Explorist x10 Users: How is the Basemap?

[sup909]

Explorist users. I am wondering if you could fill me in on some details about the explorist basemap. On some of the images I have seen it appears that the basemap has shaded relief on it, but I have not been able to fully verify with an screenshots with some mountainous areas. If it does have shaded relief, what is the level of detail on it? I am slightly curious compared to some of the Garmin units where the base map doesn't appear to have relief, but the topos seem much more accessible via third party.

 

Is the basemap in the explorist series the same through the entire line (GC-710?). Might be interested in getting a GC for my wife and perhaps a higher one for me and I am curious if an accurate enough shaded relief would due for the limited trail hiking I do.

[+Wampus-N-Pickle]

The 610 and 710 come with the Summit Series USA (or Canada). This is a 24K topo with shaded relief and a POI database that covers the entire region. The 710 adds street routing. The 310, 510 and GC come with a different basemaps and lack the electronic compass that the 610, 710 and Garmin 450/550s have.

 

The basemap that is included with the Garmin Oregon (non-T) is pretty useless - unless all your doing is driving on interstates and major routes. You can get maps for free at www.gpsfiledepot.com. Garmin sells two topos: 1) the USA 100K (previously Topo 2008, and included in a map-tile optimized form on the 't' series Garmins) and 2) regional 24K DVDs (also on SD cards). The 100K topos are non-routable - and depending on where you live - the TIGER (road) data can be off as much as 1/4 a mile - which is pretty bad. The 24K topos are routable, have shading/DEM data and contain a POI database similar to the City Navigator series.

 

We live right next to a wilderness park where we go hiking. A PDF is available for it here: Laguna Wilderness Park Map. I'll give you a quick list of differences between the maps we've discovered when hiking this park. I'm not sure if the results are typical for other regions... Now, calling your attention to the upper left of the map:

 

1) Garmin TOPO 100K / Topo 2008. The only trail shown is West Ridge Trail. West Ridge is actually an old fire road and is shown on USGS 24K topos. Here, it is not named and shown only as a dotted line.

2) Garmin 24K West DVD - Shows no indication of any trails at all - not even the West Ridge Trail.

3) Magella Summit Series - All trails in the wilderness park are shown with the major trails labeled - very surprising!

 

Hope that helps some...

 

Regards,

- Steve

Edited March 27, 2011 by Wampus-N-Pickle