TOPO U.S. 24K - Northeast

[woytovich]

Anyone using the "TOPO U.S. 24K - Northeast" map on their Garmin GPS? I'm considering a purchase and wanted to get opinions/observations first...

Also interested in opinions of the 1:100,000 vs the 1:24,000 flavors. Is the 1:100,000 pretty useless for wheeling?

Mark

 

[Curran]

Mark,
I don't have a ton experience with the garmin topo maps. But from my experience navigating with early military digital maps there is no way I'd drop the coin for the Garmin 1:100K map data for terrain like you wheel on in the north east. 1:100K is great if you're traveling over larger geographical areas at higher speeds (60km drive across Ft. Irwin at speeds around 30 mph). But if you would get extremly frustrated with the resolution and contour interval in terrain like Rausch Creek.
A few years ago I found a deal on some 1:100k USGS map data sold by National Geographic - $13 for all 50 states at Costco- and loaded it up on a Garmin GPSMap 76s for a trip to Paragon. The combo was worthless. Contour intervals of the map data were so far between that entire terrain features like spurs and corrals didn't even show up on the map. In contrast a friend of mine uses 1:24,000 Garmin data on is Vista HCx for day hikes and it would be a much better setup for a trail rides. The only drawback is the cost of the map data.
Free map data off of the web are probably the ticket, but it takes a little more work and a little more knowledge to get them working for you.