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Lost and maybe Found (Need help for a newbie with lots of research done)

Former Member
Former Member
Hello All,

My apology if I am posting in the wrong forum. Garmin does not make it easy using their GPSs, even finding the right forum is rough!

I have a 62s, wanted to get into GeoCaching for a while, but life happened. But now that life is not happening, I thought I would use it to do some hiking and mountain biking. I have studied many youtube videos, I have read many blogs, I have been high and I have been low - but I still have not found what I am looking for. Garmin needs to hire some PhD students and write some processes for how to use their devices. I can look at my console screen and know the exact location of the Space Station and the Shuttle (when they used to fly), but I can't seem to use my 62S to find myself!

So here is the mission - I would like to use this as an example
1) Find some trails in the Rocky Mountain NP - so I go to the park site and find a trail called TrailXYZ. Just fits me to the tee, people with knee problem.
2) I want to build a route for that trail. Yes, somehow with youtube, I have figured out the difference between routes and tracks. So I download all these free topo maps (wow, I am good!), but how do I build my route? The names of these trails are not on the topo map. I have no idea, I have no coordinates from the National Park website of the trail. Do I need to buy gpx files from all the other websites for this trail? I hope not. I just want to make some waypoints and build a route of what hikes I want to do. Do I need to find the great hiker who has done these trail or be the explorer myself and put my life at risk?
3) Do I need to make custom maps with the jpegs from the NP sites and Google Earth? Or is there an easy way?

I can't seem to put it together - find a trail on the web that I like, build a route for it, and go use the route to hike and create my track.

Help! I own 62S and I have downloaded Basecamp. I should not be "lost" but I seemto be.

- Monaz
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member
    1) Find some trails in the Rocky Mountain NP - so I go to the park site and find a trail called TrailXYZ. Just fits me to the tee, people with knee problem.
    .....- Monaz


    Go here: http://www.everytrail.com/best/hiking-rocky-mountain-national-park
    and see if the trail you want is listed. If so, just download it as a gpx. It's free.....done!

    This is a fantastic site, I use it all the time for planning.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member
    Thank you! I will check it out.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member
    Thank you! I will check it out.


    Oh, and usually these gpx files from everytrail are tracks, not routes. For hiking, I suggest you leave them as tracks, so that you will not run into any possible recalculation errors.
    The last step after importing to BaseCamp is to zoom way in on your topo map and follow the track carefully to be sure it makes sense to you. Normally, it will follow a trail that shows on the map, but not always. ALL maps have errors!
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member
    Another way to locate trails you know exist is to look on Google Earth (or Google Maps if you prefer).

    I was planning an excursion (away from home) to a US Forest Service location recently and their website described a hiking trail that was not on any of my Garmin maps covering the area. I fired up Google Earth and was able to see the trail clearly. I created a path in GE, saved it to a KML file, and then used GPSBabel to convert the KML to a GPX file. I imported that into MapSource (or BaseCamp if you prefer).