Converting Google Earth (KML) to BaseCamp - Not Aligning

Former Member over 11 years ago

Howdy all,

I have created a path in Google Earth along the Brazos River, below Possum Kingdom Lake to Rochelle's and saved it as a .kml file, which I then imported into BaseCamp.

The gray line is my GE path and the blue jagged line is supposedly the Brazos River per BaseCamp. They obviously don't line up. I also checked the lat / long between GE and BaseCamp for the Starting Point and they don't equal.

Honestly the BaseCamp map is terrible in that it doesn't have any detail at all and it does appear so jagged in relation to what the real river looks like; am I missing something?

Any help or reassurances would be awesome!

0 Former Member over 11 years ago

Brazos River? Texas? :) Cool. Anyway, do you have a device connected? Do you show that the "Global Map" is selected? This map is just a base map and isn't really good for much more then searching for cities. If you have a device connected or you have a map installed your results may improve.

0 Former Member over 11 years ago

It's the Brazos River in Texas! :) Just took an interest to kayak fishing and would like to possibly try multi-day trips, so it's pretty handy to have an idea of where I might be and when, lol.

I am using the Global Map at the moment, haven't downloaded or purchased any maps from Garmin. In fact, not sure what the best map would be to download for kayaking. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I was think the TOPO 24K - Texas map would be a good one.

I have not hooked up the GPS to the PC to import the route into the GPS yet; planned on doing that this evening when I got home from work. My idea was to see if I see the same problem on the actual device. My dad gave me his Garmin 60CSx and didn't get the manual or software that came with it. Learning on my own, well and with the forum, lol.

0 Former Member over 11 years ago

Yeah, I am afraid your alignment issues are due to the use of the Global Map. That map is really just a base map to get you started.

For Kayaking I am not really sure. Some of the people in this forum might better be able to help you on that. I will also ask around for you and see if I can get a good answer.

Hopefully when you use a more robust map, your alignment issues will cease to be :)

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

I appreciate all the help you can provide JM47048!

The first order of business last night was to find a USB cable to transfer data and information to the GPS device. Next I did software updates on the device and made sure I was using the most recent version of BaseCamp, which I assume is 4.3.4. Once the device updated, it gave me a message that it would not be able to transfer routes, waypoints, etc...... So, I figured out how to transfer a KML that I had created originally in Google Earth and had already imported into BaseCamp. Fortunately it loaded onto the GPS device. The KML file had a start point, ending point, 4 routes and 3 additional waypoints, which transferred into the device individually, so it appears that you must select one component of the overall route, rather than see the entire route on the device. The default map on the device is really no different than the Global Map on BaseCamp, and doesn't show the Brazos river at all, so I can determine whether the lat / long are correct or not. Sounds like I need to purchase a Texas map, so I can see it on BaseCamp and the device and pick up more detail on the device itself.

Does the logic in all of this sound about right?

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

You can use an OSM map to support you.

Open Source Maps like; http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl or http://OpenFietsMap. nl or .....