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If you are interested in specific trails in the White Mountain National Forest in NH, you can obtain individual trail GPS tracks using the Appalachian Mountain Club's on-line White Mountain Guide. That's a subsciption service ($15/yr for non members). You'll have to go through a few cumbersome steps to get the available data into .gpx format that you can then open in Mapsource and load onto your GPSr. For specific planned hikes I've found the resulting tracks to be quite accurate. It's too bad all that trail data is not available on a single transparent map that could be downloaded. I'm surprised that the AMC hasn't offered something like that for sale since they have obtained all the necessary data, which I understand was developed by actually walking all the trails with a specialized GPSr unit.

Jimbob,

Thanks for encouraging me to proceed and create a custom map as a solution to my problem. I have used the software you mentioned and finally, after some newbie frustration and a couple of needed do-overs, I have successfully completed making a transparent map of my stone wall tracks (all 61 of them), installed it in Mapsource and installed it on my 60CSx. The new map overlays very nicely on the topo map that I got from this site. It works great and provides the result I wanted to achieve. 

Rod

I should explain a little more regarding the wall tracks. For normal hiking sessions on trails off my property, I normally log a track to the SD card. When I make a lengthy stop or go on a small side trip that I don't want to be a part of the record track, I'll turn track logging off and on as desired. That still winds up with multiple tracks for that day though, as I recall, even though it's a single gpx file for the day. I've never tried logging a track just to the internal memory and then turning logging on and off as desired. In any event, track logging is not what I can reasonably do for my stone wall work. There are about 4 miles of stone walls on my property in what is now mostly heavily wooded areas. The work has been on-going over a period of a couple of weeks, a little bit each day that the weather is decent. I'm unable to do actual track logging because I'm unable to walk close to the wall in many areas - mostly due to downed trees or heavy brush/tree limbs. A lot of the time a circuitous route is needed even if the wall is fairly straight. To get around this I create waypoints at periodic intervals where I can get right up to the wall, at wall ends and at obviously significant changes in direction. I will then download the waypoints to Mapsource, view in Google Earth and create tracks (called paths in GE) right in GE by zooming in and connecting up waypoints as needed. I find it easier and I think more accurate to do this in GE than in Mapsource. The main issue I have with this method (or any other method for that matter) is with barways in the walls. Those wall openings are usually only 10 feet or so in width and waypoints at either end of the opening are right down in the muck inside the accuracy circle of the GPSr. So you get some obviously screwy localized results in places like that. But I tweak it as necessary to get a reasonable mapping right in GE by repositioning of such waypoints as needed.

I have no problem with mapping all the wall sections on the computer. I view a days waypoints in GE, create the tracks there, tweak as needed and then open the previous GE saved file. That adds the previous tracks to the new ones, something that doesn't work with Mapsource. I then save the GE file and the process is repeated when I obtain the next set of points. That gives me a good mapping on the computer of all the wall sections. The total number of tracks that I now have are about 65. Some of those could be combined with some careful inspection but most cannot. I'm sure I could never get down to 20 or even near it. Anyway, the issue is not making a decent final map that shows all wall sections on the computer as I already have that.

I was curious if I could upload all the tracks to the GPSr and use that as a good frame of reference when I go walking about. I already have the property boundaries loaded as saved tracks and that works slick together with the installed topo map on the unit. I can always use selective waypoints as references to serve a similar purpose, or pick only a few key wall tracks to load or, as you indicate, make up a custom map to load on the unit that shows everything I want. Sounds like that would provide the best result for my purposes. Not sure I'm up to the task of custom map making just yet though. Something else new to begin learning about :0).

Thanks alpine and Jimbob. I cannot join many of the tracks I'm concerned with because of gaps in the tracks. Joining them would eliminate the gaps. What I'm doing is mapping a lot of stone walls and there are barways and other discontinuities that I want to preserve in the mapping. Guess I'll just have to limit it to 20 tracks and push any needed buttons to make sure they all show up. I was hoping that if each track only had a few points in it instead of the max 500, and the total was less than 10,000, then the 20 track number would not be the control. Guess it's 20 tracks max even though there may only be 100 track points total. Oh well.

When I upload tracks from Mapsource to the 60CSx, they become saved tracks in the internal memory. However they do not necessarily show up on the installed topo map. I find I have to go into the saved track page, select any track that doesn't show, press entr and check off the box "show on map". When I have numerous small tracks that I want to see, this becomes cumbersome. Is there any way to do this on some kind of global basis for all saved tracks, as the default, either on the unit or in Mapsource prior to uploading?

@eztrails

That should do the trick. After you get the full Mapsource working, you can delete the Garmin Training Center. I did because I had no particular need for that software just taking up space. If you are new to GPS, you're where I was about four months ago. I never installed Trip and Waypoint Manager because I found it wouldn't transfer maps to the GPS. That's a cheap trick as far as I'm concerned. If I'm working with a map on the computer, planning a hike with waypoints and tracks, I want to also have that same map on the GPS. I considered having only the track shown on a default worldwide road map on the GPS and no topo to be pretty much worthless for my purposes. And I was not about to pay big bucks to Garmin to get what I wanted, considering the great free maps available at this site. Many thanks go to the individuals that put all that information together.

