At maps for GPS units. Available???

[bbinkley]

I was wondering is there a software that has the AT maps that I can download into a GPS unit? Curious? Thinking about taking a GPS for my thru-hike.

[DebW]

The ATC just posted some GPS waypoints for download. Only shelter locations so far, but probably more to come.
http://www.appalachiantrail.org/protect/gis/agree2.html

[Papa Bear]

The Maptech CDs which the ATC sells, have complete trail descriptions, some nice photos, shelters etc. and are "GPS ready", but there is no list of waypoints. GPS ready means you can plan your routes and upload or download them to your GPS.

These are good maps and are a viable alternative to the paper versions, GPS or not.

Pb

[chinook]

Here is a site with the AT waypoint data massaged to provide URL links to topo/image maps

http://www.cs.utk.edu/~dunigan/at/

[bearbag hanger]

I was wondering is there a software that has the AT maps that I can download into a GPS unit? Curious? Thinking about taking a GPS for my thru-hike.

I think the biggest problem you would run into is very few GPS units can handle the number of way points you would need for a 2,174 mile trip. The second problem, at least with the MapTech software, is they aren't up to date anymore. They made their maps using 1999 or 2000 data from the AT and haven't updated them since - and have no plans to do so.

Once you have "Terrain Navigator" from MapTech installed, you'll have a pretty good pink and blue path. These need to be "converted" to tracks. These tracks will have the waypoints you can download to your GPS. The software does a pretty good job of being compatiable with most GPS units on the market. As mentioned, you'll have quite a few waypoints to down load into your GPS. I downloaded them into a PDA (using Memory Map Navigator) and on my first try, had over 200,000 waypoints, which kind of over ran my memory. On my second try and adjusted the waypoints to one every 528 ft instead of 50 ft and it now all fits into the PDA. That made for 20,000 waypoints which I think would not fit into my Garmin Etrex GPS. But it's still old data. With a whole lot of work and expense, I probably could get up to date waypoints for all the relocations, etc. but I'm not at all sure it's worth the effort.

At least for PDAs (HP iPAQ 5555), it can be done. I've got all the maps and all the tracks for the AT on one 2.0 GB CompactFlash card and am able to display not only the maps, but the trail for any part of the AT trail - as of year 2000. I can attach my GPS to the PDA (using a cable I purchased for this purpose) and track my progress that way, but the battery power to do this on a regular basis is quite a haul. I was thinking the next step would be one of those bluetooth enabled GPS units, on top of my head, along with a couple of those portable sun power thingys ...

For my through hike this year, I plan on taking the PDA, but not the GPS.

[Peaks]

GPS isn't needed. Just dead weight in your pack.