Garmin 2008 Topo Maps

[+MerlynNY]

Hey folks,

 

I just purchased for myself a Garmin Legend HCx GPS unit. The unit came bundled with the obvious basemaps, but also street maps for the U.S. I have two Magellan GPS units for my cars so these maps will obviously not be used for street travel.

 

I see that Garmin also has Topo maps, but at 100 bucks retail (yes, I do see it cheaper on other sites) I am wondering if these maps are worth plunking the money down for. The primary purpose of my handheld Garmin will be for Geocaching. So i guess my question is, are these maps good for Geocaching, or will they not make a difference? I plan on Geocaching locally for now (Long Island, NY), and I dont know if these topo maps will contain anything detailed for the local parks.

 

Any opinions/advice would be welcome

[+Klatch]

Hey folks,

 

I just purchased for myself a Garmin Legend HCx GPS unit. The unit came bundled with the obvious basemaps, but also street maps for the U.S. I have two Magellan GPS units for my cars so these maps will obviously not be used for street travel.

 

I see that Garmin also has Topo maps, but at 100 bucks retail (yes, I do see it cheaper on other sites) I am wondering if these maps are worth plunking the money down for. The primary purpose of my handheld Garmin will be for Geocaching. So i guess my question is, are these maps good for Geocaching, or will they not make a difference? I plan on Geocaching locally for now (Long Island, NY), and I dont know if these topo maps will contain anything detailed for the local parks.

 

Any opinions/advice would be welcome

Go have a look at the maps on the Garmin map preview on the upper right of the page.

[Keystone]

I am moving this thread from the Geocaching Topics forum to the GPS and Technology forum.

[+MerlynNY]

My apologies for posting in the wrong forum topic

[+MerlynNY]

Hey folks,

 

I just purchased for myself a Garmin Legend HCx GPS unit. The unit came bundled with the obvious basemaps, but also street maps for the U.S. I have two Magellan GPS units for my cars so these maps will obviously not be used for street travel.

 

I see that Garmin also has Topo maps, but at 100 bucks retail (yes, I do see it cheaper on other sites) I am wondering if these maps are worth plunking the money down for. The primary purpose of my handheld Garmin will be for Geocaching. So i guess my question is, are these maps good for Geocaching, or will they not make a difference? I plan on Geocaching locally for now (Long Island, NY), and I dont know if these topo maps will contain anything detailed for the local parks.

 

Any opinions/advice would be welcome

Go have a look at the maps on the Garmin map preview on the upper right of the page.

 

Thanks for the help! I've been there before, and was just looking to get the opinion of poeple who actually have the maps.

[Matt7591]

Interestingly I find the street maps highlight parks more than the topo maps (just a green blob, however), but the topo maps will be true to the terrain, generally, parks or not.

 

Try this. Take 3 or 4 caches that you would be interested to find in the area. Use the mapping search engine that is on this site. This is basically google maps. Then click on the MyTopo button to show the topo. Zoom in to full detail near each cache. Do you see features that would important to know, such as streams, steep inclines, etc?

 

BTW, if Long Island is essentially flat ( I have never been there but suspect it is somewhat flat), then the Ibycus maps may be good. I think they do have water features on them (check to verify).

 

I'm one who doesn't "need" topo most of the time but I sure like having it and it does enhance the fun for me!

[+MerlynNY]

Interestingly I find the street maps highlight parks more than the topo maps (just a green blob, however), but the topo maps will be true to the terrain, generally, parks or not.

 

Try this. Take 3 or 4 caches that you would be interested to find in the area. Use the mapping search engine that is on this site. This is basically google maps. Then click on the MyTopo button to show the topo. Zoom in to full detail near each cache. Do you see features that would important to know, such as streams, steep inclines, etc?

 

BTW, if Long Island is essentially flat ( I have never been there but suspect it is somewhat flat), then the Ibycus maps may be good. I think they do have water features on them (check to verify).

 

I'm one who doesn't "need" topo most of the time but I sure like having it and it does enhance the fun for me!

 

First, thanks for the great advice Long Island is pretty flat, so I guess Topo maps wouldn't exactly be beneficial.

 

I'm going out this weekend to hunt for some caches so I'll give my street maps a try first and see how they work out.

 

In looking at the MyTopo maps, I do note that the topo maps do have the paths inside of the parks, which is defintiely one of the things I am interested in. I'll check into the Ibycus maps as well.

 

Thanks for all your help!

[+NoHandsGPS]

 

I'm one who doesn't "need" topo most of the time but I sure like having it and it does enhance the fun for me!

I have to agree. I don't need topo most of the time, but I can think of a few times in the past month it would have made finding a couple caches much easier. I do have a tough time justifying the money, but when you think about how much time you may waste not having the detail it probably is worth having (assuming you will cache once in a while on hilly or worse terrain).

