I use Google Earth all the time to see GPS tracks and waypoints. The satellite imagery on the maps is so detailed in many places which makes it easier to see little features that may not show on a topographic map.

I use a Garmin Montana 600 GPS so all my GPS tracks are stored in Garmin Basecamp. I wish Garmin would add more features and update Basecamp but it’s still the best track editor and organizer I’ve found. I hope they move it all online and make sharing easier. I’ll be reviewing the premium version of Gaia GPS in the future so stay tuned for that.

Basecamp used to have a nice feature where you just click on a track and then ‘Export to Google Earth’. Because of a change on the Google Earth side and a lack of resources for updating Basecamp, they removed the feature instead of updating it.

It takes a few steps to export tracks from Garmin Basecamp to view in Google Earth now but it’s still possible.

Exporting Tracks

Select the track you’d like to export then go to File > Export Selected User Data. Select a folder and file name for your GPX file.

Open Google Earth and drag the GPX file onto the map.

A data import window will come up. You can adjust these to your liking. I prefer to use Create KML LineStrings and Adjust altitudes to ground height. These require a bit of adjustment after to get the most usable tracks in GE.

After importing, the track will show under Temporary Places in the sidemenu in GE. I always expand all the parts to the GPS track in the menu and deselect points which are all the individual tracking points from the GPS. The Path is much easier to look at.

The default path style is usually thin and grey. To change that to something more visible, right-click on the path, click Get Info, the Style, Color. Here you can pick your color and thickness of the path.

Tracks are imported into Temporary Places in GE. You have to right-click on them and click Save to My Places for them to be saved permanently in Google Earth.

If you know of a faster way to get tracks from Basecamp into Google Earth, definitely let us know!

The post Garmin Basecamp: How to export to Google Earth first appeared on Pack & Trail.

If you’re like me, up to year and a bit ago I never timed anything. I’d run a distance I thought was close to when I should run and call it a day. I didn’t really measure much. I guess that’s why my results were less than stellar when I’d finish a race. They were respectable but certainly nothing amazing. I’ve heard the saying “What gets measures, gets improved” but never really paid it much attention. I had running to do and I wasn’t going to waste some of that time, fiddling around with numbers and times.

That changed a bit after I started reading article after article about training and how to do it properly. How do you know when you’ve reached a goal or that you are on track for a certain time. You don’t if you don’t measure anything. The only way to find out is to measure things like speed, pace and distance for running. Maybe heart rate if you’re aiming for a workout at the same time. Part of the reason I didn’t do that was I didn’t know an easy way to do it. I didn’t want to spend hours crunching numbers just to find out how I was doing.Then I found the Garmin sports watches.

Turn it on. Run. Turn it off. Put it by your computer. Done.

That’s all you need to do to get accurate numbers and gps tracks uploaded straight to Garmin’s Connect website for you to peruse at your leisure. I can do that.

The price wasn’t exactly what I wanted to pay for what, in my mind, was just a watch. I’d never paid over 30 bucks for sports watches in the past so shelling out over $200 on one was a bit hard to take. I waited until I could get one on sale and then leapt. I was excited because it was new tech gear but I had no idea what to do with it.

What I like

Small and light. Much smaller than the older Garmin watches (but smaller screen)

Wireless track upload

Easy to use after learning (not intuitive but fairly easy interface)

Garmin Connect website displays all information well

Heart rate monitor is comfortable

What I don’t like

Bezel is very easy to touch so you have to lock it if you don’t want it to beep, even water sets it off

Battery life is short when the GPS is on ~8 hours

Ultimate Training Partner

Over the last year, I haven’t been training for much in particular. I’ve run a couple races but they’ve been more for fun than anything. I didn’t pull out a training program for them and pore over stats and my progress.

A couple weeks ago I signed up for the Vancouver Marathon. I’ve never done a marathon and 42 kilometres is not something you can just go run after sitting on the couch for a while. So I got out the Garmin Forerunner 405 and started my training.

Tapping one side of the bezel that goes around the face of the watch and you’re into training mode. If you’ve got GPS enabled it will start looking for satellites and usually finds them quickly. If you’re in dense tree cover it might take a bit. I found it finds them faster if you’re not moving much.

After it’s got a signal you’re ready to go. There’s a start button to begin recording your workout and the GPS track. While you’re running, you can see your time, you’re pace and distance travelled. There are many options and screens to go through so however you like to see your workout data as you run, you probably can. I tend to just look at the default screen that shows overall time and pace. Most of my runs right now are a set distance and a set pace so that information is all I need when I’m moving.

Sometimes I’ll run with the heart rate monitor just to see how I’m doing in that department. It’s not a huge worry for me as I’m more focused on the time and distance versus the workout I’m getting but it’s still interesting to see. Another data point to compare when you begin your training to the middle and end.

When you’re done, stop the timer and set it beside your computer. The ANT technology built into the watch wirelessly communicates with a USB attachment plugged into your computer. When it’s within range it sends the tracks to the computer which can be automatically uploaded to Garmin’s Connect website. Then it shows you the GPS track if it’s available, speed, pace, elevation and heart rate information if you had a monitor on.

