Where to get topo maps?

[+atate75]

Looking to get a topo map loaded in my Oregon 600.

 

Where should I look?

[+ecanderson]

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/142/

 

That should cover Alabama for you.

 

However, if you are looking for route-able maps (those that your 600 can use to follow roads like a regular automotive GPS), you're stuck with the 24K ones that Garmin sells. I prefer the larger screen of the automotive units for vehicle nav anyway, and use gpsfiledepot for the handheld work in the field.

[+HHL]

Have a look there:

http://download.freizeitkarte-osm.de/garmin/1412/

Instructions:

http://www.freizeitkarte-osm.de/garmin/en/index.html

Different designs:

http://www.freizeitkarte-osm.de/garmin/en/design.html

 

The maps are routable.

 

Hans

[+Mineral2]

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/142/

 

That should cover Alabama for you.

 

However, if you are looking for route-able maps (those that your 600 can use to follow roads like a regular automotive GPS), you're stuck with the 24K ones that Garmin sells. I prefer the larger screen of the automotive units for vehicle nav anyway, and use gpsfiledepot for the handheld work in the field.

 

Routable maps aren't necessary for hiking, and topo maps aren't necessary for driving. But you can have more than one map covering an area loaded on your device. I keep a topo map active in my hiking and geocaching profiles, and a routable street map active in my driving profiles. But if you do need both topo lines and routability you can keep both maps active and see the topo map while accessing the routable data of the street map - as long as the topo map draws on top of the routable map.

 

For topo maps, www.gpsfiledepot.com is the first place to look. For a free routable map, use garmin.openstreetmap.nl

 

Have a look there:

http://download.freizeitkarte-osm.de/garmin/1412/

Instructions:

http://www.freizeitkarte-osm.de/garmin/en/index.html

Different designs:

http://www.freizeitkarte-osm.de/garmin/en/design.html

 

The maps are routable.

 

Hans

 

That site does not cover North America. European maps aren't going to be useful to someone living in the US, except when traveling to Europe.

[+atate75]

Thanks everyone. I'll check it out after work.

[+HHL]

[...] That site does not cover North America. European maps aren't going to be useful to someone living in the US, except when traveling to Europe.

 

That's wrong. Please follow the first link and have a look before having wrong guesses.

 

Hans

[+Mineral2]

[...] That site does not cover North America. European maps aren't going to be useful to someone living in the US, except when traveling to Europe.

 

That's wrong. Please follow the first link and have a look before having wrong guesses.

 

Hans

The first link is broken. Does not load.

[+HHL]

Does load propperly in Hamburg.

This is what you will see:

 

 

Have Fun

Hans

 

NB: Autorouting with topo maps is essential in planning hike trips. It's good to know if an 8 mi route (like the bird flies) is actually a 15 mi hike with bends and the like.

Edited January 19, 2015 by HHL

[+Chrysalides]

[...] That site does not cover North America. European maps aren't going to be useful to someone living in the US, except when traveling to Europe.

 

That's wrong. Please follow the first link and have a look before having wrong guesses.

 

Hans

The first link is broken. Does not load.

It works for me. Partial directory listing :

 

US_ALASKA_en_gmapsupp.img.zip		04-Dec-2014 20:34 	702M	 
US_HAWAII_en_gmapsupp.img.zip		04-Dec-2014 20:34 	12M	 
US_MIDWEST_en_gmapsupp.img.zip		04-Dec-2014 20:36 	903M	 
US_NORTHEAST_en_gmapsupp.img.zip	04-Dec-2014 20:36 	493M	 
US_PACIFIC_en_gmapsupp.img.zip		04-Dec-2014 20:37 	705M	 
US_SOUTH_en_gmapsupp.img.zip		04-Dec-2014 20:40 	1.5G	 
US_WEST_en_gmapsupp.img.zip		04-Dec-2014 20:42 	1.8G

 

Edit : HHL beat me to it. But I can confirm that accessing it from the US works.

