Please recommend a GPS

[AlfalfaGirl]

Ok y’all. I am dumber than a box of rocks about Garmin’s. I would like to be able to make a complete set of maps of the trails at our favorite equestrian park.

I am reading about the plotting, bread crumbs, etc. (love the Hansel and Gretel breadcrumb thing!) So I want one that when I start out on the trail will make notes (bread crumbs?) of where the trail is. Do all Garmin’s have this feature? I hate to sound like a total idiot but I don’t have a clue and hubby said he’d get me one for Christmas. I want to track how many miles we go also.

Any input would be appreciated!!!

[HorsingRound]

I have a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx, which seems to be the unit of choice for my trailriding pals, although some now are getting the Garmin Colorado, which is a touch screen.

Other people I know are using an iPhone app which seems to do as good of a job (for much cheaper!) creating tracks as the Garmins. I think a similar app is available for other smart phones too, but I’m not keen on loading one on to mine (yet).

Once I have a track recorded of a ride, I load it into: www.everytrail.com to view it in satellite mode, share the ride with friends, and so other people can upload the track to follow my route if they choose. Sometimes I screenshot the aerial view of the track and print it out to use like a conventional map.

My Everytrail username is the same as here, in case you’d like to see what I do with my trail ride info. Here’s one of my rides: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=542259

[Doctracy]

Anybody know the name of the IPhone ap? I have an older Garmins gps/walkie talkie. I have a heck of a time doing anything except storing the trail I’m on, breadcrumbs, distance and speed. I have an iPhone ap for car-use and it is much more user friendly.

[AlfalfaGirl]

Hubby is getting me a GPS for Christmas! Woot! I will let y’all know how it does. I am going riding at the local park the day after Christmas and we are going to try to map the trails to print out and how far they are.

The CowBoy Church that I ride with is going to be renting the stables at the park and we are planning all kinds of fun trail rides/competitions/playdays and it will be nice to be able to give out maps with directions, distances, approximate times. Can’t wait!

[ShotenStar]

@HorsingRound;5287675

…
Once I have a track recorded of a ride, I load it into: www.everytrail.com to view it in satellite mode, share the ride with friends, and so other people can upload the track to follow my route if they choose. Sometimes I screenshot the aerial view of the track and print it out to use like a conventional map.

Very neat site … makes me think a GPS is in my future, more for the cool tech toy value than because I need it (my friends all like to ride with me because I have an ‘internal GPS’ and never get lost.)

star

[Snowdenfarm]

Doctracy, it is Gaia GPS. I have it and love it – mainly because it allows me to travel light. It works much better on my 4G than it did on my old 3G. On the 3G, it took so long to start up and find my location that I would open the app before unloading my horse! I took a phone call while tracking once and had a gap in the trail for the duration of the call. I haven’t tried a phone call with the 4G, but I hope the new multitasking ability will resolve that. You can export your trails to everytrail.com as well. There is a Gaia GPS Lite app that gives you all the important tracking features for free. If you decide you want the paid version, it is only $7.99. Both apps lay your trail over a color topographic map. There is a guide me feature to follow a previous track (including the one you just made). It shows total time, time in motion, speed, top speed, distance, elevation, and saves your tracks. It is not the most user friendly app, but for my purposes anyway, it more than suffices.

[HorsingRound]

Is “Ride to Kings Creek Cemetery” your ride, Snowdenfarm, on Everytrail? If so, it sure looks chilly out there! Glad you had some friends with schnapps to keep you warm!

[system]

GPS

[QUOTE=gypsymare;4126738]
I’m leaning toward the Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx for its color screen and seems to be rated as having great reception in heavy cover. The woods are very old and thick around here. Has anyone used it?[/QUOTE]

I have used the Garman GPSMAP 60CSx for several years now–I NEVER LOOSE SIGNAL! Basic use is not complicated–I do a fair amount of off trail and like to save tracks on occasion. Really like the distance and speed indicators. I have a separate pouch and have it double tethered so I do not loose it. Highly recommend it.

[AlfalfaGirl]

I used my Garmin Venture HC yesterday for the first time. I had it in my pocket unfortunately and when I dismounted after 34 minutes it shut it off :mad:

I had it set to tract every 4 minutes and I was able to upload my trip - it was 2.2 miles when it shut off. I will next time put it in a pouch so I don’t have a shut off again. It was easy to setup and I spent a little time learning it and looking at Youtube video’s to learn to use it.

I am going to give the tracks another go next weekend!

[DMK]

OK, as I am sitting here with manuals galore for my brand spanking new etrex legend hcx (two waypoints loaded: home and barn … not useful for trail riding, but whatevs…) I can appreciate the Not Intuitiveness of garmin (and I am a techno geek person).

However for all of you who want to contribute to mapping trails and who might not have gps systems, you can use your phones! Iphone or android, the application “my tracks” is free and easy to use. Here’s a 12 mile loop through north GA’s Dawson WMA (the full blue loop for those familiar). I uploaded it on to google earth, but it sure would be nice to have a horse trail riding common location to load all these maps up to wouldn’t it?

dawson long blue loop

And I don’t have phone service in Dawson, but the GPS still tracks very well. The only reason I asked for the handheld gps was because I didn’t want to find myself in a position of using up all my cell battery if we went out on longer rides in less familiar territory (also I’m sure the gps in my smart phone isn’t as good as the handheld gps, but this was a ride about 80% in deep woods and decent eastern mountain type terrain).

Tomorrow’s Project: Figure out how to get existing maps from my google page to my garmn…

[AlfalfaGirl]

Woot! Sounds like a good deal to map the trails locally for all to use. That will be a fun project.

To save Google maps:

go to the map, on the top right where it says

PRINT SEND LINK

click on

SEND

a menu for

Email
Phone
Car
GPS

pops up. Choose GPS (of course!) choose your brand of gps and it will send it to Garmin where you will log in and download it into your GPS. It is pretty darn easy!

[DMK]

oh noes! I only have an email option (not even add’l greyed out selections) - I’m logged into my google account, under mymaps… any suggestions?