Messages

Thank you very much for the great info!  (I was following a tutorial and some advice posted here.)

Per the advice, I went to the Garmin website and downladed & installed BaseCamp (which did come with MapInstall), then using BaseCamp's help menu installed the 24K maps for parts of 3 states.  I can now see the topo maps.

(BTW, There is no hint you need these programs in either the 450's Quickstart Manual, the 46-page Main Manual, or the Garmin 24 K Map DVD.   Or any tutorials... What's up with that? )

I've read the tutorials here for using MapSource to load maps on the brand new 450.  Downloaded & installed MapSource.  Loaded the maps to the PC from the Garmin DVD.  Per the tutorial, loaded selected portions of NH, VT & ME in a single loading onto the 450 (not the SD card) and enabled the maps, but can't see them.  The current gmapsupp.img file showing on the 450 is ~800,000 KB.  I've tried this several times now, with several different quadrangle selections.

All told I've invested about 5 hours in reading & trying to get this turkey to work.  The Garmin website & Oregon user manual are for the most part useless.  (How can these people sell us their maps for their units without any loading directions?  Thank goodness for this website!)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[routable topos]

Thank you very much for the repiles.

I'm not sure I really need DEM for shaded relief topos or elevation profiles of routes.

I'm concerned, however, by the term routable topos if someone could clarify this.

I guess expectations should be clarified a bit.  The intent is to be able preselect way points to plan the route of a hike, note points of interest for later dispaly on a topo map uploaded and printed off the PC, roughly gps in property boundaries, and geocaching.

Thanks, RG

Hi,

Apologies for not doing advance homework on this cool site, but I'm pressed for time to buy a GPS. 

The unit I've chosen for backpacking is the Garmin Oregon 450.

Should I get the 450 or 450T?  I know there are tutorials for loading maps on this site, however, how hard and itime consuming is it to do so?

Should I get the 450 and just load the maps myself, or should I get started with the 450T with the preloaded maps?

Thanks, RG