DC Area GPS Resources

Intro

GPS can be a very handy tool for motorists. I was introduced to using GPS by a fellow motorcycle rider.  He used his Garmin eMap to track our route South from the suburbs of Washington, DC to Knoxville, TN via Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway.  He was then able to explore around the area and find Deal's Gap - Rt. 129, an East Coast motorcycle mecca.  The detail on his eMap encouraged me to find one of my own. 

The eMap

I found a decent package deal at thegpsstore.com which included the eMap, power and PC adapter, car holder, memory, Roads and Recreation software and 8Mb of memory.  I have since purchased the MapSource Topo CDs off of eBay, Metro Guide CDs and I found 32Mb of cheap Garmin memory on eBay for $110.  8Mb holds around 50 R&R maps.  8Mb holds one Metro Guide map.  Good for a one or two day motorcycle ride, but not much more.  32Mb is around 200 R&R maps - quite fine for most any situation I would encounter.  It can also hold four full Metro Guide regions.  Perfect.  The eMap has excellent base map detail - down to many secondary roads, but just doesn't cut it for the great motorcycle roads.  Base map detail does include exit information on major roads - with a list of restaurants, service stations and associate amenities.  

The eMap takes a bit of time to acquire 3 of the possible 12 satellites in view - but it seems to do a good job holding on to them.  The display is large and easy to read.  The buttons are clearly marked, and can be easily pushed through the map holder on my tank bag.  As you map, a display shows the direction you should be going, along with your current speed, distance to go, distance traveled and the map itself.  At any time, you can display a trip computer with all the goodies - average speed, top speed, etc, etc.  When you get home, you can save the 'track' you took which includes your speed for each leg of the trip and a detailed map of the track.  I recently took my eMap on a flight from D.C. to Rhode Island and enjoyed looking out the window and comparing what I saw with the eMap display.  It was nice to know I was floating along at exactly 20k feet at 520Mph.

Garmin's Roads and Rec software is severely outdated.  Roads that have been around for 5 or 6 years have not made it into R&R version 3 (CD) or the latest update (4.03) as of 7-2001.  For the money, I would like to see more accuracy in the map data - which is evident in the associated Metro CDs.

I have added a ram mount to my Honda VFR for eMap display while riding.  Very nice mounting system, and very versatile.  Mounts can be exchanged to hold just about anything - including a camcorder.

Trips

I have assembled a page of great DC-Metro area trips from Tracks and Routes.  Tracks are samples of an actual ride, and routes are directions for a map based ride.  Both can be used to get around - one just offers exact detail.  The trips are split into Motorcycle, Camping and Other.

Coming to the DC-Metro area?  Need some Waypoints?  Here are some Waypoints for Maryland, DC, Virginia and West Virginia.  CSV format, then zipped.  Found on Usenet.

Software

• Linux based Garmin utilities available at http://www.snafu.org/.  Allows you to upload and download from the unit.

• ExpertGPS can import routes created with MapBlast and viewed in the step-by-step with maps view.  Just save as .html and open using ExpertGps, then download to the GPS directly.

• GPS_Mapper.  MapSource map editor.  In severe beta, but has a lot of promise.  

Other