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Garmin Topo Map Advice


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I recently purchased an Oregon 600 which I've been very pleased with. I didn't go for the 't' option as I hadn't heard too many good things about the 100K maps that came on it. I loaded the 600 with state topo maps from GPSFileDepot and they have been working well for me so far, though they don't seem to show many trails and aren't routable.

 

I was thinking of purchasing a set of the 24K Garmin Topo maps. What I need to decide on is whether I want to get the Northeast maps on SD card or on DVD. The DVD would cost about $18 more but cover five more states - and they are states I sometimes visit (I didn't know that Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana were part of the Northeast, but if Garmin thinks they are I'm fine with it).

 

So I wondered if there is any difference between the SD and DVD 24K topo map versions other than the states that are covered. Would there be a problem loading the whole DVD onto a micro SD card and putting it in the Oregon? Can these maps only be loaded on one GPS ever? Should I just stick with the free maps? Opinions welcomed!

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I would go with the DVD (I have three of them, but travel a bunch) since you can then add the caches file to the sd card for the inevitable time when you are in the field on a 8 hour bike ride and all of a sudden all the caches are gone. The well known procedure to get them back in the field requires the gpx to be on the SDcard.

 

Also with the DVD they are on your computer for viewing in Mapsource/Basecamp. You are right about the 100K being off. Mine are off by 50-100 feet laterally all the time. It doesn't affect finding the cache but the map shows it where it isn't. The 24K are dead on each time and they are routable if you want that.

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I have the free topos from GPSFileDepot on my Oregon 450 and am quite pleased with those. I've been using those for a few years and have nothing but good things to say about them. I also have routable maps from garmin.openstreetmap.nl and haven't had any problems with those at all. They're "routable" in the sense that the unit will give you turn by turn directions ON SCREEN and not in the sense that the GPS will talk to you and tell you where to go, but that should be obvious since a handheld GPS doesn't have a speaker.

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I have the mSD 24K Garmin maps for use with my units. I have personally never had the experience of losing my caches in the field (it's been 3 1/2 years now since I've had a dedicated GPS unit of some sort) and I regularly clear out my GPX folder, so I'm never really close to using up all my internal memory storage on the unit, which is why I chose the mSD card. It's been great and I've been able to find some of the other regions on sale at various times.

 

I think they're great and worth the money, regardless of the format you go with. I highly recommend one of the maps on the site already mentioned. It's the transparent overlay of trails and it doesn't take up much space. It isn't all inclusive by any stretch of the imagination, but it's still really good.

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Coachstahly said:

 

<< I highly recommend one of the maps on the site already mentioned. It's the transparent overlay of trails and it doesn't take up much space.>>

 

I'm not positive as to which you are referring to. Could you narrow it down for me? Thanks.

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Got the DVD today. I just done loading the maps onto a 16GB Micro SD card. That took a long time, mostly for the map building process. I'd guess about two hours. The NE maps took up about 3.5 GB of the card so I had lots of room. The detail is good but the free topo maps from GPSFileDepot look nearly as detailed.

 

At first I was concerned that I didn't see shaded relief on the map view but I suppose that just shows up on the 3D view, where it does show. That and the ability to do routing will hopefully make these worthwhile.

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The "Auto" setting for Shaded Relief turns off the shading when you are zoomed in. You'd need to set it to "Always On" or "When Available" (can't remember what Garmin calls it right now) in order to have it visible at the high zoom levels that you'd normally use.

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The "Auto" setting for Shaded Relief turns off the shading when you are zoomed in. You'd need to set it to "Always On" or "When Available" (can't remember what Garmin calls it right now) in order to have it visible at the high zoom levels that you'd normally use.

On my Oregon 650 with Topo U.S. 24K Northeast and Topo U.S. 24K Southeast, it's labelled

 

Shaded Relief

Show if Available

 

--Larry

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Thanks everyone! That worked.

 

I noticed that the free GPSFileDepot state topo maps seem to be the same 24K scale as the Garmin maps. The elevation line spacing is just the same when looking at identical areas. It's nice to have the shading and routing on the Garmin maps, though.

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Yeah, it's a bit of a mess of trade-offs right now.

 

Garmin data has shading & DEM. I like the DEM for planning, personally, since it will give me an idea of vertical climb/descent before-hand.

OSM has some of the most complete trail data in any one place, but openmtbmap is the only one with topography data that I'm aware of, and it's pretty ugly.

3rd parties on gpsfiledepot have done a good job splitting out topography data from trails, making it easier to mix and match. No DEM data though, and it isn't as comprehensive on the trails due to fewer folks contributing.

 

I like the approach of using one map for just topo data, and overlaying trail/road data onto it using OSM. I wonder what it'd take to create the tools needed to create the transparent OSM maps required to do it.

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