Garmin GPSMAP 62 64 64X- Tracks vs Routes 

you bring up EXACTLY the issue a lot of people have - they just use tracks more than routes. Nobody sends me a route of their hike, it's a track w/ waypoints. I agree with you, I just haven't run into a real world situation to use routes over tracks.

Nice. I'm just beginning to learn mine. It didn't come with a full manual - only a little startup manual that basically told me nothing! So here I am watching tutorials to learn some basics. Thanks!

Thanks Jim, I'm brand new to the civilian GPS thing (I gained some experience on the military system) but I'm a newbie to the Garmin thing, thanks for the video, today I'm going to try to map a pipeline that is on our property.

Thank you very much for uploading this 62 series of instructional videos! Very helpful!

you wouldn't get turn by turn navigation, but you can view the track on the map screen which is just the breadcrumb of the track. If you ever get off-track you would be able to navigate back using that screen. You can also create a waypoint at a junction or trailhead and use navigation along with the map screen to help even further.

good suggestion, I've been asked related questions in my forerunner videos. I'll plan more in depth videos in the next few weeks.

Yes you can change the Recording method & interval by going into SETUP > TRACK LOG and picking the options that will work for you. Maybe by distance or time might work better when paddling

Thanks for the advise. When "quit" is pressed, does the marker go to your new location or does it go back to the beginning point? If it does go to the present location, will I have to stop and press "quit" everytime it goes out of the screen?

When "QUIT" is pressed, the gps arrow is centered on the screen. It doesn't matter whether you're using "track up" or "north up", pressing "quit" will center you on the map. The gps marker will only go off the screen when you press the "D pad" to move the cursor in order for you to see more of your map. Did you send it back to the shop?

So what is the difference between routes and tracks ? They looked the same. Only thing I can think of is if you are navigating through streets and roads included in your map set but if it's a backcountry trail like you have shown, is there any benefit to using a route ?

Really excellent vid. I have been using the 62S for a long time, but have not used all it's capabilities. This helps a lot. Vort.

The same thing happened to me at first too. Are you by chance turning the device on first inside your house? That was the problem in my case. When I went outside and allowed it to acquire GPS sats then all was good and shoed my exact location down to 10 feet. At that point I created a way point and named it home. Hope that helps.

@TeeTime975 It looks like they changed it on the map 62. When you go into your track manager, look at the current track and from the options, you can choose "copy reversed". I think that used to be the trackback on the older models. That should guide you back to the start if you need to turn around. I'll get out in the woods and try if out to confirm but I'm pretty that's it.

Just wondering what the software was you used to change your track to a route? I just got this GPS second hand on Craigslist. Great condition, but I am completely new to GPS. The owner's manual is not a whole lot of help. I have found RU-vid videos like this one :) to be much more helpful!

yes, you can use the track manager on the Map 62 and save the current track and clear it for the next stage. It's not as clean as the edge or forerunner start/stop

Thanks Jim - really helpful videos. One thing you don't cover here is how you start and stop recording tracks. On my Garmin Edge 705 there is a Start / Stop button which starts recording a track and starts the trip computer at the same time. Pressing the button at the end of your desired track stops the recording and stops the trip computer. To save the track and the trip data you then just hold down the Lap button for 3 seconds. Is there a similarly simple method of doing this on the GPSMap 62?

Good stuff JR, hope the mapping went well!

If you were using this device on a mountain bike & mapping some unknown tracks through the forest, could you then use the data to make the Garmin function like a car GPS device? Reason I ask is there are a lot of tracks in the forest near me, many of them criss cross each other, wondering how easy it would be to map these tracks, then use the Garmin to navigate around them if I went out exploring and lost my way, or do they not work like that? Excuse my ignorance, only ever had car GPS before.

Hi Jim. Thanks for the great videos. Do you know if there is anything we can do to reduce the sensitivity of the speed on the map62s? I paddle kayaks and the speed varies up to 1km/hr at the same speed. I'm pretty sure it's picking up the rolling action of the boat because it's polling the satellites too often (being too accurate). Can I reduce the regularity of the polling because I'm pretty sure that would solve the problem. Thanks in advance.

huh, never heard of that before. Definitely bring it back and try another one. It should act the same as the Magellan track up or north.

@TeeTime975 you can always use the trackback feature on an active track to guide you back.

*Garmin - Tracks vs Routes* #yearinreview2013 Quick tutorial on the difference between a track & route. A track or tracklog is a breadcrumb trail of your current activity on your GPS. This could be your day of hiking in a park. You can use the tracback feature on your garmin gpsmap 62 to navigate back using the same track if you are unable to follow the trail. You can also save the track for future use. Routes are a little different. Typically they contain less points than your trackfile. So in our example of hiking, we want to save only the trails we hiked to send to our friend or use at a later time. We can edit the track file in Basecamp, split a single track into 2 or more segments. From there we can save each track as a route. From here, we can save each new route under a new name and send it back to the GPS. From there, you can navigate the route by using the FIND | ROUTES menu and navigate just like a track. For simplicity, you could also further edit the route so that it only contains the single path and use the reverse route feature to navigate back. Useful for out & back trails. #outdoors #hiking

Hi, great video and thanks for doing it. I'm still a bit confused by Tracks vs Routes. Let me give you an example and maybe you can help me. I'm using my Garmin 62s mainly for snowmobiling. Which you usually don't follow a lot of roads. The reason I bought this is because I moved to unfamiliar territory and really don't want to get lost and spend a cold night on the mountain. I want to use the gps to navigate back to my tracks or routes if a storm comes in etc. Whats your best advice. thx

You can use garmin basecamp (free) to transfer tracks, clean them up and covert them into routes.