[+MacFlash]

One thing that makes the Topo maps less than useful in many cases is that the streets on it can be off by hundreds of feet. The Ibycus maps are much more accurate in that regard. So if you are using a street as a landmark of where you are- the Topo maps only add to the confusion. Garmin is aware of this, but does not consider it a significant problem for maps that are used for hiking.

[ryleyinstl]

Topo data can be added to Ibycus maps with free data avaliable from the USGS seamless server.

[+MacFlash]

Topo data can be added to Ibycus maps with free data avaliable from the USGS seamless server.

 

Tnx for pointing that out ruleyinstl. I know in the Ibycus threads there has been some discussion of this. Is there a "how to" posted anywhere?

[ryleyinstl]

Nope.....not in so much as describing the Ibycus hybrid method. In a nut shell you make a transparent map with elevation data, upload it to the GPSr and turn the layer on. This makes a great topo map.

 

The map how to (just use the topo part of the instructions) can be found:

 

Here - http://home.cinci.rr.com/creek/garmin.htm

 

Or

 

Here - http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-...rmin-topo-maps/

 

Edited August 22, 2008 by ryleyinstl

[snowfleurys]

you make a transparent map

 

I have made a number of transparent maps and used MapSetToolKit to create the required files for Mapsource. However, the outline areas shown in Mapsource are various sizes larger (hence, overlaping) then the data rectangles. Data transfered to the GPSr is only the data rectangle. If transparency in the MP files are set to no, the area outlines in Mapsource are OK. Is something not working correctly? I have not taken the next steps in making this data available to all because the selection polygons look soon tacky in Mapsource( using free version of cgpsmapper). Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[ryleyinstl]

I’m afraid I don’t quite understanding what your problem is. All I can say is that I followed the procedure here: http://home.cinci.rr.com/creek/garmin.htm and found it to work without error.

[Scorch07]

Originally I would have said no, but I just got my 60CSx yesterday, and it just worked out better that I got it in a bundle with Topo 2008, and I am darn glad it did. There is an amazing amount of data in it. It has a creek that runs behind my house on it that I have NEVER seen on any other map. It also has a lot of POIs and such in it that I was not expecting. I didn't think much of Topo, but now that I have it, I'm amazed, probably couldn't go back to a GPS without it.

[girvin13]

i am very pleased with the 2008 topo maps i use them when i am hiking and put the city nav when im in the car.

the detail is awesome and are very accurate as far as i can tell

[andmijo]

Hi,

well there are plenty of free maps available for Garmin GPS on the internet...

maybe you should check them out before buying the expensive commercial version from Garmin...

 

There's a really great site which lists most of the free maps available:

http://www.mapsntrails.com

 

If you're searching for topo maps from canada or the states, you should also check:

http://www.ibycus.com/ibycustopo/ (canada)

http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa/ (the States)

 

Good luck and have fun!

[+DocDiTTo]

I bought the Garmin Topo maps. While I don't need or use them on a daily basis, they're quite handy to have if you do caches in mountainous areas. I plot out my caches and parking areas in Mapsource so I can plan the order in which I want to visit them. With 2 clicks of the mouse I can view the caches on topo maps as well as street maps. That makes my planning much easier. Having topo maps on the GPS is handy in the field especially if the way to the cache you'd planned isn't going to work out. I've saved myself from doing a lot of vertical legwork simply because I had the topos loaded.

 

If you're primarily hunting urban caches with little hiking involved you'd probably have little use for topo maps and I wouldn't recommend spending the money on them. If you're caching in the woods, then yes, they're handy to have.

[+hogrod]

I have city navigator 2009 NT and topo 2008. The topo maps show way more streams, rivers and lakes which is really nice while out caching. This years City navigator does show allot more water detail than last years version, but still doesn't compare with having the topo maps.

I love the auto-routing with city navigator but also can't live without the more detailed off street mapping that topo offers either. I prefer to have both.

[+hike4familyfun]

I have both the topo Canada and USA, and am considering the City navigator software for my Garmin Oregon. Both topo's mesh together nicely when downloaded thru Mapsource onto the memory stick. Would the addition of the City Navigator also mesh seemlessly with the topo? I presume it uses mapsource as well ?

 

The city navigator would give more details in urban areas for the autorouting feature, so figure it would be a nice thing to have onboard... who knows when I would need to find a Timmies

[Motorcycle_Mama]

....

 

If you're searching for topo maps from canada or the states, you should also check:

http://www.ibycus.com/ibycustopo/ (canada)

http://www.ibycus.com/ibycususa/ (the States)

 

The USA maps linked are GREAT maps, but they are STREET maps and not TOPO maps.

[Barkoff]

I bought the 2008 topo for backpacking and hunting, and I am a little disappointed with it, it doesn't have the detail my NG topo program has; however if you are heading out into the woods at all, it does list creeks trails and backroads that can come in handy. In that aspect I think it is worthwhile, I'm just disappointed with the elevation detail.