Edited January 19, 2015 by Chrysalides

[+Chrysalides]

NB: Routing with topo maps is essential in planning hike trips. It's good to know if a 8 mi route (like the bird flies) is actually a 15 mi hike with bends and the like.

Curious what you mean by that. So far all trails I've encountered on maps are not actually routable. By routable, I mean that if I ask the GPS receiver how do I get from where I am to a destination, it will show me a route along a trail and possibly provide turn by turn directions, instead of just a straight line.

[+HHL]

NB: Routing with topo maps is essential i[...]

Curious what you mean by that. So far all trails I've encountered on maps are not actually routable. By routable, I mean that if I ask the GPS receiver how do I get from where I am to a destination, it will show me a route along a trail and possibly provide turn by turn directions, instead of just a straight line.

 

Actually I meant autorouting (where auto means "automatically" and not "by car") with topo maps.

Freizeitkarte does support autorouting on trails (and streets as well).

 

Hans

[+Mineral2]

[...] That site does not cover North America. European maps aren't going to be useful to someone living in the US, except when traveling to Europe.

 

That's wrong. Please follow the first link and have a look before having wrong guesses.

 

Hans

The first link is broken. Does not load.

It works for me. Partial directory listing :

 

US_ALASKA_en_gmapsupp.img.zip		04-Dec-2014 20:34 	702M	 
US_HAWAII_en_gmapsupp.img.zip		04-Dec-2014 20:34 	12M	 
US_MIDWEST_en_gmapsupp.img.zip		04-Dec-2014 20:36 	903M	 
US_NORTHEAST_en_gmapsupp.img.zip	04-Dec-2014 20:36 	493M	 
US_PACIFIC_en_gmapsupp.img.zip		04-Dec-2014 20:37 	705M	 
US_SOUTH_en_gmapsupp.img.zip		04-Dec-2014 20:40 	1.5G	 
US_WEST_en_gmapsupp.img.zip		04-Dec-2014 20:42 	1.8G

 

Edit : HHL beat me to it. But I can confirm that accessing it from the US works.

 

Weird, I wonder why my ISP is blocking the address. It worked when I tunneled through the university. Any idea which areas these cover... specifically, I live in northern Idaho, so is that covered under US West or US_Pacific?

[+HHL]

[...] Weird, I wonder why my ISP is blocking the address. It worked when I tunneled through the university. Any idea which areas these cover... specifically, I live in northern Idaho, so is that covered under US West or US_Pacific?

 

Go to: http://download.geofabrik.de/north-america.html

Scroll down and mover the regions' names. Idaho is US-West.

Hans

[+HHL]

... the hamsters are pretty slow this night.

Deleted double posting.

 

Hans

Edited January 19, 2015 by HHL

[+Chrysalides]

NB: Routing with topo maps is essential i[...]

Curious what you mean by that. So far all trails I've encountered on maps are not actually routable. By routable, I mean that if I ask the GPS receiver how do I get from where I am to a destination, it will show me a route along a trail and possibly provide turn by turn directions, instead of just a straight line.

 

Actually I meant autorouting (where auto means "automatically" and not "by car") with topo maps.

Freizeitkarte does support autorouting on trails (and streets as well).

 

Hans

Thanks! I'll download it tonight from home to check it out. I use OSM right now but it is always good to have options.

[+doc73]

NB: Routing with topo maps is essential in planning hike trips. It's good to know if a 8 mi route (like the bird flies) is actually a 15 mi hike with bends and the like.

Curious what you mean by that. So far all trails I've encountered on maps are not actually routable. By routable, I mean that if I ask the GPS receiver how do I get from where I am to a destination, it will show me a route along a trail and possibly provide turn by turn directions, instead of just a straight line.

 

I think maybe meaning looking at the elevation profiles as apposed to just a straight bird fly line to determine distance? A hike may only be 8 miles like the bird flies it but when you account for the 3,000 elevation change in a half mile it will add up over time and be much longer. That is why I study those topos like a hawk and count the contour lines if I know it might be a bear. To see for yourself measure a straight path using the scaling guide on the bottom of a real topo map. Then look at the contour lines and their scaling (sometimes 10 or 20ft depends on map), add them up. Compare the ruler scaled distance and the contour counted distance. They will most likely not be the same, unless you are on the flat lands. I think the Garmin maps accounts for the elevation differences. I cannot think what they call on it on their maps.

