Waypoints, trackpoints and tracks

[BD]

Today was Day #1 in my GPS education. It will clearly be a while before I am snatching any pebbles from the Masters' hand!

Downloaded Topofusion for a trial, and was amazed at how well I was able to find all the connections to the off-the-beaten-path route I am hoping to ride. I created 2 different "files" in TF, each with a few hundred "waypoints" in them.

Now what...says the doofus?

Do people just ride waypoint to waypoint? Is there some way I should make these a "track"?

My waypoints are generally pretty far apart, and not sure how well they would guide me in many spots. I could add more in what seem to be the tricky route finding places?

My route is 300-ish miles. Do people actually draw a line for that whole distance in TF to create a track?

I would love to have a continuous track for my entire route that aided me usefully at essentially every moment on route. Can I do that?

Haven't even bought the GPS yet (Etrex 20). Figured I would flail on the computer end for a while and try and sort it out; I will  on the GPS end later.

Any simplest advice/guidance appreciated.

[AZTtripper]

Yes you want a track to follow, at least that's what most of the races do and what I have usually done for my own rides. If you have to draw the whole thing....well if that's what it takes. Unless someone else has already done the course with a gps running that may be the only way. If it's mostly roads it might not even be that hard to do once you get the hang of the draw tool. If any part of the course has already been tracked TF has a join tracks tool that will allow you to merge tracks from several sources including hand draw sections.

I would say start by trying to find out if there are local sources for the tracks you need. Official named trails have usually been tracked by someone. For AZ there a website called HikeAZ that has lots of tracks from various users, also asking around on MTBR or any local chat rooms. Then once you have everything collected you start joining it all together.

Then once you have your track and a gps all there is left to do is figure out how to load it into the gps. And then get used to riding while keeping track of the track on the screen at the same time. Once you have all of that done then there's the actual riding.

Tim

[bmike-vt]

for mixed routes, with trail, road, etc... i usually combine things.
gpx from mapmyride, brought into TF
trails can be traced or drawn - depending on source - or often found online with some searching. i was able to pull up a bunch of stuff that was brought in as tracks in the ADK mountains.
and yes, some drawing when required.

[BD]

Tim: "actual riding"... what the F is that?... seems lately this bikepacking deal is about gear lists and bike bag choices and logistics and computer-screen-staring. You mean to tell me there is actually riding at some point??

Thanks for advice. Will keep working at it.

Does anyone know, if there is an existing GPX track that I only need part of, can I import it into TF and then somehow snip just the sections I will be riding?; i. e. my route is partially on existing route, and partially terra incognata. Peace. Out.

[bmike-vt]

yes, you can import and snip to your heart's content...

[bmike-vt]

...and then combine all the pieces into 1...

[Marshal]

And then copy your finished file over to google earth and fly your route

Thus allowing you to skip the ride part altogether .....

[bmike-vt]

And then copy your finished file over to google earth and fly your route

Thus allowing you to skip the ride part altogether .....

I've found that if I map ahead of time I spend a whole lot less time staring at the GPS out in the real world. Having a sense of direction, terrain, etc. Preloaded into my head makes my bikepacking rides more enjoyable.

[BD]

Thanks for all the guidance. I have been able to download portions of my route. I have hand (mouse!) drawn several long sections as well in TF. I have used "join tracks" and put several of these big pieces together with the Join Tracks tool in TF. So, cool. Very slick and very intuitive.

One issue I have had: sometimes when I click two tracks sequentially in the Join Tracks tool, as instructed, it joins the tracks, but also sends a new piece of the joint track off in a straight line back to some typically distant spot on one of the two original tracks. Like it is creating a loop or something. Sometimes it does not do this??? I must be somehow doing or clicking something during some joins without realizing it? Anyone have any TF experience with this one? bd

[bmike-vt]

you may need to reverse a segment - its trying to connect the beginning and end of a segment - but sometimes the end of one is on the opposite end of the beginning of the next... do a search on the TF help forums, where I found out how to do this. from memory something about right clicking...

[AZTtripper]

Yeah you have one of the segments in the wrong direction, it matters what direction the track segment plays out with the profile tool. Reverse last segment is one of the right click options when your using the merge tool. You have to reverse it and then save it again in that new direction. Then pull out the one that's wrong and start merging again.

Hope that makes sense.

Tim