It can be a complex and frustrating experience for a time until you get used to the ins and outs, even the basic terminology, of GPS. But take it one step at a time and you'll get there. The folks at this site are very helpful. The following site is also great for a quick understanding about some of the usage peculiarities that are NOT indicated in the Garmin manual - and there are several very important ones.

http://www.gpsfaqs.org/

At least they were not in the manual for my 60CSx, which is the same as yours except for the compass. It took me about two full months to get to where I was comfortable in getting the GPS to actually do what I wanted it to do and to manipulate tracks and waypoints the way I wanted. You'll also find that the full Mapsource product works very nicely in conjunction with Google Earth.

According to Garmin, he cannot use Trip and Waypoint Manager to load maps to his GPS. To do that he needs the full Mapsource product and the way to get it for free is in the link, as I did. See here:

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=664&pvID=1951#featureTab

@ easytrails

Are you sure you actually have Garmin's Mapsource? My GPSMap60CSx did NOT come with Mapsource. It did come with the Trip and Waypoint Manager but I don't think that's the same product. I wound up getting the actual Mapsource product as indicated here:

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-to-install-mapsource-if-it-didnt-come-with-your-gps/

I'm using one of the topo maps available on this site instead of paying big $$$ for Garmin maps. I'm perfectly satisfied with it. I have no interest in highway navigation - just topo for hiking purposes.

@dolandave

Thank you very much for that information. As a result of your post I have now been able to use MapSetToolKit and cgpsmapper to recompile a new mapset using my edited img map segments (2 out of 40 total) and install that new mapset into Mapsource. I was then able to successfully transfer that new mapset to a micro sd card and can now use my modified maps on my 60CSx. Hurray!

@maps4gps

I don't know about rivers and streams but on at least a couple of specific instances, bodies of water leave something to be desired. Here are two examples that I noticed in areas that interest me:

The first is in Franconia Notch, NH

The body of water labeled Profile Lake is correct but the unlabeled body of water above it not reconcilable with the contours. I believe the contours are correct and that the size and location of the body of water is not.

The second is in the Pemigewasset Wilderness, NH, a few miles to the east of Franconia Notch

The body of water shown is not reconcilable with the contours. Again, I believe the contours are correct and the body of water is not. In fact, I don't think there is any body of water at all in that immediate vicinity.

While the above two instances are somewhat amusing from a technical standpoint, they are of no particular importance to me. My use of the NH Topo mapset is for hiking, particularly off-trail, bushwhacking and contours are more important to me than hydrology. And I love the 20ft contours in the NH Topo mapset.

@maps4gps

PS: I think I have found my problem with the NH Topo mapset. I had forgotten that I had previously edited two of the map segments using mapedit. One of those segments installed OK but the other one would not install at all, even when it was the only segment selected. I decided to uninstall the NH Topo mapset to eliminate the two edited segments and reinstall from scratch. Bingo. It then worked like a charm and I have the complete NH Topo mapset now installed on my 60CSX. I guess the moral of this story is that editing map segments may prevent installation on a GPSr. I am not sure what editing might be permissible and what might not. I do know that my editing on the one segment that installed OK was limited to editing existing text and on the segment that would not install at all, I had added completely new text. In any event, I'm pleased that I can use your NH Topo mapset because I think it is a little more accurate with the contours than the NE US Topo mapset. At least that is my impression based on a specific area that I am intimately familiar with.

Finally success! I tried another mapset called "Northeast Topo United States Part 1 of 3" downloaded from this site and transferred the required map segments that covered all of New Hampshire directly to my micro sd card using Mapsource. That works in my 60csx. I don't know why but I could not load the needed segments using the "New Hampshire Topo" mapset. The NE Topo US mapset has 20 ft contours also, like I wanted. Now I can go about learning how to actually use my new GPSr.

Thanks to all for your suggestions on this problem.

@Jimbob

I tried installing the mapset with the card in the GPSr via a USB connection. Still had the same problem. I also tried using another card (the 1 GB one that came with 60CSX). Still had the problem. I downloaded the free version of mapupload and tried that. It didn't appear to be able to load anything direct to the SD card so I installed the card and tried uploading all the segments with a USB connection to the GPSr. That seemed to work as the files transferred but the GPSr didn't recognize any mapset, saying "no map" on the map display page.

I was able to transfer one map segment to the card using Mapsource and the GPSr recognized it OK so I am in business if all I want is a single map tile. I really would like to have the whole set available right on the GPSr though. Don't know what to try next. I did install Mapsource before I got the 60CSX, using the method on this website.

@seldom_sn

I'm using a SanDisk SDHC reader that I already had before purchasing the micro sd card. The SD adapter that I am using came with the micro sd card.

I didn't originally since Windows Explorer indicated it was already formatted as FAT with 1.83GB available. I have since done a quick format as FAT but the problem remains the same. I could try formatting as FAT32 but I am not sure that is compatible with the 60csx. BTW, your NH Topo map set is excellent. Thanks for that. All I have to do is get it on an SD card so I can use it on my GPSr. I suppose I could only do a few segments that I am likely to use at any one time but I think I should be able to load the entire set.

New user here. I am trying to load the New Hampshire Topo mapset that I downloaded from this site onto an SD card for use in a Garmin 60csx. I am using Mapsource version 6.15.7. There are 40 some segments (tiles) in the mapset that total about 48MB in size. The SD card I am trying to install to is a new, blank 2GB SanDisk micro sd card in a SanDisk USB adapter. When I try to include all the map segments in the set, I get the following popup error message, which doesn't make any sense:

I am able to load six map segments successfully (about 7MB) but not eight or more. Does anyone have an idea what the problem might be?

Thanks,
Rod