Combining routes?

Is it possible to combine multiple routes?

I have a Chrome book and I'm guessing it's because of the lack of mouse but I constantly have problems when creating routes on the inreach website. So sometimes It's just easier to create another route rather than try to edit or start over. But I was curious if it's possible to combine them. Thanks for any help in advance.

0 twolpert over 4 years ago

I am not aware of any way to combine routes, either on the web site or in the Earthmate app. (I no longer have an active legacy device, so I can't experiment with the Earthmate app used by the Explorer+/SE+. Newer devices use the Explore app.)

It is possible, although awkward, to extend an existing route on the web site. To do this, edit the route. You will notice that the route shows the points you created as white squares. Between each pair of white points, you will see a pink "handle". Clicking (or tapping, in your case) a handle turns it into a point and adds a handle. You can drag any point or handle (dragging a handle will turn it into a point) to move it.

To use this weirdness to extend a route, tap the handle nearest the end of the route. Now you have an extra point. Drag the end point of the route to wherever you want it to extend the route. To turn a corner, drag the end point to a spot on intersecting street/trail (causing the route to "cut the corner"). Then drag the last handle to the intersection. Yeah, it's painful.

If you were in a position to use the Explore app, you would probably find it easier to create routes there. As I said, I don't recall about Earthmate, and cannot experiment. My best recollection is that it's not as good as Explore, but still might be worth experimenting with if you are having trouble with the web site.

There are other options. You can export the two partial routes to your PC, then edit the .gpx files to combine the two. This isn't difficult, but does require some knowledge of the .gpx format. If you're curious, export a route and take a look in any text editor (Notepad would be the thing on Windows - not sure about Chromebook). To combine routes this way, it's important that the end of the first be close to the start of the second. When you combine them in the editor, the result as seen on your device will be a straight line between those two points.

You can also create and edit routes in Garmin's free Basecamp program. No idea if there us a version for Chromebook. From there, you can export in .GPX format and import into the web site.

There are other free and paid applications available for route planning. The common denominator here is the ability to export the route into .GPX format. That's the universal interchange format. You can import those into the Explore web site. You can also use the .KML format, which is used mostly with Google Earth.