Just how useful are downloadable maps while on the hunt.

[mcb]

Alrighty, I know we all talk about how much memory our GPS units have to upload maps but just how helpful are they in actually hunting the cache. I am not talking about getting your car to the parking lot but once on foot how helpful do you think the maps availble from Garmin and Magellan (mapsourse/mapsend) are to actually helping you find the cache.

 

Personally I find Garmin's MapSource almost useless. MapSource TOPO only slightly less useless and is some case almost dangerous because the low resolution TOPO data leave out many terrain features.

 

So how usefull is the data to you?

 

GPS-Yote

[+Alan2]

I use both MApsource Topo and Street as companion software while setting up my hunts and routes on my PC at home. I print both types - the Streets to get me to the woods and Topo for spotting my locations in the woods. While the contour lines are usually not used my me in setting routes,Topo is useful in marking trails and roads in the park that do not show in Streets. However, if I've also printed a 7.5 quad (either Topozone or my NG Topo) it's easier to find my location on the printed map by comparing to my location on the Topo in my Vista. Contour lines, even though 1:100,000 scale become useful at this time).

 

If you ask are maps really necessary for geocaching, the answer is probably no in most cases as people have been finding these without maps. Like anything else mapping GPS's make GPS's more interesting by adding bells and whistles.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

Alan

[+Alan2]

I use both MApsource Topo and Street as companion software while setting up my hunts and routes on my PC at home. I print both types - the Streets to get me to the woods and Topo for spotting my locations in the woods. While the contour lines are usually not used my me in setting routes,Topo is useful in marking trails and roads in the park that do not show in Streets. However, if I've also printed a 7.5 quad (either Topozone or my NG Topo) it's easier to find my location on the printed map by comparing to my location on the Topo in my Vista. Contour lines, even though 1:100,000 scale become useful at this time).

 

If you ask are maps really necessary for geocaching, the answer is probably no in most cases as people have been finding these without maps. Like anything else mapping GPS's make GPS's more interesting by adding bells and whistles.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

Alan

[+supertech]

One of the big tricks is getting to the location if you've never been there. I use arial maps and expertGPS to help with road to the locations. GPSS also is helpful. I would not buy a GPS that dosn't map even if I only use it in the woods because you can mark trailheads, bathrooms, the car, a turn... track back using the 'breadcrumbs' feature... OK I change my vote... I wouldn't want a GPS that doesn't have mapping. My GPS is an eMap with external antenna and I hook it to my notebook while driving through the country. It is like having stacks of paper maps that I never have to fold.

 

Real men don't need to ask for directions. That's why we have GPSRs!

Remember, the glass isn't half empty, or half full, it's too big for the amount of liquid it contains.

[Best_Buddies]

Let me tell you about one hunt that I went on.

 

My wife had to go to a large city about an hour away. We decided to nab some caches and make a day out of it. I had print-outs of the cache information for about a dozen caches. I had the coordinates, but NO detailed maps (I had a yellow eTrex at the time).

 

Well, when hunting our first cache, I wound up in the parking lot of some sort of correctional institution. I was only 1/4 mile from the cache, but I was stopped by a fence, and had not idea how to get around it. We drove for a little bit, and chose the wrong direction at one turn. We were now on the other side of a lake from the cache, and just wanted to find a road to get us around. We would turn into a neighborhood, and find no way around, and had to leave by the same road that we took into the neighborhood. Eventually, we found our way to a VA hospital, and could tell that the cache was just 20 feet on the other side of a fence. Eventually, we found the entrance to the park and grabbed the cache. It took us more than an hour of driving around. If I would have had my Meridian back then, this cache would have taken 10 minutes.

 

This is probably an extreme example, but I am glad to have a mapping unit.

 

-----

Any similarity between my opinions and reality is entirely coincidental.

--Harrkev

[+infosponge]

I have a Meridian with MapSend Topo.

In urban/suburban caches, the street-level map detail is crucial to getting around efficiently in areas that I'm not familiar with.

In more remote areas where I'm hiking longer distances, I wish the on-board maps had more detail (closer to the USGS Quads). There is generally enough detail to be helpful, but it would be nice to have things like the tree cover represented by shading as it is on the Quads.

When placing a cache in an area like this, I usually prepare ahead of time with ExpertGPS, marking waypoints of trail intersections or visible landmarks that I can see on the topo map or aerial photo. Bringing a printed copy of these maps, plus the waypoints in the GPS makes it very easy to relate my current location with different landmarks or points of interest along the way.

[mcb]

My poll is asking how usefull the maps you download to your GPS are after you leave the car. I know GPS maps are good for getting near the cache and printed Topo maps are great on the hunt but how about the maps in your GPS?

 

Thanks

mcb

 

GPS-Yote

[+Trango]

I have found the maps for Hawai`i to be so off that they are not even useful for using in your car. Because the maps are so off, the function I was hoping to be useful (giving me an idea of the terrain features) becomes dangerous because the terrain that it is mapping is not the terrain that I am on. Perhaps the maps are more accurate on the mainland, but they are off by about a thousand feet here.

[+Alan2]

quote:

---

Originally posted by mcb:

My poll is asking how usefull the maps you download to your GPS are after you leave the car. I know GPS maps are good for getting near the cache and printed Topo maps are great on the hunt but how about the maps in your GPS?

 

Thanks

mcb

---

 

Copying a portion of my post I believe answers your question.

While the contour lines are usually not used my me in setting routes,Topo is useful in marking trails and roads in the park that do not show in Streets. However, if I've also printed a 7.5 quad (either Topozone or my NG Topo) it's easier to find my location on the printed map by comparing to my location on the Topo in my Vista. Contour lines, even though 1:100,000 scale become useful at this time).

 

One other comment about a previous poster. MY Mapsourse Topo at 1:100,000 requires 3 CD's for all 50 states. My National Geographic Topo for the Northest states only to give me 7.5 quad 1:24,000 scale quality uses 10 CD's. You can imagine how many discs it would require for the entire 50 states. The other main reason I believe it would be impractical to use 1:24,000 data in current GPS's is twofold. The processing time as the screen moved from one section of the topo map to the next would be terribly slow. Also, the small screen even with the relatively high resolution of let's say a Vista or 76S is still too tiny to see that many lines and data. Even on my 17" monitor, when I zoom out but try to show max data, the screen is swamped. Imagine the poor little displays we use!

 

Alan

[+15Tango]

Here in Minnesota, a lot of the lakes and streams aren't on the basemap in my Vista, and I've found the roads and rec mapsource I have loaded to be somewhat useful--if the cache I'm hunting is on the other side of a stream and I see a bridge, I know I better cross where I can rather than wait until I'm closer to the cache. It also comes in handy when I'm tempted to bushwhack--knowing there is a pond that I can't see over the next hill by referencing my map will prompt me to stay on the trail. Of course, the maps aren't perfect--they've sometimes put a high and dry cache in the middle of a lake, and they aren't always current--I was once searching for a series of caches near a four lane highway that would have made a great "handrail", but the said highway wasn't on either my USGS quad or on the map I had loaded into my GPS. Happy cachin'!!! 15T

 

www.1800goguard.com

[+Prime Suspect]

Last weekend I was looking for a cache (that I hadn't mapped out first), and managed to park fairly close. I headed for the cache along a mountain bike trail. I set off into the bush and only get about 50 feet before I see Lake Grapevine between me and the cache. I pull up the map on my Vista, and I can immediately see that I would have a LONG hike ahead me to get to the other side of the water (and that's assuming the trail actually went that far). I went back to the car and was able to get to within 100' of the cache, on the right side of the lake. So are GPS maps helpful? I think so.