Phil's Hiking Resources

I’ve recently been preparing to take my Garmin Oregon 600 to the Alps so have been researching some free GPS mapping sources.

Here are a few i’ve come across that might be of interest to you:

• UK & Europe: http://freizeitkarte-osm.de/garmin/en/regions.html
• UK: http://talkytoaster.me.uk/ukmaps.htm
• Worldwide: http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/
• USA: http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/maps/state/all

Here is a nice little blog post explaining how to get Open Street Map mapping onto your GPS…

• http://blog.gravitystorm.co.uk/2007/01/07/osm-on-my-gps/ 

and here is openstreetmap.org’s own wiki on “OSM Map On Garmin”…

• http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin/Download

The GPSFileDepot.com have a tutorial on loading digital mapping to a Garmin Unit using BaseCamp

• http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/tutorials/how-to-load-maps-on-my-garmin-gps-unit/

And finally here is how you geolocate and uploading a scanned JPG map to your Garmin GPS in a KMZ file using Google Earth…

• http://www.gpstraining.co.uk/phpmedia/docs/creatinggarmincustommapsinfiveeasysteps.pdf

I’ve also learned that you can get MapSource for free legally:

1. Download the Garmin Training Centre:
   http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=835, and install it…
2. then download and install Garmin MapSource Updates:
   http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=209.

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We’ve added some useful external links to the pages for each individual Mountain, Hill and/or Trigpoint:

• Wikipedia the article link for a hill if we have it (for approx 10% of Hills & Mountains (& also some trigpoints)
• GeoHack – a Wikipedia tool which provide links to various mapping services for the specified  geographical coordinates of our Hills.
  
• OS Maps (Bing) – Detailed OS mapping for the location of our Hills, as provided by Big Maps
• Google Map – Detailed overhead photography, with local bicycle tracks and a Wikipeadia overlay provided by Google maps.
• Geograph Photos –  geographically representative photographs and information for every square kilometre of the UK
• hill-bagging.co.uk – a link to the same hill on www.hill-bagging.co.uk
• Trigpointing UK –  a link to the same trigpoint on www.trigpointinguk.com

See this example page…

www.haroldstreet.org.uk/waypoints/download/?hillnumber=278&/Ben+Nevis

Hope this is useful and do feel free to suggest other services…

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• UK Hills Database: Chris Crocker & Graham Jackson’s comprehensive database of all UK hills – the basis of much of the Waypoint data on my Waypoint Pages
• Where’s the Path Bill Chadwick’s really nifty little map viewing tool tool
• Chris Crocker Statistical Topics in Hill walking Web Site; lots of good stuff
• SMC’s GPS CD-Rom for Scottish Hills, for several GPS types & formats
• Phil Brady’s Information on converting Grid References
• Welsh 3000s Challenge The Welsh 3000s Challenge website; Everything you need to know to successfully complete the Welsh 3000s

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• Simon Edwardes Mountains of England and Wales; lots of good stuff
• John’s “Milair” site UK GPS waypoints, and useful Garmin stuff
• John Dawson’s Lake District Walks Web Site – 43 detailed walks with GPS routes.
• Travel by GPS.com Lots of useful GPS stuff
• Pennine Way Site with GPS information for the pennine way
• GPSWaypoint an on-line searchable repository of GPS waypoints and routes
• Nick’s GPS Cycle Routes and River Thames Path National Trail
• V-G’s Hill Lists with Memory Map Downloads
• Simon Stevens Mountain Lists great source of Mountain & bagging information

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• sci.geo.satellite-nav newsgroup Source of infinite advice on all things GPS;
• uk.rec.walking UK Walking newsgroup;
• RHB “Relative Hills of Britain” Discussion Group – everything about Marilyns you never wanted to know

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