Free 40' contour Garmin maps

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Free 40' contour Garmin maps

Postby DSunwall » Wed Aug 05, 2009 8:52 am

check this out. I haven't tried it myself but it looks good, does the same thing as Top of the World maps I spent $80 on a few years ago.

http://www.miscjunk.org/mj/mp_cotopo.html
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Postby JoeGrim » Wed Aug 05, 2009 8:20 pm

I tried it recently and my GPS started doing quirky things immediately afterward. For example, it had a hard time getting a position even though it was locked onto 6+ satellites and it kept showing my location as being 10+ miles off, despite having a very clear view of the sky. I cleared everything out and it works fine for now. It could be a coincidence, as I had a couple other quirky things happen with my eTrex Vista HCx a year ago.

The contours in the maps are pretty good, although they seem to be based on gridded elevation data that is then contoured afterward. Thus, the contour lines do not show the fine detail of the USGS maps. I'm not sure if Garmin's new $100 1:24K Topo software is any better looking though.

I would be interested in hearing if anyone else experiences problems (so I can know if it is a coincidence or not, and know if it is worthy of risking another try.)
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Re: Free 40' contour Garmin maps

Postby BrianR » Thu Aug 06, 2009 12:50 am

DSunwall wrote:check this out. I haven't tried it myself but it looks good, does the same thing as Top of the World maps I spent $80 on a few years ago.

http://www.miscjunk.org/mj/mp_cotopo.html


I wasn't able to try that one because I couldn't figure out how to install anything without the Garmin software. However, I have had very good results with the following, which I think is a different source:

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/view/197/

I probably can't help anyone with the installation because I did it under Linux and I don't do Windows (I didn't try my MacBook), but this has worked great for me for the many peaks I've done on my last two Colorado trips. They are based on NED data so the contours are smoother than the USGS maps, but those contours aren't always perfect, either. I've had a few quirky things happen with backroads in this dataset, but nothing serious. I'm using an eTrex Legend HCx.
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