfer them to your NUVI as well as your hand held. This feature is "too cool"!

Take Care and Keep on Caching T C A K O C!

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Nimmich, I notice that you have a Garmin NUVI as well as a hand held GPSr. Now that you've purchased TOPO, you can open the Map Source Software and load way points into the mapping software (like from GSAK) and then transfer them to your NUVI as well as your hand held. This feature is "too cool"!

Take Care and Keep on Caching T C A K O C!

 

you mean load the cache into the nuvi? i just load the cache through geocaching.com transfer thingie and it seems to work well most of the time...usually a parking lot along the way somewhere if there isnt one listed on the cache description.

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Nimmich,

 

I have a Garmin 60CSx and a Nuvi 250. Here's how I do it.

 

First I have Garmin TOPO, and City Navigator NT 2008, and GSAK for the PC.

 

I have the NUVI Loaded with City Navigator, I have the 60CSx Loaded with City Navigator AND TOPO. Here's where it get a bit more complicated. The NUVI Has All 4100 or so Caches that I have in my GSAK Database loaded onto it, as POIs. The reason they are loaded as a POI (Point Of Interest) Instead of a Waypoint, is because the NUVI is seriously limited for waypoints, and can store an UNLIMITED amount of POIs, as long as you have enough memory. My unit can EASILY handle all 4100+ Caches, that I have.

 

Using GSAK (Geocaching Swiss Army Knife software) I have a Filter set to display ALL Caches 30KM or less away from me. I keep my database updates with Pocket Queries, and import them into the software. Then when I'm ready to head out, I send ALL those caches to the 60CSx, as Waypoints, so I can easily find them on the unit.

 

As I head out the door, and get into the car, I use the NUVI to find the POI for the cache I want to find and route the unit to it, and use the NUVI to drive. Once I get there and park, I bring out the 60CSx, and use it to get me to the cache. This works incredibly well for me. I even carry a PocketPC/Cellphone combo, and can log a cache, right from the cache itself.

 

The possibilities are endless, but this keeps things paper free for me, and aid in my planning. If I'm going out for the way, I bring along my Laptop, with ALL my caches in my Database imported into Microsoft's Streets and Trips, so I can eyeball other caches nearby while I drive. I hook the 60CSx up to the laptop, and use S&T's GPS function, to see whats around as I drive.

 

If you need any help with any of this, fire me a PM, and I'll be happy to assist.

 

Good Luck.

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