CA Topo vs. Southwest Topo

[dbell]

New here.... great site!... great maps!

Now to dive right into the questions:

First:
I have a Garmin Legend HCx which I use mostly for dirt bike riding in Southern California which is covered by both the CA Topo and the Southwest Topo.

When I look at a sample area that I ride in,  N 35 24.021  W 118 05.180, (11 S 401354 3917984), I see that the Southwest Map has better labeling of the trails, more POI with more useful information attached and catches some trail portions that the California Topo misses.

Is there any advantage to the California Topo that would make me want to use it for So Cal rather than the Southwest Topo?  I suppose that the Contour only version of CA Topo, ("Smaller quads, numbered not named and taller that they are wide") could be layered on another map... but I am not sure I understand the advantage?  What will happen if I load up Ibycus USA and Southwest TOPO vs. Ibycus USA and Contour only of CA Topo?

Second
Using MapSource I loaded up portions of Ibycus USA and Southwest TOPO directly onto a MicroSD card and then tried with MapSource to select a different map combination and load that up... but still saw only one Map on the Information page of Map Setup on my Etrex named, "Usa_27351211, Southwest USA Topo, Aug 2009."  Is there a way to load in multiple maps on my Etrex so that they show up as selectable for use?  What am I missing?

Third
City Navigator would give me the Garmin fancy road map, routing on the Etrex???, and lot of POI  (many of which look useless to me)...... I could layer CA Topo contours on that?... any other advantages to City Navigator as opposed to Ibycus?

Forth
I read on some thread that there is an update to CA Topo coming?  Will the update improve on the POI and trails?   Can the update team spill the beans on what is coming in the update?

I have some trail maps for the off road riding areas that contain much more trail information and POI information than found in either CA Topo or Southwest Topo.  Is this information useful to someone updating a CA Topo map?

I guess if I really get ambitious I can try to figure out how to generate specialty map for my areas of keen interest... but that would take some serious learning of the the tools you guys have brought together at this amazing site.

Last but not Least
Thanks to the Admin's for building this sandbox and letting us play in it and thanks to the contributors that have thrown all the neat toys into this sandbox!

- Dave

[Indrid Cold]

Ibycus USA and SW TOPO cannot show on your unit (or MapSource) at the same time. You can use the contour data from the CA TOPO with Ibycus USA or City Navigator, as the contour data is a transparent overlay. From the map setup, information window, press the menu button and you can enable or disable mapsets to you liking.

[maps4gps]

No need to have both Ibycus USA and SW TOPO.  The March, 2008 Census data was the 'latest' when it was used in the Spring of 2008; about 1/3 of the counties had not be completely 'realigned'.  The SW TOPO used the December, 2008 Census data - realignment completed for all counties.

[dbell]

Thanks for the feed back guys.

I have CA and NV from the Southwest map set combined with most of the remaining US from Ibycus loaded onto a 2 Gig card and up and running on my HCx.  Looks good, works great!

[Indrid Cold]

Glad it's work well for your use, enjoy.