Newbie question - Etrex 30

[CerberusKy]

Hi, I just purchased an Etrex 30 for use in wilderness hiking/running.  I'm trying to figure out if I'm better off subscribing to Garmins Topos and Sat images for download onto the device, or I can get everything I need here. 

Just for reference I do a lot of exploratory runs back in the wilderness, and sometime I get a little off course and need to figure out where I am, and how to get back (I usually do not go out and back, but try to do big loops).  I'm often out for 5 - 9 hours, so I can get pretty far away, and spending the night out does not appeal to me as I go light and fast (camel back, and gu, no survival suplies, and usually just a pair of shorts and running shirt).

All help is greatly appreciated.

[Boyd]

The Birdseye topo and satellite products are what we call "raster imagery". The topos are scans of paper USGS maps and the satellite imagery is photography. This stands in contrast to vector based imagery which is mostly what you will find on this site. Both have advantages - Birdseye topo is the "real" USGS map with all its subtleties but it only looks good through a very limited range of zoom levels (too small to read when you zoom out, pixellated when you zoom in). Vector maps are just a database of coordinates that the GPS reads and then connects the points to form polygons and lines. They maintain a constant line thickness and text size at all zoom levels.

You will find some scanned maps and satellite photos here in Garmin's "custom map" format (.kmz files) - I have several here  - both scanned 24k USGS maps and aerial imagery - I posted these before Garmin released Birdseye in fact: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/byuser/282/

The issue with these vs Birdseye is that garmin has intentionally limited the size. Your eTrex can only hold 100 "tiles" of this kind of map. With a USGS 24k map, that will only cover an area about 20x20 miles. And you can only have one such map on your GPS, so you would have to physically swap memory cards to use another one. The newer models (Montana, Monterra, Oregon 6xx) have a limit of 500 tiles, which is better,  but still not great.

There are no limits to the size area you can cover with Birdseye. Whether it is right for you.... only you can say. I will say that for $30 for unlimited download, Birdseye looks like a bargain to me.

But since the maps here are free, download whatever looks interesting and then decide for yourself if you need anything else.

[CerberusKy]

Thanks Boyd, very helpful.