[+Mineral2]

NB: Routing with topo maps is essential in planning hike trips. It's good to know if a 8 mi route (like the bird flies) is actually a 15 mi hike with bends and the like.

Curious what you mean by that. So far all trails I've encountered on maps are not actually routable. By routable, I mean that if I ask the GPS receiver how do I get from where I am to a destination, it will show me a route along a trail and possibly provide turn by turn directions, instead of just a straight line.

 

I think maybe meaning looking at the elevation profiles as apposed to just a straight bird fly line to determine distance? A hike may only be 8 miles like the bird flies it but when you account for the 3,000 elevation change in a half mile it will add up over time and be much longer. That is why I study those topos like a hawk and count the contour lines if I know it might be a bear. To see for yourself measure a straight path using the scaling guide on the bottom of a real topo map. Then look at the contour lines and their scaling (sometimes 10 or 20ft depends on map), add them up. Compare the ruler scaled distance and the contour counted distance. They will most likely not be the same, unless you are on the flat lands. I think the Garmin maps accounts for the elevation differences. I cannot think what they call on it on their maps.

 

Garmin's maps do have elevation built in, so you can see the profile on your GPS and on Basecamp. I don't think elevation is factored into the distance, though. Generally speaking, the added distance due to elevation will be quite small. Most of your disparities between actual distance and map distance are due to switchbacks and out of date/inaccurate trail placement on the map. I trace the trails in basecamp (making a track) and the distance estimate always falls short of reported distances on paper maps and guide books. But then, often my recorded tracks are shorter too.

[+doc73]

NB: Routing with topo maps is essential in planning hike trips. It's good to know if a 8 mi route (like the bird flies) is actually a 15 mi hike with bends and the like.

Curious what you mean by that. So far all trails I've encountered on maps are not actually routable. By routable, I mean that if I ask the GPS receiver how do I get from where I am to a destination, it will show me a route along a trail and possibly provide turn by turn directions, instead of just a straight line.

 

I think maybe meaning looking at the elevation profiles as apposed to just a straight bird fly line to determine distance? A hike may only be 8 miles like the bird flies it but when you account for the 3,000 elevation change in a half mile it will add up over time and be much longer. That is why I study those topos like a hawk and count the contour lines if I know it might be a bear. To see for yourself measure a straight path using the scaling guide on the bottom of a real topo map. Then look at the contour lines and their scaling (sometimes 10 or 20ft depends on map), add them up. Compare the ruler scaled distance and the contour counted distance. They will most likely not be the same, unless you are on the flat lands. I think the Garmin maps accounts for the elevation differences. I cannot think what they call on it on their maps.

 

 

Garmin's maps do have elevation built in, so you can see the profile on your GPS and on Basecamp. I don't think elevation is factored into the distance, though. Generally speaking, the added distance due to elevation will be quite small. Most of your disparities between actual distance and map distance are due to switchbacks and out of date/inaccurate trail placement on the map. I trace the trails in basecamp (making a track) and the distance estimate always falls short of reported distances on paper maps and guide books. But then, often my recorded tracks are shorter too.

 

I agree in short distances it is not a big deal. But over a long distance (not sure if the OP is doing any serious hiking) it will add up. Over the several hundred miles of AT I hiked it added up... So I guess it could be helpful on the GPSr if it is needed but even for my purposes I used the GPSr to just make sure I knew where I was. I already "knew" how far I was going. Now, for me, it does not really matter as much as I only go for short little stints that, as you already noted, will not make that much of a difference. It looks like Garmin called it elevation profile data that is used for the most accurate distance when routing?

[+Red90]

I make my trail maps routable and find it very helpful as well, since you know the actual distance remaining.