Garmin Tips and Tricks

For free maps check out gpsfiledepot.com

Personally, I like the Garmin Topo 24k maps with routable trails. Free files from GPSfiledepot are good too but are not routable. You can open those on the Garmin Basecamp application and create your routes in Basecamp before uploading them to your GPSr.

Yeah, the routable feature (like driving with a car GPS) isn't that valuable for hiking, but for biking, it would be awesome as the maps have roads and trails.

Get the CD version of the maps ($99, if I recall). That way you can install them on your computer and on the GPS. Plan your routes in Basecamp on the computer and transfer to the eTrex.

As far as tip: Start using it, but go back and read the manual again after you are comfortable with just using it. That's when you can start to absorb some of the advanced features.

Hey, two "Mike W"s on the same forum page… this could be fun in the future!

My favorite feature of the Etrex 20 is the use of custom maps. I use it all the time. Check out Garmin's tutorial at:

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId=%7B2183bd60-bf34-11de-c454-000000000000%7D

Also give Garmin's BirdsEye subscriptions a good look. Great value because a one year subscription is an "all you can eat" mapping buffet. Whatever you can download in a year you get to keep after the subscription expires. Great deal!

I've not found Birds Eye to be that great. It basically adds satellite imagery to Basecamp, although not as good as Google's earth view imagery.

I almost never display the Birds Eye imagery on my handheld Garmin. The topo lines superimpose on the satellite images, so that's fine, but it really clutters what I'm trying to see on the handheld — trail, contour lines, and my track.

The one thing I always try to do is upload an actual GPS track (either mine or somebody else's) of the hike I'm doing. For the White Mountains, you can get an annual subscription to the White Mountain Guide online (www.wmgonline.org) and put together custom routes from the WMG maps. Then you can transfer those custom routes to BaseCamp and on to your hand held Garmin.

The Garmin display then exactly matches the AMC paper maps.

Here's a useful free download map set:

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/53

It is a transparent layer that displays on top of whatever base map you have on your E-Trex — City Navigator, topo maps, etc. All it shows is red line GPS tracks for trails. It's pretty complete and reasonably accurate. I don't personally use it that much for hiking (I use the Garmin 24K topo maps and actual GPS tracks), but I have it on constantly in the car GPS so it shows local hiking trails as a I drive around.

One of the freebie New England topo maps and this MyTrails map would be a good combo if you are looking to get started with a free map set for hiking/biking. MyTrails shows all the various rail trails and so forth, which would be useful for biking.

Now that's what I'm talking about!

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/maps/on-the-trail-maps/topo-24k/topo-us-24k-northeast-dvd/prod35411.html

This is the super detailed Garmin topo map with routable trails and roads. They sell a region of the country (in this case, the northeast US).

The DVD version can be installed in Basecamp on your computer and on the ETrex. There is also a $99 download version (or microSD card version), but these can ONLY be used on the Etrex. You can't use them on the computer.

To me, the best thing about the whole Garmin gig is being able to plan hikes on the computer (and display previous hikes).

The topo maps are very good. The trail locations are spotty at best (they are taken from the very inaccurate US topo maps). But, awesome baselayer for displaying actual GPS tracks from trails (or the MyTrails overlay).

I believe this is the preferred freebie New England topo map from gpsfiledepot:

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/103/

Here's a New Hampshire state map (other states are available) that may be a little better visually than the New England map above:

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/157/

Try them both. What looks better on my Montana might not look the best on an ETrex. You have to match the detail of the map to the resolution and size of the display. For example, shading is nice on a color display, but useless on a black and white display.

You can install multiple maps on a handheld and pick which one you want to display with the setup menus.

I have a Garmin Oregon 400, which is a bit dated, but a lot of the map & track management operations have carried forward to newer products.

One of the freebie New England topo maps and this MyTrails map would be a good combo if you are looking to get started with a free map set for hiking/biking. MyTrails shows all the various rail trails and so forth, which would be useful for biking.

+1 to this. It's exactly what I have done, except using the CA versions.

In addition to the MyTrails map from GPSFileDepot, I've created custom overlay maps, from my own or others' GPS track recordings (GPX files). This is for when the MyTrails map does not have a particular trail I want to explore. I could just store those GPX files on the unit and load them to display over the map, but converting them to overlay maps gives 2 major advantages: (1) it doesn't use track point memory, and (2) I have more control on how the trails appear on the display — fatter traces in highly visible colors, different colors for different trail categories, etc.

The downside to all that is the process is laborious, but once you get used to the workflow it goes by fairly quickly. Note that these aren't "routable." To do that is EXTREMELY laborious and I haven't attempted it (and probably never will).

There are some excellent tutorials on GPSFileDepot, from basic loading and use of their maps to creating your own very complex maps.

Also, I just stumbled on this site, which looks promising but I haven't checked it out in detail yet: https://openmtbmap.org/

So, I got the 24K Topo set for the Northeast, which covers my usual haunts. It's sweet!

I'm wondering if there are any other free transparent layers like MyTrails that are worth picking up, though, I'm not sure what I'm looking for. Maybe visual markers for summits, so I can easily find mountains to climb that have trails and views at the top? Am I asking too much?

Thanks for the help, all. 24K Topo and MyTrails has made this Garmin a cool tool!

Max:

The Garmin 24K topo map has summits, trails, points of interest, and so forth. There are different levels of detail that can be enabled on your GPS or in Basecamp on the computer. These then show increasing amounts of detail (which varies depending on your zoom level).

Here’s a example I screen capped from Basecamp. The summit names are in blue. The trails are shown as dotted lines. They are not accurate because these maps are adapted from the USGS grid maps and these are old, often obsolete, trail locations that have since been moved. The black and yellow lines are actual GPS traces of the current trail locations.

You may not be able to see all the levels of detail on the eTrex or you may need to poke around in the settings and select how much detail to show. You also may need to zoom way in for stuff to pop up on the map.

Here’s a link to a bigger version of the image above:

Larger map image

Click the magnifying glass (view image) icon in Photobucket.