Can a Tom Tom GPS
Work on Trail Hiking?

If you happen to be an avid hiker, you may be looking at options with which you can find out your exact location and your position, with the help of GPS. Frankly speaking, the use of a GPS navigator on a trail, taking you from one end of the trail and setting you down safely on the other end just happens to be in its experimental phase.

The reason for Tom Tom not using GPS for navigation upon a trail is because they have already placed Street maps of the USA in its navigator. On the other hand, their competitor Garmin has put up topo Maps in its different navigating models and that is the reason why these particular models can be used for navigating upon trails.

Nevertheless, if you happen to be mechanically minded and want to do a little bit of experimentation, you can custom build your Tom Tom model into a topographical navigator by putting in Google Earth images and the USGS maps into your /raster folder.

In this manner, you can make a strictly personalized custom map. But, unfortunately, at the moment there is no specific to which can help you do this easily, so you can try another proposition of uploading a raster or even a vector property map and see if you can do a little bit of navigation on the trail to be taken.

The idea is to find out your global position through the satellite. However, a Tom Tom does not upgrade and update your specific position while you are walking. It happens to be more accurate when you are driving around in an area, and that is the reason why, if you intend to take your Tom Tom on a hike while you walk down the mountain and back, there is a large chance that you may find yourself lost.

The TomTom GPS has not managed to get all these specifications of trail tracking in its system yet, but if you are taking it along with you, you have to see some major points like -- is your Tom-Tom weatherproof? You might not be using it upon the trail, but you are going to use it, when you start driving back to the city again. And if you have dropped it in the water a couple of times, that is the end of that.

Accurate tracking and accurate mapping is of course another important prerequisite of a terrain, where not many people have gone before. So, you have to see if your tom-tom model has a map beyond its already loaded regulations Street maps.

If you happen to be on a trail, and do not know which way to go, one of the sensible options is to look at places where the trail crosses the highway or a road. Once you have that knowledge, you could look at the starting point and the ending point.

Then, after loading the coordinates manually upon your TomTom, (you might use a software called MapTech here) you at least are assured that you have some coordinates of some known bases and places loaded upon your navigator.

You might even want to look at software named POIEDIT, which can convert information in GPS formats. One needs to do a little bit of experimenting before he can use his Tom Tom GPS on trail hiking so happy experimentation!

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