New Releases of Northwest Trails and Northwest Topos Today
As many of you are aware, Northwest Trails has never displayed properly in Garmin’s BaseCamp software, and with the new release of MapSource 6.16.1, it was failing to display properly there as well. This was due to changes in the way that Garmin was handling the preview map in the software. Well, after some trial-and-error I discovered the cause of the issue and this release makes the changes that allow the trails to display as expected in both applications. Hooray!
Even bigger changes are present in the new release of Northwest Topos, although they are perhaps not as visible to the average user. These changes have resulted in a complete overhaul and re-export of each and every map tile in the mapset. Foremost among the changes is that the tiles are now broken out by WGS84 coordinates rather than NAD27 coordinates. In simple terms, this means that the tile borders are oriented directly north-and-south (and east-and-west) in MapSource and on the GPS, thereby helping to minimize the gapping that occurs between tiles when they are not so oriented. I’ve also overhauled the hydrology to properly break out perennial and intermittent streams, added a number of missing POIs, and updated the contour line intervals in many areas.
I hope that you enjoy these new releases!
Northwest Trails Version 1.58 (May 28, 2010)
- Overhauled the preview map (i.e. the background map that displays in MapSource for reference but does not upload to the GPS) to make it and the trail data display properly in BaseCamp and the latest release of MapSource (6.16.1)
- Updated data in the vicinity of the lower Annette Lake Trail and Snoqualmie Tunnel (near Snoqualmie Pass, WA)
- Data courtesy of The Jester:
- Scott Peirson Trail (Tacoma, WA)
- Data courtesy of _Shaddow_:
- Taylor Park (Duvall, WA)
- Lake Joy Park (WA)
- Additional trail and parking lot at Daniels Creek Park (Woodinville, WA)
- Trail near Eastgate Elementary School (Bellevue, WA)hydnsek
- Data courtesy of hydnsek:
- New Far Country Falls Trail at Cougar Mountain (Newcastle, WA)
- New trails through a Maplewood wetlands greenbelt (Renton, WA)
- Data courtesy of captsteiny:
- Island Trail in the Pope Resources Port Gamble Block (near Port Gamble, WA)
- Minor trail off of Cliffside Rd near the Pope Resources Port Gamble Block (near Port Gamble, WA)
- The Feather Trail leading into Kitsap Nature Reserve (near Seabeck, WA)
- Data courtesy of QuigleyJones:
- Trails in Pacific Spirit Regional Park (Vancouver, BC)
- Several trails in Burnaby, BC
- Data courtesy of Erik Olson:
- Black River connector trail through the Black River Riparian Forest (Tukwila, WA)
- Data courtesy of Gavin Hoban:
- Larkspur Trail (Bend, OR)
- Data courtesy of John Lally:
- Additional trail in Hangman Valley (Spokane, WA)
- Data courtesy of savant9:
- Trail in Aldergrove Lake Regional Park (near Aldergrove, BC)
- Additional trails in Glen Valley Regional Park (near Fort Langley, BC)
- Cottonwood and Paper Mill Trails in Burnaby Lake Regional Park (near Burnaby, BC)
- Data courtesy of SteadyPop:
- A portion of the trail around Seeley Lake (Lakewood, WA)
- Data courtesy of 2canam:
- Barton Lake ATV trail network (near Prince George, BC)
- Data courtesy of MtnMutt:
- Hammy’s Trail on Mount Si (near North Bend, WA)
- Data courtesy of EraSeek:
- Extension of a trail at Canyon Park Business Park (Bothell, WA)
- Data courtesy of MrGnome:
- Adjustment of the Maynard Burn Way Trail (near Sequim, WA)
- Data courtesy of lucyandrickie:
- Upper Umptanum Creek Trail (near Ellensburg, WA)
- Minor trail in Spring Lake/Lake Desire Park (Renton, WA)
- Adjustments to trails in Jenkins Creek Park (Covington, WA)
Northwest Topos Version 0.06 (May 28, 2010)
- Updated trails to match what is present in Northwest Trails v1.58
- Completed update of contour intervals from 40 ft in all areas to intervals matching what is displayed on USGS 7.5 minute topos for all areas
- Trimmed out artificial lines from wetland areas (appeared as perfectly straight streams within marshes and swamps) and completed re-export of all tiles with this change
- Overhauled waterbodies and hydrology lines to separate out intermittent lakes and streams from perennial ones and completed re-export of all tiles with these changes
- Added missing POI types (predominantly stream and lake POIs) and completed re-export of all tiles with these changes
- Added roads within the Cedar River Watershed (Seattle’s water supply) and adjoining areas from TIGER data
- Added tiles:
- Yamhill River E
- Yamhill River W
- Oregon City E
- Oregon City W
- Mount Hood E
- Mount Hood W
- Condon E
- Condon W
Download link for NW Topos: http://www.switchbacks.com/nwtopos/
Thanks, Jeff – I've corrected the link!
Jon – When printing Northwest Topo, using a UTM Grid, both in WGS84 & ConUS27, I noticed the UTM grid is not square. The Northings fit the bar scale but the Eastings do not.
That is unfortunately beyond my ability to change. That is a failure of MapSource and one that people have been complaining about to Garmin for some time.