Have you created the tutorial "how to edit in Basecamp"? It is very frustrating for me. Particularly erasing waypoints in the track. Thanks.

@thecyr . If I use tracks another problem is that we can't climb a mountain, we will keep trying a few more times. I'm assuming tracks is going to keep recording this ( could be messy) I know there are options how often tracks will log. so If I wanted to make good guidance then its routes? because snowmobiles go where there are no roads or trails. I'm also wanting to make a good database of trips. so If I get lost I can recall that trip and get me back to the truck

I don't understand yet what is the trouble with tracks. If I save a track, then I can save a reverse copy and then follow it in compass page (or pointer in map page). I think that both, routes and tracks, do the same things. maybe I am wrong, so please explain me. maybe the storage can be a difference between routes and tracks.

I watched this video and bought a Garmin 62s. I tried using the track. However, when I went beyond the screen, my navigation marker left the screen. With my Magellan, the screen moved with me and kept my navigation arrow center screen. I called Garmin and they told me to set north up instead of track up. I did but that didn't work. The Garmin is going back to the store tomorrow.

Thank you so much for your reply. Appreciate that.

What are all those points on your route? Are those waypoints?

Hello Jim. If I may ask you a quick question. I have just purchased the Garmin 62ST (London, UK) and, upon turning on the device, calibrating the compass and all other relevant set-ups, whenever I turn on my device, it automatically 'opens' in Kansas USA. I have set the 'maps' to UK, but still this mapping error occurs upon activating device. I am clearly doing something wrong. Can you kindly advise or direct me to an appropriate video of yours. With my deepest thanks. RMB

Yeah great demo as said previously thanks

Does it save you some memory(track-files is maybe bigger)?

Would be interested to see this function in depth if you got time to make a vid - can't find any on this subject on youtube!

if i turn off the gps the tracks i selected to show on map disapear. U know how can i change it to keep them showing after turning it off?

How do you like the screen size of this? I'm looking for a gps to use with my ATV, I want to be able to see it effect toy while riding, so I was wondering if this decent, or if I should go up to the touchscreen montana 600?

Great demo

good video, like most I'm still learning my GPS system, question??? does GPS unit have to me on to record your route??? cheers??

Quick Question, What GPS would you recommend for a guy who does off road trails via motorcycle. I have a dual Sport and would like to load my own maps I have created in Google Maps or similar software and be able to load it into a handheld gps I can mount to my handlebars and ride the route. I tried using my iPhone, but some of the remote areas I cannot get internet connections so the maps via online google map just got me part of the way then failed do to no connections. Thank you in advance, Dale.

Part 2 If I record a track and save this track for future reference and then go on a snowmobile trip and its starts snowing and I can't see my way back.By using tracks will it guide me back? or do I want to take my tracks and convert them to Routes and the routes will guide me back?I think both would guide me backbut I want my gps to tell me if I'm off route etc. I'm trying to figure out the best way to record my snowmobiling trips and if the weather gets bad use them to help me navigate back

@TeeTime975 I guess I'm trying to find some advice based on my usage that someone will say use only routes, that is the best when snowmobiling or use only tracks etc.Because in the end I want to have a database of all the rides we go on and once I have those I can recall them at anytime to get myself home. If that makes any since. we Snowmobile at 6000 to 12000 feet. So getting caught in a canyon could be bad :) and going through the bottom could be better then going over the top.

Hi, new to GPS. May I ask what is the software to be install on the computer. Thanks

@MtnMike1 not yet, but I may have to since I've been getting requests along with your comment.

very informative video. Many Thanks !!

can you do waypoints? like here is camp, here is truck and here is where im going? then start your walking to any location? or say you find a cool place to fish or hunt, mark the spot on gps and save it for later?

Thanks. Sounds like a good device!

There's nothing wrong with the unit. Just press "quit" to get the marker in the center again.

@fraserwhips you're welcome :)

My question is, why would I use a track vs a route, and vice-versa?

Routes: you take a nice hike and make some waypoints along the way, join them and voila you have a Route. Or, you go back home to Basecamp and make a Route and transfer to gps. Tracks: you take a nice hike and leave cookie crumb trail behind you, automatically created by gps. When finished, I can 'tracback' or 'copy reversed' or 'save track' etc. Question: Why would I bother creating a Route, if Tracks are so much easier (automatic)? Or under what circumstances should I use a Route?

When I create a route in Base Camp on my laptop, and then send "My Collection" over to my 64s (and it shows that it transferred to "My Device"), it no longer is visible when I turn on my GPS 64s (all my create routes in the software used to show up on my 64s) --- Is there a setting on my device that I need to turn back on to see my routes?? Thanks in advance (it's driving me crazyyyy!)

indeed routes have fewer points than a trackfile.

If you have a Windows or Apple computer, you can download the free program "Garmin Basecamp"

I bought a GPSMAP 64s and it hasn't yet arrived but I'm wondering if I've got the right thing. Can it take me to an address without knowing where it is on a map, like if I only knew the address details (postcode, street name and house number etc)? Something like car drivers use but that works for both walkers and drivers. I hope I've got the right device.

How o transfer data from GPSmap 62 to excel?

Confusing

N.S. !

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