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Hi everyone,

I just got my first GPS, a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx. We do a fair amount of hiking and biking in the Northeast.  I have downloaded the Northeast parts 1-3 from this site and they are great topos.  I have been reading this site, and others, and have been getting things figured out.

Here are some questions:
1. I created a route in MapSource for an upcoming hike by using the route tool and dropping lots of little waypoints.  It's only a couple miles long but has about 100 waypoints.  It seems to clutter the topo on the screen.  Is it preferrable to just use a few waypoints at significant junctures along the way?

2.  If I only drop a couple waypoints, and then navigate to each one individually, will it interrupt the tracklog and make separate files?  What about if in the middle of a hike I decide to chase a geocache?

3. If I am hiking and stop for lunch, is there any reason to shut off the GPS?  I was wondering this because I would like the track to show one continuous loop & data, not two separate tracks for before/after lunch.