Loading a route to a Garmin 62s is just straight lines between waypoints

Right on. How about I just attach it here?

The Germans do that in a car, get that Dual Sport bike out and have some real fun.

It didn't work quite like it did with my track but I think I got the route to a track.

V2. Just the tracks.

Yeah that kinda worked but it is a bit wonky.

So what I've ended up doing is just adding a few more waypoints to clarify things and will have to navigate basically Dakar style which should be a lot of fun.

Thank you very much for the effort!

My computer probably has a different mapset so the routes I see will not be the way you see them. So the tracks will be based on my mapset, City Navigator 2011.40 .

I'm using the Calfornia Topo Maps (I made the latest stuff on the desktop- the Garmin maps I have are on the laptop).

Either way, I just finished adding a slew of waypoints and loaded the routes up and it is MUCH more what I wanted.

Yes this went way around the barn and probably wasn't the easiest method, but it was a good learning experience for me and I think learned a lot. I'm hoping in a roundabout way this is going to get my orienteering skills back in line.

Bottom line, in order for it to work more closely with what I wanted, I need to use more waypoints. As I get better and better, I'd like to use fewer and fewer waypoints and force myself to read the physical terrain and make judgements on headings and such. In other words, learn how to truly navigate as opposed to doing the idiot version of following a line on a map.

Thanks again for all the responses as it did get me to thinking and come to a solution.

You do realize you are going to a National Park not Dakar? Vehicles are VERY restricted and intersections are usually 20-30-40 miles apart and there is usually a giant sign at the intersection when you get there.

There is no physical terrain to read, you must stay on the very clearly designated road.

You could hand draw a map of your planned trip on a napkin and tape it to your tank and never get lost.

OK mr high and mighty. I've been to DV multiple times and know it quite well. I'm trying to LEARN a new skill and mentioned Dakar as a metaphor.

I know and respect the trails, rules and areas where you can and can't ride. I've obviously looked at maps for a good bit of time and am well aware of the distances between intersections. Ever think that was why my initial route had so few waypoints?

I sincerely appreciate your input and tried to give you thanks and credit where it was due, but snarky smart ass replies of this nature aren't in the spirit of what I use the forum.

When you select a track to navigate with the newer generation units like the GPSMAP 62, a route will be created and displayed on the GPS. Waypoints are automatically generated for major high and low elevation points and the start and finish points. These and any user waypoints along the track are added to the route points along the route. This allows you to use the Data fields to provide you with information regarding, the distance to, time en route, arrival time, or name of the next point (high point, low point, or waypoint) or destination.

The 62 series can hold 200 tracks with 10,000 track points each. For a total of 2 million possible track points. Filtering down a track will reduce its number of points, but it also affects the shape of the track as displayed on the gps’s screen. A 100 mile track with 50 points is less detailed in shape than a 100 mile track with 10,000 points.

There’s also the option to enable a single track or multiple tracks to ‘Show on Map’. You can set the track colors to make it easier to see and distinguish between them. When following a track there’s no written rule that says you can’t turn ‘Tracking’ on and display your current movements in regards to the track your following. This way you know where you’re at in regards to the track.

daryl

You might also want to check out this program: http://www.javawa.nl/rtwtool_en.html

"JaVaWa RTWtool (the successor of MacGPX) is a program that allows various conversions of routes, tracks and waypoints. There are options to 'de-flag' routes, convert routes to tracks and vice versa, convert a collection of waypoints to a track or direct route. Routes and tracks can be filtered to limit the number of points per route / track, and they can be split if they exceed a specified length.

Route points accidentally put off road can be corrected automatically.

Routes and tracks can be converted to a series of waypoints; in the case of routes you get a result similar to the Hermanizer.

Furthermore, routes and tracks can be converted to courses for the Garmin Edge, with the ability to automatically generate course points which warn you for changes in directions in a track or for turns in a route. Waypoints can also be converted to course points.

Finally, there are conversion options for TomTom, Google Earth and Google Maps.

Routes, tracks and waypoints can be separately converted and/or processed, and both the input and the result can be displayed on a map."

Hey Sally,

Since I'm using the same map set as you, I did the quick conversion of the routes as supplied by you and snapped onto the roads shown in TOPO 24K, then Basecamp quick converted them to tracks without adding any extra waypoints. They seem to look pretty good, but may miss some of the additional waypoints that you may have wanted to visit.

I exported them to .gdb and .gpx versions. I'll attach the .gpx here. If anyone wants the .gdb, let me know.