are topo maps necessary

[+toil&trouble]

Quick question, we have an Oregon 300, really happy with it, we have city navigator, and we do a mix of urban and hiking caches. Would it be worth it to upgrade to topo maps? We were caching today, in an area that looked like a short trail in a park. We started out .2 miles from the cache, found one cache, found another sort of back toward to car, then ended up walking about two miles in circles trying to find the car. It was one of those areas where everything looked the same, and a couple kinds of trees, trails all the same, etc. Would topo maps have shown the trail? I know the Oregon makes a "track" but neither of us can seem to figure out how to follow that little purple line, no way to tell which way you've already gone, once you've back-tracked even a little.

[+OlWilWandelen]

First thing to do: Step out of the car, Create Waypoint, call it Car. (I do that on the 60C, I think you have the same possibility)

Edited September 2, 2011 by OlWilWandelen

[+Bear and Ragged]

Mark the car. Always!

 

Maps do make things easier.

They don't have to be on the unit. I started with a paper map, often printed from the cache page. Or for doing a group of caches in an area I loaded a GPX file into www.gpsvisualizer.com to make sure I wasn't backtracking too much.

 

Tracks is useful, and worth taking the time to learn.

May not be needed if you are doing a circular route, but if it's a there and back the same way, or if you need to turn back for any reason...

 

May be worth looking at the free options to see how you get on with maps on the unit... http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/

Edited September 2, 2011 by Bear and Ragged

[+SeekerOfTheWay]

Yes, Topo maps are useful. I have topo map on my Garmin. I also use Google Maps on my Android so I can get an overview of trails and terrain.

 

The Tracks feature is probably the most useful feature on my Garmin Colorado. It's really easy to use, and I recommend learning it. When you want to return, you simply hit GO TO, Tracks. Then pull up the map and follow the black line back. Tracks is one reason to get the topo map.

 

A topo map is useful because it shows canals and waterways, and other land features. I use it a lot.

 

Following the compass out would be more difficult.

Edited September 2, 2011 by SeekerOfTheWay

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

May be worth looking at the free options to see how you get on with maps on the unit... http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/

 

I agree. And some trails are shown; others aren't.

 

This would probably have helped in that particular instance - Where To? > Tracks > Current Track > Tracback.

 

It would help to spend some time learning to navigate with your GPS though. Set a waypoint like you would at a trailhead, and learn to navigate to it using the compass and map. Learn how to follow tracks too.

[+Running Crazy]

Mark the vehicle...always. I have found that having topos on there are very helpful in unfamiliar territory. They give you an idea of the lay of the land and easiest method of getting to a cache GZ. I have come in the hard way many times before b/c I didn't know that there was a steep hill or creek or swamp...

[+dfx]

First thing to do: Step out of the car, Create Waypoint, call it Car.

Mark the car. Always!

Mark the vehicle...always.

 

I'm gonna go with a simple "meh" here. I have a tracklog, I can see from the tracklog where the car is. In those few cases where I actually used the GPS to navigate back to the car, I just set the pointer on that spot and hit GO. No need for a waypoint, beats having to try to remember to create it and keep it updated every time.

 

But obviously, if you fail to do exactly that, then yeah, mark a waypoint

Edited September 2, 2011 by dfx

[+Walts Hunting]

First thing to do: Step out of the car, Create Waypoint, call it Car. (I do that on the 60C, I think you have the same possibility)

 

That is what I do before every hike. Always nice to know which direction the car is. Even with the TOPO maps (100K or 24K) the trail may or may not be on there. Many aren't.

 

Do you need them not really unless you are doing some long hikes into wilderness areas. Are they handy yes.

 

you don't really need any maps for the track procedure to work.

 

Just remember the old saying: We buy what we want not what we need

Edited September 2, 2011 by Walts Hunting

[+toil&trouble]

Thanks, yeah, I know I need to mark the car, I remember about 1/3 of the time, working on making myself remember that. Never expected to get lost walking .2 miles, really got turned around, and couldn't find the right trail again. I think we'll look into getting topo maps, and remember to MARK THE CAR!!

[+myotis]

I would say you should get a topo and trail map. Some topo maps have trails but many don't. And trail maps don't have every trail and sometimes they are wrong. But many times you will have what you need. My Trails http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/53 has 10s of thousands of trails in CA. So in CA your best bet is a topo map from gpsfiledepot and My Trails (which is transparent so it shows on topo of your other maps)

[+Fonzi Tracker]

I would say you should get a topo and trail map. Some topo maps have trails but many don't. And trail maps don't have every trail and sometimes they are wrong. But many times you will have what you need. My Trails http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/53 has 10s of thousands of trails in CA. So in CA your best bet is a topo map from gpsfiledepot and My Trails (which is transparent so it shows on topo of your other maps)

 

I've put free topo and my trails maps on my gps unit for my car (nuvi) and my hand held gps. It adds some more information about the area. I've been out of town on trails while geocaching and wish I would have had the topo map loaded. Once you have done it once, it should be relatively easy the next time to load them.

[+baloo&bd]

The rest have addressed the car, so let's talk maps.

 

One word, water.

 

My friend has a CO 300 and I have the CO 400t w gpsfiledepot maps installed. In a small park, we were hunting about 4 caches and one that was just of the edge about 50 yards. He took off bushwacking toward the cache before I had a chance to tell him that there was a pretty big stream he would have to cross almost at the cache. he did not realize until he got to it and had to bushwack back.

 

He now has the GPSFILEDEPOT.com files on his unit. They also have routable maps that challenge the commercial ones when it comes to accuracy and quality.

 

Even the small parks can have a couple surprises. Are topos necessary? No, but they sure come in handy.

[+ecanderson]

One word, water.

+1 or +2 or +some decent sized number.

 

Even "in town", water is my primary reason for having the topo loaded. I kicked myself a couple of times for getting burned in exactly the way your friend did! The Front Range has a lot of creeks and a lot of irrigation ditches that have been here for a long time that will trip you up. Finally loaded up the gpsfiledepot map so I wouldn't have to deal with that problem so often. Am using "cotopo11" (Colorado Topo 2011) at the moment to see how I like that one.