Forest Service Roads

We are looking for an automobile navigator primarily for helping us get to
campgrounds located on US Forest Service roads. An example is "Crane Prairie
Campground" on "Crane Prairie Reservoir" about 40 miles SSW of Bend, Oregon.

Does anyone have a recommendation on which model would be best for this. I'm
not "married" to the idea of a Garmin. Right now it seems to be a choice
between Garmin and Lowrance.

PS: I would really like to have multiple via or stop options.

Thanks

Whit
Newport, OR

Patrick, Whit wrote:

Magellan's Topo 3D arguably has the best resolution (about 1:40,000) and
detail of the U.S. wide offerings from Magellan and Garmin.

Garmin has some topo map offerings with better detail (1:48,000) for
limited areas (some National Parks) but not for the entire U.S.
Garmin's topo mapping generally has a resolution like 1:100,000 topo
maps with some additional contour lines.

If you know the areas you are going to camp in, it would be a good idea
to try to see the topo offerings in use before you purchase one.

Neither brand will autoroute the roads and highways seen on the topo maps.

Garmins 60/76 models will do autorouting (including multiple destination
routes) on the major highways on the basemap that comes with the unit.
And of course you can add street level detail with an optional software
package (MapSource City Navigator 8 or CN8).

Magellans will not do autorouting on the basemap roads and highways.
They will do autorouting with an optional software package (MapSend
DirectRoute). It will not do multiple destination routing.

I have a Magellan Meridian that I use for topo and marine navigation and
a Garmin 76Cx that I use for highway navigation. I will add CN8 to the
Garmin eventually to get more detail.

The Garmin "x" series models (60Cx/CSx and 76Cx/CSx) are far superior to
the Magellans as far as receiver sensitivity, the color display, battery
life, and software features.

I don't have any experience with Lowrance.

Jack

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

Patrick, Whit wrote:


The Crane Prairie Reservoir does show up in Garmin's City Select v7 but
can't be found using the search function. The campground does not show
up in City Select at all. It might be in City Navigator 8. You could
check that on line using Garmin's map viewer. City Select is no longer
offered.

However both the reservoir and campground are in the search database
for Garmin's US Topo (100k). Were you to purchase both map sets with a
routable GPSr, you could locate and save the waypoint using Topo, then
switch to City Select or City Navigator to get routing. US Topo will
not autoroute in a GPSr.

Be warned though that US Topo hasn't been updated in many years (20 to
25?) and some data may now be incorrect, such as the campground
possibly being relocated. US Topo does show lots of Forest Service
roads in the area that don't show in City Select.

Garmin's 60/76cx or csx series would offer good options. Both can be
set to provide multiple via or stop options.

I know nothing about Lowrance.

Bob

Bob wrote:

True .. but a very useful product for me, US Topo.

Phil

A more serious problem with the Garmin US Topo is that it doesn't seem to
support follow-road routing. That's unfortunate, since for some rural
areas the Topo actually shows more roads than City Navigator.