topo, or no topo

[Q]

Went on a trip to Lake Charles, LA to see in-laws for the T-day. Did a bit of hunting while there and on the road home yesterday. I was real curious as to how it would be without topos, which I have for Arkansas only. Seems some of the more remote sites would be almost impossible without. You can't get there from here.

In town though it was not a big issue. Do most have topos or the generic maps already loaded?

I keep both loaded and select which I want to use depending on what I'm doing at the time. I don't know if that is possible with GPSr's other than the garmin 60Cx and the 76Cx though.

[Gaddiel]

We have topo maps for our Magellan Sportrack Pro, but we never use it. It's just not that useful for the large majority of what we do with our GPSrs.

Wayne

[OldRiverRunner]

I have used Mapsource Topo since I started geocaching, first with my Garmin eTrex Vista and now with my Garmin eTrex Vista C. I wouldn't geocache without the maps loaded into my unit! I keep the northern 2/3rds of Arkansas loaded most of the time, when I'm home and not traveling. But if I take a trip somewhere, I will load all the maps for my route and the areas I will be visiting. The maps are even pretty good for cities and towns, unless there has been some recent development. I have been considering getting the Mapsource software for cities and towns, but the only advantage I see is that it will allow me to use the auto-routing feature of my unit, which doesn't work with the topo software. -- ORR

[Gaddiel]

Hmmm... I went back and re-read the question and I think I may have misunderstood.

I said that we never use our topo maps, but that's not really true. What I really meant is that we don't use the topographical information (elevation changes and such) of our topo maps.

We DO have the Topo maps loaded onto our Magellan. But we use them because of the detailed streets, NOT because of the topo information they contain. Clear as mud?

Wayne

[Q]

Perhaps the question was clear as mud. Out of the box, my etrex Legend C has only a few of the main highways. We ended up in areas I had not loaded topos for. Changed travel plans on the road, which we often do. Looking for a cache I had no map for in a rural area was VERY confusing. Guessing which small country road ended up going where we wanted put us in a rather long driveway and a dead end before we got on the trail.

In the city, the same approach was no big deal. Turning around in half a block instead of half a mile. Just got me wondering how detailed of maps other folks had loaded.

The old boy scout in me does use the topo info on hunts. Side of a hill, elevation ideas, other landmarks on the drive or hike in. And as mentioned the detailed streets help binches. Now if I can teach my wife to read 'em.

[SJClimber]

Though I have Garmin's topo, I rarely use the features to dictate my route. If the cache is way out in the sticks, National Geo TOPO makes more sense and has more detail. Having cached with Rhone, he with City Select (now called City Navigator - $114 @ GPS City) and I with Mapsource Topo, we tend to do better with the City Select in urban areas and no different in the "country." If you have one to purchase, I'd vote City Navigator V8. (Actually, that's my X-mas present). Oh, the CNV8NT(fancy compression technology) may not work on your machine. Just to be safe, check compatability for the plain CNV8 on Garmin's site (or the vendor's site if avaiable).