The Deadly Kusam

When I first got the 405 I was excited to see what it would do. I was already signed up for one of the most intense races I had ever done. It’s called the Kusam Klimb and happens every year a couple hours away from where I live. It’s a half marathon that goes up and over a mountain. As you can see from the GPS track I got from the race, it’s not flat. It goes from near sea level up to over 1400 metres in under 8 kilometres. That means steep! I had the heart rate monitor on as well. You can see that it was quite high over the whole race. I was pushing hard.

7 Hours of Running

A friend and I ran the Juan De Fuca Trail in 2010 which is 47km of far too many peaks and valleys of ocean-side trail near Victoria. We had planned for about 10 hours of running but it ended up only taking 7 hours. I wanted to get the entire run on the watch so I could see the pace and elevation of it all. I missed the first section down to the water from the parking lot because the 405 couldn’t get a signal through the trees. Near the end of the trail, 38 kilometers from where we started, the battery died and it stopped collection any more information. I’m glad it saved what it did. I thought if it died as it was recording, I wouldn’t get any information from the track. Apparently those guys at Garmin are smarter than I thought.

Incessant Beeping

For how much my 405 gets bumped around when I’m running, I’m surprised it still works. It’s still going strong. I have had one issue with it.Last winter I was ski touring and had it on to track our time and GPS track. Near the end of the tour about 3 hours in it started restarting constantly and beeping every time I did it. I couldn’t do anything to stop it. The racket it was making only stopped when the battery died and luckily that wasn’t soon after the beeping started. Every time I started it after that and went into training mode, it would start restarting and beep like crazy. I talked to Garmin and they suggested updating the firmware on it as there was an updated version and then sending it in if that didn’t work. I really liked the watched and used it a lot so I didn’t want to be without one for too long so I tried the firmware update right away. Since then I haven’t had any issues with it. No more beeping!

Recommendations

I definitely recommend the 405 to those that are looking for a powerful training watch for running or riding. You can get all sorts of accessories for it like the heart rate monitor or a food pod to record other information while you exercise. The screen isn’t as large as some of the other Garmin watches so if you need to see more information on the fly, that might be a factor in your decision. I liked the smaller size of the 405 that didn’t look like I had a computer strapped to my arm and the lower weight that goes along with that form factor.

Do you have a training or GPS watch? What do you use it for and how do you like it?

The post Garmin Forerunner 405 Training Watch Review first appeared on Pack & Trail.

I’ve had the chance to use a few different GPS over the last couple years. They were all Garmin but they all had different features that I could test out and see if I liked. There were things that I liked and things that I didn’t like. I used my friends of families when I could so I didn’t have to buy my own. I finally got one of my own and opted for the Garmin Colorado 300 because of the slightly bigger screen and faster navigation method than was the standard at the time.

Little did I know that the Colorado wasn’t going to last very long. Garmin discontinued it soon after I got mine. Fortunately I never had any problems with it and aside from one little thing I never liked about the interface, it served me well adventuring over many kilometers dirtbiking, hiking, skiing and running.

The only big problem with it was that you could only have one saved track showing at once on the map. For the most part this wasn’t a problem. If you wanted to follow a trail you displayed the track and away you went. It was an issue when I would go to areas that I had been before and had saved tracks from. I wasn’t sure where each track lead and where I had been already. I could cycle through the tracks, displaying each one in turn to see where they lead but that was incredibly time consuming. In the end, without any updates from Garmin, I was stuck viewing only one track at a time.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I was heading out to check out a climbing area I hadn’t seen yet on my dirtbike. The power lines and dirt roads were rough but fairly clear. My Colorado was firmly attached to it’s handlebar mount and directing me where to go. I was following a track from a friend. On the way back, roads sloped mostly downhill. Not a problem for my knobby tires, I’ll just go slow and lay off the back brake so I don’t skid too much. I was almost back out onto the pavement and one my way home when I noticed something missing from my handlebars.

In the middle of the last little hill I came down, the Colorado and popped loose from hit’s mount and gone sailing down onto the rocks. If you aren’t familiar with the Colorado, it’s got a wheel above the screen for navigating through the menus. That had popped right off. The screen had a good gouge in it. It wasn’t turning on. This wasn’t looking good.I searched for a good 15 minutes for the wheel but came up empty-handed. I tossed the remains into my bag and headed home, wandering what would come up my mangled GPS. On one hand, I wasn’t very happy about having to spend a few hundred dollars to get a new gps unit. On the other hand, a new line of Garmin’s had just come out and promised to be one of the sweetest trail GPS yet. Sad or excited. I wasn’t sure which.

I in touch with Garmin, whom, to my surprise, directed me to their repair shop in Canada. For a decent fee plus shipping I could get a refurbished Colorado. Could I get a credit towards a new one? Nope. Ok, so another dilemma; Do I wait a few weeks and pay to get a refurbished version of a gps I don’t really like sent my way, or do I check out the brand new GPS at my local shop, Valhalla Pure.

