Gary's "Nothing Special" Moab trip

[Gary Lewis]

I've subscribed to OnX and am poking around. But all the trails I'm looking at are there, including the Sugar Creek Loop in SW OK, where we are going on Thursday. The app is easy to use and I think I'm going to like it.

 

However, I am going to try to download the OnX maps for the various trails and load them up to the Garmin. I've just gotten that done for Sugar Creek, although the map didn't come from OnX so that may turn into an issue. But I need to record how I got it to the Garmin:

 

1. Garmin Explore on tablet: Using Explore via a browser on my tablet I "imported" the file and put it in a new collection.

 

Garmin Explore on iPhone: I can't get Explore on the tablet to then sync to the Montana. But Explore on the iPhone will sync to the Montana, and since the two Explores are apparently are looking at the same file on the cloud if if put it on via the tablet it is there for the iPhone. However, the first sync took 30 minutes and it takes wifi.

Man, this Garmin stuff is awful! I doubt I'll ever have another Garmin device.I subscribed to OnX but downloading files isn't easy. However it is from AllTrails, even though I let my subscription there lapse, so I downloaded Hell's Revenge as a .gpx file. But neither the Garmin Explore app on my iPhone nor Explore via Chrome on the Windows machine would load it up - in spite of them both saying they will. There's a note on the Garmin site that says the latest changes on iOS are the problem, but that's not the whole truth as that wouldn't account for the problem on Windows.So I uploaded the gpx file to Google Maps and then exported it as a kmz file and Explore on Chrome on the Windows machine loaded it. But, still, the Windows machine won't sync with the Montana, so I did the sync from the iPhone. However, probably because it wasn't a gpx file, that doesn't show up in Saved Tracks on the Montana.

[BigBrother-84]

I've subscribed to OnX and am poking around. […] The app is easy to use and I think I'm going to like it.

However, I am going to try to download the OnX maps for the various trails and load them up to the Garmin.

Gary, since you subscribed to OnX, why do you still fight to install the maps on your Garmin?

[Gary Lewis]

Gary, since you subscribed to OnX, why do you still fight to install the maps on your Garmin?

 

Let me count the reasons:

 

1. I'm stubborn

 

I have more than $800 invested in the Garmin and think it ought to work for that price

 

It gives turn-by-turn guidance through the Sony head unit and we don't have to keep our eyes glued to it

 

It sits in a nice cradle and comes on when you start the truck & is supposed to go off when you turn the key off, but it doesn't always do that.

 

I'm stubborn

[BigBrother-84]

Let me count the reasons:

1. I'm stubborn

[…]

5. I'm stubborn

Ok, I know exactly what you mean. How much time I too spent in my life, «I will make this thing work!»

[Gary Lewis]

Let me count the reasons:

1. I'm stubborn

[…]

5. I'm stubborn

Ok, I know exactly what you mean. How much time I too spent in my life, «I will make this thing work!»

How many strikes do I give this thing???

Today I decided I'd program in a route from home to Hinton where we'll pick up the Sugar Creek Loop. That was easy on the Montana - select Route Planner, then Create Route, then Add Point, then Cities and type in Hinton and select the only one that's OK. Yippee, I know what I'm doing?

So I decided to make a route to the barbershop I'm headed to tomorrow, just to see that turn-by-turn guidance is working: Route Planner, Add Point, Addresses, and type in the address. The Montana finds the address and you click on the right one if there are multiples. I did and it dropped a pin and then locked up, showing the map with a pin in it, at the right place I might add, but allowing me to do NOTHING else. In fact, I had to remove the battery to get control again.

After three more times of exactly the same thing I called Garmin. Trever said they have a ticket open as someone else has had the same problem. But, he gave me a workaround, which I tried later that didn't work as it couldn't find the address. But at least it didn't lock up.

While I had him on the phone I asked him about the Hell's Revenge track file that I put on the Explore map but won't sync from Explore to the Montana. I told him that Garmin's maps don't have it, and he didn't seem surprised, but that I'd downloaded it from AllTrails and uploaded it to Google Maps and then downloaded it to Explore - which he thought is a reasonable approach. But since it didn't work he suggested I turn it into a route instead of a track, which I did after the call and it won't sync either.

Then he said he'd email me a link to another site that will let me import and then export the file which may fix something in the file. But the email that just came in said there was a link - and there wasn't one.

[BigBrother-84]

How many strikes do I give this thing???

Today I decided I'd program in a route from home to Hinton where we'll pick up the Sugar Creek Loop. That was easy on the Montana - select Route Planner, then Create Route, then Add Point, then Cities and type in Hinton and select the only one that's OK. Yippee, I know what I'm doing?

So I decided to make a route to the barbershop I'm headed to tomorrow, just to see that turn-by-turn guidance is working: Route Planner, Add Point, Addresses, and type in the address. The Montana finds the address and you click on the right one if there are multiples. I did and it dropped a pin and then locked up, showing the map with a pin in it, at the right place I might add, but allowing me to do NOTHING else. In fact, I had to remove the battery to get control again.

