looking to test topo maps

[djwini]

is there is anyone in the milwuakee area that has topo maps in their gps? i would like to see how to use them before i make the investment.

[TyeDyeSkyGuy]

I use MapSend Topo in my Magellan. I actually don’t find it useful at all in this area (SE Wisconsin) because the topography does not change enough.

I did however find it extremely useful on our recent trip to middle Wisconsin where topography changes frequently.

[Team Deejay]

Donna, give me a email and we can meet to load the maps to your GPS. I suspect you will find that you wouldn’t want to solely use the Garmin TOPO maps, as most are too old to be very accurate in urban areas. For example, on the current topo maps, Puetz Road does not exist between 51st St and 76th St. (This is the road that runs right through the middle of the Milky Way caches). The problem is that the last time these topos were updated was “long ago”. (The last one I checked was in the Kenosha area, 1976!) Note that there is a NEW version of TOPO coming out which apparently has more accurate road listings, so you might want to find someone who has this version instead.

[SammyClaws]

You can also check out all the maps on many of the GPS handled by Cabelas at their store. The guy behind the counter was very helpful and kept moving the micro SD to each unit for me to see what it looked like. Unfortunately, I didnt like any of the topo maps, but I wanted to see trails, not just topography of the land.

[Team Deejay]

Actually, there are some trails on the TOPO maps, but they tend to be in National Parks or major trails, such as the Appalachian Trail or the North Country Trail. We could hope that the Ice Age Trail makes onto the maps in a few years, but that would be about it around here. Basically, if you go to Topozone and it isn’t there, it isn’t going to be on the TOPO maps. You have to complain to the USGS if you want more detail (and then wait several decades!)

You can, however, make your own maps for upload to Garmin GPSs. I have played around with this, but so far, I haven’t tested my work yet (I did a trail map for Bong.) That one trail map took me several hours to put together, using tracks, the PDF trail map, and aerial photos. I’m not sure this is really practical (by the time I finished the map, I knew every square inch of the park, and thus didn’t need the map) unless we had some sort of large group effort with a website for sharing the files. If people are really interested, I could try to finish my project, but I suspect that no one cares.

[SammyClaws]

After reading about what it took to create a map, I was looked for the easy way out. And Garmin does advertise they have trails on their topo maps, hence my trip to Cabelas. I would have to say it was a big NOT.

There is a company called US Trail Maps – they have mapped all the snowmobile and ATV trails – which is what I really want. However the user reviews of their product and feel of their website lead me wonder about how good the product is. I have resigned myself to bread crumbing our ATV rides and not worry about the maps for that, but will get City Nav when version 9 comes out to help route to caches in an area.

[Team B Squared]

@SammyClaws wrote:

I have resigned myself to bread crumbing our ATV rides and not worry about the maps for that,

I haven’t actually used it, just looked at it a few times, but maybe you could do something with the Active Trails website.

There aren’t currently any trails for it in Wisconsin, but you could upload some trails and then re-download them in the future if you revisit an area. Less than optimal I know, but a possible solution.

[SammyClaws]

Actually, if this gets passed around to a few of the clubs, I am sure it could become a very useful tool. Thanks for the info!

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