|
When it comes to maps & off road navigation, there are
many options available (See Off Road NAV, Part 1). One option that I chose was
to create custom topo maps for my Garmin GPS unit.
Virtually every GPS manufacturer creates topo maps that can
be loaded onto handheld devices. I personally have two main problems with these
maps: 1) They’re not a very good scale, and 2) Cost. Most full-coverage topo
maps come in at about 1:100,000 scale. While this is acceptable in some cases,
I’ve grown accustomed to a high resolution map. I like my maps to be at least
1:50,000 or better. There are options for higher resolution maps, but with a
limited budget, I chose another option. Additionally, most map sets cost are
$100, which, again isn’t too expensive, but I’m not paying that kind of money
for something that’s mediocre at best.
I chose to use free software to create custom
high-resolution maps for my main area of interest (most of Colorado
& part of eastern Utah.
Although I’m saving some money, it’s taking a very long time to do this. The
basic process is this:
1. Download topo data from the USGS. So far I’ve downloaded
about 20gb of topo data
2. Convert the topo data to a format that can be used by the
GPS.
3. Add any road, stream, lake, and points of interest data
that I may want
4. Upload the data to a high-capacity data card for the GPS
The specific instructions for this are pretty complicated.
It does take a high level of computer familiarity, quite a bit of time (each of
the 140 data files takes about 3 hours to process), and of course….patience. In
the end I’ll have a very good set of custom topo’s at the 1:24,000 scale. I’ve
included streams, lakes, peaks, placenames, and roads (including most national
forest trails) in my maps.
These maps do have limitations though. The free version of
the software I use to convert the maps to Garmin format does not allow them to
be routable. This means that I cannot get turn-by-turn directions when I’m on
the trail. This isn’t a big concern for met, but it may be for some. The maps
can also get cluttered if I zoom out too far. That’s a lot of data to show on a
little handheld Garmin screen.
When I finish my map set, I’ll set it up for download from
the Colorado FJ’s website.
|
