Mapping for GPS
In the last decade or so, GPS mapping has become feasible with handheld receivers. The first generation of handheld receivers had limited capabilities for biking and hiking. Basically, these earlier receivers displayed latitude, longitude, and pointed you in the direction you wanted to go without any internal maps. The second generation receivers allowed GPS mapping by displaying your route on a map in the display. And now the third generation receivers enable the user to map a route and get turn-by-turn directions to get to each waypoint. These second and third generation receivers have expanded significantly the GPS technology for biking and hiking.
Basic Screens
Before we get into the actual GPS mapping, let us look at a few basic screens.
   
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The satellite screen shows the receiver status, location of each received satellite, each signal strength, and the receiver's current location when at least three satellites are being received. The larger circle under the satellite icons represents the horiaon surrounding the receiver; the smaller circle is the horizon at 45°.
The main screen allows you to access important data information. Such information could be your travelled tracks, you routes, and other information contained in the GPS memory.
The compass screen displays data fields at the top that gives information about the next waypoint. At the bottom, a compass display has a needle pointing to the next waypoint and a compass rosette.
The trip computer screen provides you with a wide variety of travel data that can be used when navigating. Usually, this page can be customized to meet your personal and/or trip requirements.
Routing Characteristics
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In the second and third generation GPS receivers, there are two ways to determine the route between two or more waypoints. Second generation receivers plot use the "straight line routing" method as shown on the left. When the receiver is directed to map a route from one waypoint to another, it will draw a straight line that represents the shortest and most direct route. If you need to bypass an obstacle, like a river or canyon, you would need to designate multiple waypoints around the obstacle. Then the receiver will draw straight lines from each waypoint until it has a route from your first to the final destination waypoint.|
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The third generation receivers, however, offer the option of the straight line routing and a more advance capability called "follow the roads" routing. If you have to get from one waypoint to another, in the follow the roads routing method the GPS receiver will plot the route by following the roads on the displayed map. This method is shown on the right. With this method, you will know which roads to take and where to turn. Your receiver should also give you an instruction page that shows the turns, total distance at each turn, and the leg length between each turn.
GPS Maps
Before I discuss mapping, you need to understand a little about maps for GPS receivers. First, the base maps installed on new handheld receivers provide the bare minimum detail. Generally speaking, these base maps are useless for biking and hiking. They show just the major highways and major roads, state and country boundaries, and major landmarks like cities and rivers. That little bit of information is the first bad news. (Go to GPS features for more information about base maps and map detail.)
So how do you get maps that are detailed enough for your purpose? Well, the cheapest way is to buy paper maps, draw out your planned route, mark waypoints along the route, relate these waypoints to UTM data, and input that information into your receiver. That method is time consumer, inaccurate, and still you are left with the original base map in your receiver. You can do it that way, but the benefits of the modern receivers are not being fully used.
The preferred method is to buy detailed maps for the region you want to bike or hike and to load them on your receiver. So here is the second bad news: In general, you must use maps and mapping software from your GPS manufacturer. Garmin sells map software for the Garmin units; Magellan sells map software for the Magellan units; and so on. Recently, some receivers by Magellan are now compatible with third party map suppliers like National Geography series maps. This development is nice to hear, but I don't expect it will be the norm. The major developers of civilian GPS receivers make a lot of money off the map software and I can't believe they will give that up.
So you have selected your region for your adventure, researched the available maps, chosen which maps you need for the detail you want, and purchase the software. The software will be available on CDs or SD chips. If you purchased a receiver that uses SD or micro SD memory chips, your GPS manufacture may have these maps already on the chips so that you don't have to transfer maps from you computer. But you can make your own memory chips with the maps. I will discuss that in the mapping part of this discussion.
Download the maps and the mapping program into your PC as per the manufacturers instructions. Notice that I said PC and not Macintosh or Apple. All of the available maps and mapping software by the manufacturers are Window base compatible and not Macintosh. (Please note that Garmin has been working on software that is Macintosh compatible, but it is not yet available except for the Edge fitness software. But this is a good sign of things to come.) If you use Mac (like I do with a passion) don't be discouraged. There is a way to run all the software on you Mac, and it runs flawlessly if you know how to do it. I discuss this in my page on Mapping with Mac.
Now you are ready to map out your routes, choose your waypoints, and download the maps and route to your receiver and/or SD memory chips.
Mapping
You have downloaded your mapping software and your maps into your computer. Now what? You have two choices when it comes to mapping. You can choose your region of the map to download, download the map into your receiver, and map your route from your receiver either now or in the field. Or, the choice that I prefer, choose your region of the map in your computer, determine your waypoints and route, and then download the map and route data into your receiver and/or SD memory card. Trust me, it is a lot easier and quicker to do it on your computer.
No matter if you are using your computer or your receiver, the process is about the same. You determine your route of travel, start and finish waypoints, and fill in between with additional waypoints to designate your roads and/or trails. Remember that a waypoint is just a single point along your route of travel. You can name each waypoint by number, description name like a landmark, or about anything else. But keep the waypoint names short and easy to relate to your route. You might want to save each route separately by day and each waypoint described by the day route and particular identification mark.
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A route is a combination of waypoints arranged in the proper sequence as you travel along your route. After you have specified your route by waypoints, you just tell your receiver or the computer mapping program to follow the route. You can either get your route by straight-line between each sequential waypoint or navigation by available roads (turn by turn). Now all you have to do is save the route and download it into your GPS if it was formed on your computer. Once the route is loaded onto your receiver, you can just bring up a particular route and tell the receiver to follow it.
Now you need to follow the instruction of your mapping software to download the map and/or routes to your GPS and/or SD memory cards. If your receiver just has internal memory, you will need to make sure that your files to download do not exceed the memory capacity of your receiver. I have a receiver that uses micro SD memory cards, and I have unlimited storage capacity by using 2 GB cards and/or carrying extra memory cards. So I don't worry about exceeding the receiver's capacity. But you might, so plan out your map coverage carefully because the map will take up a lot of memory. Also, you won't be able to exceed the waypoint and route capacity of your unit.
Since my receiver uses replaceable memory cards, I don't even use the receiver to download to my cards. I use a memory card reader/writer to download my maps and routes to the micro SD memory cards. Since I am just using the cards for mass storage, the only limit on files is determined by the storage capacity of the card. You can get the SD memory cards in 64 MB, 128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, and 4GB capacities. A 2 GB card can hold the Garmin Navigator North American map for the entire country and lots of routes. The SD memory cards and the >micro SD memory cards are fairly expensive, and they expand your GPS receiver so that your can have unlimited adventures.