GPS above the timber.com

[Red_Chili]

They make topos that are 24K, and get this, DOWNLOAD ONTO GARMIN MAPPING GPSs. They seem like fantastic resolution. Colorado only, and $79.95, but compared to Natl Geographic or ANYthing Garmin offers, far superior.

The screenshots from the GPSs themselves are fantastic. Makes me want to use Garmin Topo as a doorstop.

The question is, am I being an early adopter of these? (AKA 'beta tester')?

It would definitely cover the question of GPS maps for USFS, BLM, roads, trails... you name it. But not routable.

I'll let you know. The CD has a couple more bits, but you get to pay tax and shipping and wait for it. The download is >240M, so broadband required.
[edit] make that >280MB!

 

[Red_Chili]

OK, finished installing, and here is a comparo:
Garmin Mapsource Topo zoomed in to the lower part of the Holy Cross 4x4 Road area:

And here is the exact same area in Above The Timber topo mapping, in MapSource:

See what I mean? The roads are highlighted as well, which in Garmin are hardly visible.

I can hardly wait to download the topo to my GPSMAP60CSx, which till now could only hold the skanky Garmin topos.

 

[Hants]

It looks like they're vector based maps?

How large are they when downloading to the GPS? Bet I'll need a bigger memory chip to load them along with the (routable) City maps (which have *many but not all* FS roads).

 

[Red_Chili]

I dunno, I have a 2GB card so ... I do know there is a max number of maps you can load at once. Most folks just load the maps they will need for the trip.

For Wyoming hunting, however, there is nothing available but the Garmin maps to download to the GPS. For that, a laptop and USB cable should tell me when I am close to BLM boundaries (the large range of antelope means that we are never all that far from the truck). DeLorme Topo 6 has a download for BLM land that works pretty well, and with a tweak to the config file will display down to highly detailed overzoom.

That will have to do for now. If AboveTheTimber is successful with this, he will consider making more states available (like maybe Utah for instance, and Wyoming???). He said Garmin was completely uninterested.

 

[Seldom Seen]

Colorado only, and $79.95

Easy to do for FREE, see attachment.

am I being an early adopter of these?

Nope, my understanding is they were developed and successfully used by dudes from Mountain SAR

It looks like they're vector based maps?

Yep, don't know of any Garmin unit that uses Raster maps and there in lies the problem.

Raster=Memory intensive
Vector=Processor intensive

Garmin's handhelds are slow to re-draw using Topo '08 I can only imagine how bogged down they'll get with all the additional information.

The way I understad how SAR uses them is: They only load the map of their assigned search area so the only time a major redraw is needed is when zooming. SAR moves slowly and methodicly on foot so re-draws up, down left and right are a non issue.

 

[Red_Chili]

Free? Sorta. Lots of time. For the amount of information and work to create and index it, and integrate it with MapSource, still seems like a good deal. Kinda like saying "MS Word is just ones and zeros, how hard could it be?" I know, I know... just making a funny.

I'll see about redraw. In his FAQs he mentions slow-ish redraw. My Garmin is good enough for riding the XR650R on the Kokopelli Trail, plenty fast. This is definitely aimed toward slow speed, not highway travel. I don't need 24K maps for highway travel . I do for hunting and exploring at trail speed though!

 

[Seldom Seen]

I'll see about redraw. In his FAQs he mentions slow-ish redraw. My Garmin is good enough for riding the XR650R on the Kokopelli Trail, plenty fast. This is definitely aimed toward slow speed, not highway travel. I don't need 24K maps for highway travel . I do for hunting and exploring at trail speed though!

I wish you luck. Add 10x the data ad I'll bet it runs 100x slower.

Try this, load your map of Holy Cross. Now hit menu, menu --> routes, enter --> new, enter --> manual, enter --> map, enter --> Zin to 1:24K

Now scroll along the trail and plot a route. You'll soon become painfully aware of Garmins limitations

 

[Red_Chili]

Well... not being the GPS guru you and others are... my intended usage is to mark a waypoint where camp is. Start walking or driving to the start of the hunt, mark another waypoint. Start walking. Walk more. Sit. Listen. Make sure my scope isn't fogged, by sighting on a star. Sun rises, still sit and listen. Possibly see something brown, warm and fuzzy moving through the timber, take a shot, set a waypoint, wait 15 minutes, tie an orange streamer to a branch. Go to where the animal was. Set a waypoint, another streamer. Track the blood trail, setting streamers where needed (line of sight). Find the animal, set a waypoint. Field dress the animal, quarter, wrap a quarter, hike out setting streamers where needed. Follow track back down to get the next quarter. Repeat till done.

See what I mean? Redraw is not likely to be an issue. If it is, I switch to the Garmin topo.