I dipped back into this to prepare for a mountain trip. I wanted to make some courses and have them on my FR255 watch for primary navigation, my inReach mini 2 (as backup navigation), and my inReach MapShare so others can see my intended route along with my satellite tracking points.
I think I finally found a couple flows that may work, but they are clumsy in different ways.
- Create a course in Garmin Connect web or mobile (like I usually do for my FR255), export to GPX on my laptop, import to Explore website as a "route" which reduces it to 200 points.
- Create a course in Garmin Explore mobile and "share" to Google Drive so I can then open/share it into Connect Mobile.
But I rediscovered so many gotchas along the way.
- First, what does this distinction between "tracks", "routes", and "courses" even mean in Explore?? It is so opaque in the website and then the mobile app doesn't really distinguish them in the "saved" list.
- The website also cautions about needing routes for syncing to "inreach devices", but then my inReach Mini 2 seems to call things "courses" and it's all very confusing.
- A default course from connect creates an absurd behavior when using it to navigate on my inReach Mini 2... a 3 mile course is alerting me every 50 feet or so with a long chirp and generic "flag" icon alert. I guess it's celebrating that I reached each point in the GPX file? I've read that turning off turn guidance before I export the course to GPX from Connect may fix this, but I haven't taken it out for another outdoor test to verify yet.
- Any "course points" created in the Connect course seem to turn into disembodied waypoints in Explore that aren't even attached to the imported route. You can delete the route and the waypoints remain on the map like a ghostly reminder of the past.
- Some of the web UI suggests importing to a "track" instead of a route, but this makes some hideous pile of individual point flags on the Explore map.
- The Explore website doesn't have any way to create "courses" or "tracks" even though it knows they exist. It can create routes and waypoints or make a "track" via import.
- The website route creation doesn't seem to have any logic at all to follow roads or trails. You just have to draw line segments like it is 1980.
- The Explore mobile app only knows how to create courses and waypoints. At least it can follow roads and trails, but it is annoying to have to do this on a little phone screen instead of a laptop with a mouse and a bigger screen to zoom and pan around! Conversely, Connect website pretty much does all the same things as Connect mobile and so I prefer the website for making courses normally for my watch.
- Comparing Explore mobile and Connect for course creation, the map detail for trails is quite different. And, Connect offers "popularity" routing as an option instead of following the trail network.
- Every kind of import/export flow seems to lose any metadata like a course name.
- There seem to be many ways to accidentally click into an empty section on the Explore web left sidebar and then the arrow to go back out is missing. My only option seemed to be reloading the whole page and starting over on the explore homepage.
It's not that my complaints are exhausted, but I think the Garmin Forum may be running out of bullets for my bullet list...