National Geographic Topo Maps ??

[Benny Profane]

So these are now available for a Mac. Dumb question: Do they have roads on them for this roadie geek? Or is it just trails or elevation profiles that you "draw" your own trails on with a GPS. Anybody use them with an eTrex?

[wintermittent]

I have a few of the TOPO! packs for OS X and an eTrex Vista. Nice software, and the interface to the eTrex has been flawless so far.

Roads and road names show up on most of the quads. I don't think you can search or navigate by road within TOPO!, though...

I'll double-check the accuracy of that speculation tonight and let you know.

[wintermittent]

Like I thought, no go on the road name searches or road navigating in TOPO!. Like most USGS 7.5' quads (max map resolution in TOPO!), major roads are labelled on the map, but most lesser roads aren't labelled at all. There is a search function, but the metadata in the map is limited to points of interest, benchmarks, trails, etc. No roads.

If you wanted to get fancy, you could upload a more detailed road map into TOPO! and trace in your route that way. The software lets you overlay any map/image into the program, 'trace' a route, then upload to your GPS. May be more work than it's worth for what you're trying to do.

You might be better off with standard street mapping software if all you're looking to do is road ride route planning.

Hope this helps. By the way, my road bike was born in Saratoga Springs.

[Benny Profane]

You might be better off with standard street mapping software if all you're looking to do is road ride route planning.

Hope this helps. By the way, my road bike was born in Saratoga Springs.

Thanx, fellow Serotta comrade. It seems that what I want is a computer marriage of my Jimapco library and an eTrex, and this isn't happening. sigh