I know which one is more fun.

Enter the Garmin Montana 600

So needless to say, I checked out the new gps units. I knew the Garmin 62 series would be nice, and there was the Oregon line that had the touch screens as well. Then there was the primo, top-of-the-line radness that Garmin had just released called the Montana. At first glance, it was entirely impractical for hiking and really anything else that I’d want to do with it.

The 62 had the best antennae you could get out of any of the GPS. But it still had the tiny little buttons that were so clunky on the 60csx and 78 series I had used before. Nice for finding things and tracking but terrible if you wanted to jot down a waypoint name. Ten minutes later you can have a nicely named waypoint.

The Oregon series is about the same size as the 62 but has a touch screen. That’s nice, solves the problem of entering waypoints. You get a nice touch screen to add your comments and waypoint names too. It wouldn’t take forever. I think the screens had been updated since the first versions that were almost impossible to see in the sun. A possible ding against the Oregon’s though.

Then I played with the Montana. Large yes, but not much bigger than a 78 series I had used before. A laundry list of new features definitely piqued my interest.

Paperless Geocaching

My Colorado was actually able to do this but I didn’t use it much. I didn’t have a premium subscription to Geocaching.com and didn’t get the hints downloaded to the unit so I had to write them down anyways. I decided to try the whole deal out. I have a premium membership now and have found 4 geocaches with the Montana. If you you geocache this is definitely the way to go. No paper and a couple clicks to get all the info from Geocaching.com to the unit and back again. My only gripe with it is that you can’t click on the geocache on the map and get the hint for it. You have to go through the list of geocaches and find it through there.

Landscape or Portrait viewing mode

It’s like holding a big iPhone. All you do is flip the unit on its side and you’ve everything turns for you. It’s definitely my preferred way to look at the map and to type in waypoints. I wish the keyboard was set up exactly the same as the iPhone’s because that’s what I’m in the habit of typing. I keep hitting the shift key when I think I’m hitting something else. I went from almost never renaming waypoints to writing full sentences about them. It’s just so nice to do with the landscape touch screen.

Enabling and disabling tracks on the map

My big problem with the Colorado was solved with the Montana. You can show and hide any tracks you want on the map. If you want to do a bunch, it’s going to take a while. You can only do one at a time. It would be a definitely improvement if they could make it easier to do a bunch at once.

Lithium ion battery pack or 3 double A batteries

I almost didn’t buy it because it has a lithium ion battery back for power. Don’t go scoffing that decision by Garmin though. They changed it up and made a really smart decision afterwards to add the compatibility of the battery pack OR 3 double A’s. The battery pack recharges right in the unit so when you have it plugged in at the computer, it’s charging for your next adventure. If you kill the battery out in the woods, pop those 3 spare double A’s in there and away you go. 16 hours for the pack and 22 with the double A’s.

Nuvi-like car controls and talking car mount

This was half the reason I ended up being it. I wanted a Nuvi, one of the in-car GPS that talks and does that great stuff. I didn’t want to buy both though. Throw the Montana into it’s powered car mount with a speaker, load up some road maps and it will talk to you just like a Nuvi. Perfect. A solid trail GPS and a Nuvi in one. I haven’t actually used this feature yet as I’m waiting for the car mount to arrive at Valhalla Pure. I’ll throw up an update when I get a chance to test the vehicular side of things. I’d like to get a handlebar mount for the dirtbike as well but I’m hesitant to have another incident that killed the Colorado.

4 inch touch screen that you can actually see in the sun

The other reason I bought the Montana. The screen is huge. 4 inches to be exact. It’s bigger than an iPhone. When you are trying to see where trails, logging roads and possible routes go on the screen of your GPS, it just can’t be big enough. The old Oregon’s had some coating on the screen that made it very difficult to see in the sun. No problems with the Montana. I was out on the weekend with it in the sun and no problems at all. No squinting, no hiding in a dark room just to see the screen. The touch screen makes all the difference in the world with navigation and typing out waypoints and geocaching notes. What would take at least 5 minutes with buttons or a roller takes less than 30 seconds on the touch screen. I am worried how on long the screen is going to last bouncing around in a backpack or in the elements. I think a hard case for over the screen is going to be on order.

Bundles of waypoints and tracks for each adventure

This might just be a new update for Garmin’s Basecamp software but now you can bundle waypoints and tracks and ship them around on and off your device. They call it an Adventure. A perfect name for a group of things. You can also add images to that if you have pictures on your Montana. I didn’t get the version with the camera but one has a 5 megapixel camera. The photos are geotagged and uploaded to your computer with the tracks and waypoints.

Adventure Time

And that is the story about how I got a Garmin Montana 600 in my pocket. I would say it’s time to head out on an adventure but it’s more likely that it’s time to hit the sac! If anyone’s got a good story about their GPS, feel free to share it in the comments!

The post Garmin Montana 600 GPS Review first appeared on Pack & Trail.