Route Caching sans Paper plan hits a bump

[+Coyote Raven]

We were so excited. I loaded my Nuvi, Vista and Palm with the route info (Riverside County Loop). We thought we were ready for an afternoon of route caching. We ran some errands and headed out to the highway. And then I realized that I didn't know the actual route. DOH! Where do we go? What route does the route take?! We couldn't find net access, so we couldn't look that way.

 

Lesson absolutely learned.

 

Now, what methods do you use for caching along a route? Do you just memorize the main road travelled and go for it? Do you, <gasp> print a copy of the map? If you can't get net access to view the map, how do you save it to view on your handheld device? I wasn't able to right-click/copy an image of the map, highlighting and copying doesn't do it, either.

 

I tried the "Create a GPX of Route". I got the file and opened it in GSAK - nothing. Tried opening it in Mapsource, but it errored. Do I just drag it to my unit? Then will it show as a route? Seems like it should open in Mapsource and show a route. I tried the "Create a KLM of Route", but the site encountered an error.

 

I'm going to do a screen shot of the map and save it as an image to view later. Is that the best way?

 

Thanks!

Edited April 17, 2008 by Coyote Raven

[+Chuy!]

I've had problems using the route feature too.

 

On big day-long caching expedtions, I open MapSource and write down the order of the caches I want to hit. I use the map in MapSource to plan an efficient loop and make notes on some caches as to the best place to park.

 

A couple of software updates ago, MapSource added Track edit features. That is, you can draw tracks to where you want to go, then upload them to the GPS. This has become extremely helpful when caching in the desert where there are no roads/streets on my mapping software. I use Google-Earth to draw tracks (they call it a Path), then use GPS Visualizer to convert the kml file into a MapSource readable gdb file to upload the tracks into my GPS. Works great finding trails and washes in the desert. You could do the same if you don't have city maps on your MapSource.

[+Coyote Raven]

Thanks, Chuy! I'll give it a try.

 

I did the screenshot edit to jpg file. I can open them in my Palm using an image viewer. I'm using Resco Image Viewer.