GPS Recommendation, Please

I have the 20 dollar/year subscription and keep several layers loaded on my phone for our favorite areas, Gaia topo, USGS topo, satellite view and the shaded three dimensional Outdoor view too. They all have different information. It is easy to define and download your area of interest. You can delete them later if you want, again easy to do.

And yes you can switch between the various layer as you track your progress.
 
john.maldaner said:
Yes! And I will likely do just that. So, if I do that I can download area tops maps prior to heading out and then track my progress on those maps?
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Yes, it's very easy to download maps ahead of time.

For most of the non-winter months my work is mostly field work as a biologist and this year I've gone to exclusively using Gaia on my phone for all of my data (tracks for everything I walk/transects and waypoint data, and uploaded shapefiles of survey areas and known data points). The website is great too for managing data. Easy to put tracks and waypoints into a project folder and download everything at once for use in ArcMap. Can't imagine going back to a Garmin.

The only time a Garmin unit is more convenient is if I'm taking a lot of waypoints (sometimes if I'm mapping habitat or some plant species where I might take 50-couple hundred waypoints a day) because Gaia doesn't automatically assign sequential waypoint numbers and you have to do it manually. For everything else it's far superior. Having high res satellite imagery for vegetation/bird/etc habitat as I walk is massively helpful.

An Anker PowerCore 10000 rounds out the setup.
 
Nick - are you suggesting that the basic $20/year membership will provide adequate maps for hiking (in my case, horse riding trails) in the Forest? I see that there is also a premium membership available, but I am not clear on which maps are available at the $20/year level.
 
john.maldaner said:
Nick - are you suggesting that the basic $20/year membership will provide adequate maps for hiking (in my case, horse riding trails) in the Forest? I see that there is also a premium membership available, but I am not clear on which maps are available at the $20/year level.
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Correct. That's all you need for most of the map layers.
 
Excellent. I have just subscribed! Next step is to figure out how to d/l maps prior to setting out for trail rides. Thanks for your help!
 
@john.maldaner , if you don't know about it already, I think you'll like caltopo.com and find it very useful. You can change map/base layers in the upper right corner. I usually use the default USGS 7.5'. You can do all sorts of things here: create routes, import and export "tracks" and way points (to and from your phone/Gaia), etc. Here' a link to the Shawnee National Forest area.
 
Mike K said:
@john.maldaner , if you don't know about it already, I think you'll like caltopo.com and find it very useful. You can change map/base layers in the upper right corner. I usually use the default USGS 7.5'. You can do all sorts of things here: create routes, import and export "tracks" and way points (to and from your phone/Gaia), etc. Here' a link to the Shawnee National Forest area.
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Mike, this is VERY interesting! Can caltopo be used in conjunction with GaiaGPS? Can I import something from Caltopo into Gaia?
 
Brendan S said:
Super easy...just click the little plus with the circle, click download maps, and select the area you want
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Ok, Brendan! So, I searched for a landmark that I am familiar with in the Forest. Then I clicked the icon with the plus sign in a circle and selected download map. A scalable shaded area opened up and I enlarged it to include a pretty wide area that I could potentially ride in and clicked save. Then, I named that area and put it in a folder for Shawnee Forest. It said that area was a 2.6 Mb file. Are you telling me that now when I actually go to that area and have no wifi that I will have the detailed top map available?

Do I also need to select my map source layers now while I am on wifi and would those also be available offline?
 
john.maldaner said:
Mike, this is VERY interesting! Can caltopo be used in conjunction with GaiaGPS? Can I import something from Caltopo into Gaia?
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No idea about Gaia, but if you want to play with Caltopo, try the National Forest map (FS Topo). I think it usually is more clear than the USGS topo.
 
wsp_scott said:
No idea about Gaia, but if you want to play with Caltopo, try the National Forest map (FS Topo). I think it usually is more clear than the USGS topo.
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@john.maldaner - I'm pretty sure you can import way points, routes, gpx files, etc. I use Backcountry Navigator Pro and have done this before. I'm no export and I usually muddle my way through it...sometimes goggling things that I'm not sure about.

@wsp_scott - that FS Topo layer is much clearer. I'll have to use it more often. Thanks! =)
 
wsp_scott said:
No idea about Gaia, but if you want to play with Caltopo, try the National Forest map (FS Topo). I think it usually is more clear than the USGS topo.
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I do like the FS Topo map much better! Thanks! Do you know if this is the same National Forest map that is available in Gaia for Premium subscribers?
 
john.maldaner said:
I do like the FS Topo map much better! Thanks! Do you know if this is the same National Forest map that is available in Gaia for Premium subscribers?
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I don't know about Gaia, but the NF map is available in Backcountry Navigator. I can't imagine there are different NF maps since it comes from the Forest Service., so it is probably the same.
 
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