maps on gps

[salyforthMember]

I have to buy a new gps because mine is damaged. I found a new Dakota 20 and an Oregon 200 on Amazon for a good price. (I am used to a 400T)
These seem to have everything I need except they both have a basemap only. They both have a micro SD which is how I think that I can buy better maps but that may defeat the puporse of buying a lower cost GPS.
My question is-Do I need more than a basemap. How much detail do these have?
I appreciate the help because now that it is summer, I am dying to get out there caching and I want to decide soon.
Salyforth

[cheezeheadMember]

Base maps are very, very basic. There is a site where you cam load free topo maps. There is a thread with a link somewhere in the forums, under help I think, There is also a line to free routabale maps somewhere too.

[cheezeheadMember]

http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/
Here is one link. MAke sure you READ all the download direction carefully.
http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/150/
Free Topo map. Again read the direction carefully.

[hack1of2Participant]

We have more than one GPSr and the main one we use is the Dakota 20 (the other two are the iPhone 4 and a Garmin GPSMAP62s). The basemap is all you need for caching, but it sure is nice to have more than just the basemap. The basemap only has the main roads, so many of the streets you’d presumably need to see are missing. But it will point in the right direction, which is really all you need for caching. We started out with just the basemap, then after a few days we downloaded a free map at http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/260/ which has ALL of the roads. Works great – that would be my suggestion. After 6 months or so of that we spent the $80 and got Garmin’s CityNavigator map, which has the roads but also includes turn-by-turn instructions for driving on the road to the cache (or any other POI). CityNavigator maps will turn the Dakota (or the Oregon) into a car GPS – you can navigate to restaurants, gas stations, tourist attractions, etc. With CityNavigator you can select a cache, it will give you driving directions, and when you get there switch to off-road “on the trail” directions.

[ThraxmanParticipant]

I used to have detailed street maps on my old handheld GPSr, and at the time found them to be handy. But by the time I bought my latest handheld unit a couple years ago, I had accumulated an automobile GPSr (Nuvi), which I liked better for street navigation. I have not bothered to put detailed maps onto my newer handheld unit, and appreciated the lack of visual “clutter” that detail maps provide in some areas.

You might also take into consideration the types of caches you prefer. If you are in love with park ‘ grabs, detailed street maps will be more useful. But if you lean more towards caches stashed out in the woods, detailed street maps won’t be much help at all. The base maps will probably have most of the roads you need.

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