Garmin TOPO 1:24,000 Scale USGS Maps

[jeep'g]

These maps are available in the west and central part of the US but currently are not available for New England or New York state? Does anyone have any idea when they may become available for the East and New England?

[scotthsi]

Sorry, can't answer your questions, but check out GPSfiledepot.com. All of their stuff is free and they have some pretty detailed topo maps of New England. I have the entire state of Connecticut from them.

[dictum9]

I would assume they look better on the higher-resolution Colorado vs. 60CSx?

 

Only reason I haven't gotten the Colorado yet is because I couldn't get 24K maps for it. Getting the higher resolution device seems pointless without higher - resolution maps.

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

They are working west to east. The first maps came out in July 2008. They have pretty much made it to the Mississippi, so I'd assume that we may be as much as a year away from seeing the last states added.

 

The user-generated 24K maps are great though.

[jeep'g]

What about the issue someone brought up suggesting that "trails" are better identified on the 1:100,000 scale map [2008] than the new 1:24,000 scale maps. That would be a real issue for me as I do a lot of hiking and canoeing, and the trail information is vital.

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

I find that trail coverage is so limited, even on the 100K maps, that I try to download user-generated GPX track files before many trips.

[snowfleurys]

What about the issue someone brought up suggesting that "trails" are better identified on the 1:100,000 scale map [2008] than the new 1:24,000 scale maps.

The paper 100Ks had many features identified as trail/jeep/4wheel. I expect these are what are on the Garmin 100K topo. I have seen posts saying their 24K product has little, if any, trails (neither off-highway nor hiking).

Besides not much being available; when you find some from a Federal agency (i.e. FS) there is some duplication between their data and the street/road/trail data in the Census files (which is what is usually used by those creating free mapsets). Merging the two sets takes some time - OK for a local area, probably tens of hours for each of many States, and a huge amount of time to do 'all' the States.

[rjfrider]

Also, the 24K topos are slow to load when riding trails quickly........not to mention chewing up batteries like mad - necessitating hard wiring the gpsr to the bike's battery through a voltage regulator. rider

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

I've never noticed 24K vector maps slowing redraws or impacting battery life. Has anyone else seen this?

[snowfleurys]

Battery life is adversly affected by have the backlight turned up. Are you doing that for better visibility?

 

I have wondered if larger individual .img file size slows finding and displaying the needed info, but have never tested for it. What is the size of the individual files?

 

Complexity of the features might increase redraw speed.

 

My GPSr (with my custom mapsets) keeps up fine at interstate highway speeds. What display zoom level are you using on the trails?

[rjfrider]

We usually ride at zoom level 500' or 800'

[+g-o-cashers]

I've never noticed 24K vector maps slowing redraws or impacting battery life. Has anyone else seen this?

 

Nope.

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

They're getting there. The Great Lakes edition (OH, IL, IN, MI, WI) has shown up.

 

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=255&pID=30149

[+geodarts]

No trails on the 24k maps for my area, but it redraws fine on my Colorado, even if driving. But to see the fireroads and major trails I have to use the standard 100k maps so I generally stick with that .