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Maps that look good

1K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  GlazedHam 
#1 ·
I recently picked up a Garmin Oregon 450. I like everything about it thus far except for battery life, size and map quality.

I just ordered some rechargeable batteries and there is not much that can be done about the size, but I think I should be able get some decent maps. The maps in Garmin's marketing literature look great, but none of the free maps look worth a damn in my opinion. I be uploading free maps from various sources into BaseCamp and nothing really look that great. I tried few other applications, the most impressive was TopoFusion but it's probably overkill for me. I just want something that looks like google.maps terrain view.

Any suggestions?
 
#2 ·
You have fairly unrealistic expectations of getting pretty maps. Won't happen. You can get functional maps. Pretty requires screen resolution and battery life that the Oregon does not have. The size is so it can be more durable than a cell phone and comfortably be held on a hike.

Topofusion can send maps to the Oregon but they will not be pretty. Again, screen resolution and the way Garmin custom mapping works you can only send one zoom level, which is really only best viewed at one zoom level, maybe 2 on the gps. This means that raster maps are hard to read at times and clutter the screen.

And to be honest, I don't know why you want pretty maps in the field, anyway. The contour lines in terrain view are barely visible or useful for actually determining your elevation. I want my contours to be obvious. I can tell slope and elevation from basic contours. I don't need or even want hillshade on my field maps.
 
#5 ·
After playing around with TopoFusion a bit more, I realize I just like the pretty maps when I'm planning routes. "I'll go up this lesser incline, across this valley with views of those peaks, etc". Once on the bike, well, the map doesn't compete with the territory.

I do like the "Track Shading" feature to show how fast one was going on each section. The lap analysis should prove useful for the more mundane rides.

I thought I would have an easier time locating track files however. I can't seem to find a good one of the Big Bend Ranch State Park IMBA Epic trail. I have one that a guy gave me a while back but he sort of wondered all over the place for 3 days.
 
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