Topics

On a recent ski camping trip I woke up the next morning to find we had gained 2+ miles to our total of 5+ the night before...(I also think we gained 1000 vert feet to our total of 2000 the night before.  I turned it off overnight, there was certainly a pressure change as it was blowing hard at dark but calm at dawn...I can't imagine what could explain such changes...Any thoughts? 
Thanks in advance, Tim

I'm trying to figure battery usage for a nearly 3 week trip:  My 60CSx can go over 24 hrs when used during a day (scrolling, zooming in/out, etc.) the forgotten overnight...On my trip I will only be looking at lat/long. as we have paper maps and no map software for the unit.  We'd probably be checking our location only a few times a day, but I'm wondering if it would suck batteries more to power-on/off 3-4 times rather than just leave it on for 12 hours?  Anyone know?
Thanks, Tim

I know this may seem like a dumb Q?, but I don't know...

We're doing a multiday Alaskan float trip with two rafts this summer. 
I've purchased hardcopy(paper) maps of the entire route and have a lat/long grid penciled in on them.
I have a Garmin 60csx and one of my partners has Magellan GPS310

My big question is:
If I do NOT buy Alaska map software, will our units still read latitude and longitude for us?   If they will, I see that as all we need with our paper maps.
Also, I have Garmin Northwest(CA,OR,WA) on my SD card now for my local stuff....Would I pull out the SD card for AK trip, or make it blank?
Thanks in advance, Tim

I recently bought Garmin DVD, "24k West Topo".  This being my first GPS, I thought I could view maps in color like a real topo, in fact I'm sure right after I downloaded maps from dvd to unit I could....Now I'm getting light brown background with 400foot contour interval- very little detail-not much better than the base map that came with the unit.  Not what I expected for $130...any suggestions?  I'll be calling Garmin, but thought I'd try here first

Ok, per my recent post here I DID confirm my micro SD card that came with my unit was empty, and no problem to download  File Depot's "CA Topo".  (Thanks for the info)  I just downloaded  some tiles of California (approx 150Mb), everything seemed to work out...I went to the map page and the same'ol "base map?" that came with the unit and is so basic it's frustrating is all I get on the "map page".  It said download was successful, so I'm wondering where's California Topo... I go MENU to SETUP to MAP....under "info" here I can see (by toggling up or down) what I assume are all the different tiles I highlighted- all ID'd as California Topo..I can check a box under "show"...but that is where I end...Can't seem to get anywhere from here.  Tried turning off and on, not sure what else...Read recent post today related maybe?  I was sloppy and overlapping in highlighting tiles...could that be it?
Thanks again,
Tim

 I got the unit, put Map source on PC,  downloaded CA Topo from File Depot...

In the How to Download Maps Tutorial it says (something like) "if you bought an SD card from Garmin with maps already on it, DO NOT overwrite it..."  being a literal type (and rookie) is see cursory maps on my GPS and think it comes from SD card....Can I put File Depot map on this card with no heavy consequences?  I'm thinking I can, but I wanna be safe and not complicate matters when I'm already intimidated.

One more thing:  Can anyone explain the disconnect here between -what I think will be- a decent, workable FREE map here, and paying +/-$100 for a map from Garmin?  Is their map THAT much better?  I was setting up to buy there, then was directed here by a knowledgable person

Thanks,T