# Issues following a route or track with eTrex 35T



## mtbiker1069 (Apr 15, 2016)

I'm new to GPS devices like the etrex, so please bear with my ignorance here. I purchased a eTrex 35 for it's versatility, I can use it for navigating and recording tracks while MTBing, bike packing, back packing and hiking, but I'm having problems with it getting it to follow Routes or tracks and was hoping maybe someone here could help me figure this out.


If I setup a route in Garmin Basecamp, then load it to my device. It loads fine. Then on my device I go to the start of the route, hit the search button, choose Routes, then touch the Route I designed to pull it up. It looks fine on the map at this point, then I hit the GO button. The screen flashes "Calculating" (what's it calculating, I already set the route), then it screws my route up completely. Adds a bunch of points then draws a bunch of triangles between the new points. I noticed that it looks like it's drawing lines between my current location, and each point on the route, so it makes it look like a bunch of spokes out from where i'm standing to each point on the route. Any idea how to prevent this? I've tried the multiple activity profiles when designing the route, and they all do the same thing when I put them on my eTrex 35t.


Since that's not working worth a crap I thought maybe I would tried navigating a saved Track. So I went on a short walk and made a track. Then went to Search, then Tracks, and pulled up the track I saved. Pressed the "Go" button and the track shows on the map, but there's no navigation features displayed at all when I walk the same track again. It just shows the track on the map. Is there a way to make the eTrex's navigate a track? 


So next, I thought maybe I could convert a track to a route and that would do it for me, but it screws the routes up like above.


Thank in advance for your assistance!
Mark


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## thasingletrackmastah (Nov 15, 2005)

That's just the way it is...
Navigation only works with routes.
But routes don't work well off-road.
Track do work OK off-road, but don't give you directions.
Use tracks and follow the purple line.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

what it's doing is calculating the distance from your current location to each route point "as the crow flies". If you tab over to what essentially amounts to the cue sheet page, you'll get a list of distances to each route point. Maybe kinda useful if you're talking about a road ride, but that's about it.

Try building your planned ride in RideWithGPS. You can trace over the trails as they're shown on the OpenCycleMap (not so useful if your trails don't show up there), and you can manually drop cue points (such as notifications to turn at a given intersection). When you go to export it, you can export as a Course (which only works on fitness models), but more importantly for you, you can export it as a track which you can follow on the map as you've described, and ALSO include those cue points as extra waypoints that will show on the map. That's a little more useful than just a simple track. I suppose you could do the same in Basecamp, but I'm not a fan of its interface.

A Course is essentially a combination of the track functionality as well as the Route functionality, except distances to each cue point are given ALONG THE COURSE and not "as the crow flies". It would sure be nice if Garmin offered that kind of software capability available for at least some handhelds. Garmin's concept of a "Route" is pretty outdated, considering that there are a number of online tools (RWGPS being one) that can build a route, snap that route to a curvy road or trail, and provide correct calculated distances and turn cues.


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## mtbiker1069 (Apr 15, 2016)

Thanks Gentlemen! 

I'll try RideWithGPS instead of Basemap then. 

One thing I did find was that everything generally works better on this unit once I loaded the OSM maps to it. I bought the 35T, which means it came with the 100K maps, but the routes really don't like those maps. I'm assuming because the 100K maps aren't "routable", which I didn't even think about when I purchased the unit.

Anyway, I just about returned this thing, but with the OSM maps, and hopefully RidewithGPS tracs it will work.


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## shawneeboy (Apr 21, 2014)

mtbiker1069 said:


> Thanks Gentlemen!
> 
> I'll try RideWithGPS instead of Basemap then.
> 
> ...


I was looking at the eTrex series and this thread interested me as it was something I was concerned about - just looking for an update, how did it work out with OSM and RidewithGPS tracks?


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## mtbiker1069 (Apr 15, 2016)

Hey Shawneeboy,
It works a lot better doing the ride on RideWithGPS and dropping the GPX file on the Garmin ETrex, but it still will not do turn by turn. It just imposes the Track onto the map and you can follow it that way. 

I tried to add some waypoints to the track to warn me of upcoming turns, so it would at least beep when you get close to the waypoint, but the beep isn't loud enough to hear when flying downhill on gravel.

I am not happy with this ETrex at all. The thing locks up on me on a regular basis, is sometimes wildly inaccuate on the tracks it records, and is just overall kind of clunky when using it.

On the accuracy. Here's an example. I use the etrex to record my tracks when i commute. Same exact ride everyday, one ride it will say I climbed only 100 vertical feet, then the next day it will say I climbed over 800'. (Strava on my phone always said between 780 and 795.) On some of my out and back rides, when I return, the return route sometimes will be almost a quarter of a mile off from my track going out. (Strava was always withing a few feet.

Maybe some of you have had different experiences then this, but I would not recommend this eTrex 35 to anyone.

Mark


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## shawneeboy (Apr 21, 2014)

mtbiker1069 said:


> Hey Shawneeboy,
> It works a lot better doing the ride on RideWithGPS and dropping the GPX file on the Garmin ETrex, but it still will not do turn by turn. It just imposes the Track onto the map and you can follow it that way.
> Mark


Thanks for the feedback.

So the impression I've gotten from reading tons of reviews and threads is that turn by turn is pretty much impossible for an off-road GPS - it's really "follow the purple line" which I get. This kind of routing would not be adequate in a place where the routes are short and intertwined all over the place (e.g. Dupont or something like that). If anyone disagrees, please feel free to let me know.

And for that level of functionality I can really just use Maprika or something on an old smart phone and save myself $300


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## PeopleForScience (May 15, 2012)

Have any of you tried the garmin oregon or montana series GPS? I am trying to decide between the etrex 30x, oregon 700, and montana 610. I really just want to preload a map of my offroad trail route then be able to use the GPS at intersections to make sure that I'm going the right direction.


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