After three more times of exactly the same thing I called Garmin. Trever said they have a ticket open as someone else has had the same problem. But, he gave me a workaround, which I tried later that didn't work as it couldn't find the address. But at least it didn't lock up.

While I had him on the phone I asked him about the Hell's Revenge track file that I put on the Explore map but won't sync from Explore to the Montana. I told him that Garmin's maps don't have it, and he didn't seem surprised, but that I'd downloaded it from AllTrails and uploaded it to Google Maps and then downloaded it to Explore - which he thought is a reasonable approach. But since it didn't work he suggested I turn it into a route instead of a track, which I did after the call and it won't sync either.

Then he said he'd email me a link to another site that will let me import and then export the file which may fix something in the file. But the email that just came in said there was a link - and there wasn't one.

I suspect that you are actually patenting the first «flying-through-the-window» Garmin.

Keep us informed about the public official launch date.

[Gary Lewis]

I suspect that you are actually patenting the first «flying-through-the-window» Garmin.

Keep us informed about the public official launch date.

I doubt it'll be a public launch.

Instead I'm reviewing my "friend" list to see if I want to give it to someone.

 

[BigBrother-84]

I doubt it'll be a public launch.

Instead I'm reviewing my "friend" list to see if I want to give it to someone.

[Nothing Special]

I have a couple of Garmins and have no reason to leave them, but I use them quite differently than you.

My "main" Garmin is an Astro 320. That's a hand-held mapping GPS. Its main unique feature is that it will pair with one or more transmitters that are attached to a dog collar, so you can track yourself and one or more dogs. In addition to that feature (which can be nice on a trail ride because you can put the dog collar in another vehicle and know where your tailgunner is), it also functions as a hand-held mapping GPS. So it will show you where you are on whatever map you've loaded and it will create and display waypoints and tracks. But as far as navigating, while it has some rudimentary abilities, I find it really only helpful as a map that shows me where I am, and then I do the navigating. As I noted above, I don't find its user interface all that intuitive. But since I do so little with it it does work for me.

My other Garmin is a Drive 52, which I think is a pretty basic automotive nav unit. I've never tried to load anything onto it, so I don't know if it's even possible, much less easy. It is a little annoying finding an address or something in it (user interface again), and if I want to tweak the route it suggests for me (like not going through downtown Atlanta on the way to Disney World) it doesn't work as well as I'd like. But it does work for what I use it for, which is basic automotive navigation.

So I'm certainly not trying to sell anyone on Garmin, but I'm not looking to sell mine either.

[Gary Lewis]

I have a couple of Garmins and have no reason to leave them, but I use them quite differently than you.

My "main" Garmin is an Astro 320. That's a hand-held mapping GPS. Its main unique feature is that it will pair with one or more transmitters that are attached to a dog collar, so you can track yourself and one or more dogs. In addition to that feature (which can be nice on a trail ride because you can put the dog collar in another vehicle and know where your tailgunner is), it also functions as a hand-held mapping GPS. So it will show you where you are on whatever map you've loaded and it will create and display waypoints and tracks. But as far as navigating, while it has some rudimentary abilities, I find it really only helpful as a map that shows me where I am, and then I do the navigating. As I noted above, I don't find its user interface all that intuitive. But since I do so little with it it does work for me.

My other Garmin is a Drive 52, which I think is a pretty basic automotive nav unit. I've never tried to load anything onto it, so I don't know if it's even possible, much less easy. It is a little annoying finding an address or something in it (user interface again), and if I want to tweak the route it suggests for me (like not going through downtown Atlanta on the way to Disney World) it doesn't work as well as I'd like. But it does work for what I use it for, which is basic automotive navigation.

So I'm certainly not trying to sell anyone on Garmin, but I'm not looking to sell mine either.

I don't intend to have another Garmin. Using AllTrails, OnX, or Gaia is easy, so why have the frustration of an antagonistic user interface?

Then there's the freezing up. There are two ways to input an address, and one way I put in my barbershop's address the system locks up - but showing the right location on the map. The other way it says that address doesn't exist. Clearly it does as if you Google the shop it gives that address. And if I fire up their app it gives the same address. So the address is right but Garmin doesn't know about it - in spite of the place having been there for years.

I learned over 50 years ago that when you encounter a situation you didn't expect in your software that you do NOT halt the app. Apparently the programmers at Garmin haven't learned that lesson.

So tomorrow when I go to get my hair cut I'll try OnX in the iPhone with it paired to the Sony head unit. Hopefully I'll get turn-by-turn directions. If so I'm thinking of going with a Magsafe mount like this one, which will put my iPhone exactly where the Garmin has been by using the ball already mounted to the floor. That way we can use OnX for the trails and Google or Apple maps for on-roading.