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<DIV><SPAN class=615593502-18072006><FONT face="Book Antiqua"
color=#0000ff>Since we've been talking about moving waypoints into mapping
software, I thought I'd mention this little freebie that I ran across awhile
back. I don't recall it coming up here before.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=615593502-18072006><FONT face="Book Antiqua"
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=615593502-18072006><FONT face="Book Antiqua"
color=#0000ff>Visit <A
href="http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/gmaptogpx">http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/gmaptogpx</A>.
Despite all the author's disclaimers on the page and elsewhere on his site, I
haven't had any problems with this. In my experience it works as advertised.
I've used it on both Firefox (at home) and Internet Exploder (at
work).</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=615593502-18072006><FONT face="Book Antiqua"
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=615593502-18072006><FONT face="Book Antiqua"
color=#0000ff>Basically, you put his "bookmarklet" on your browser. Then you do
a search or generate driving directions in Google Maps (not Google Earth). Click
the bookmarklet, and you've got a text representation of a GPX file of your
waypoints or directions. You can then copy and paste it into some text editor,
save it with a GPX extension, and you're good to go. You should be able to load
it into just about anything that accepts GPX files. I've used it in Garmin's
MapSource and ExpertGPS. I haven't tried it elsewhere, but it looks
like it ought to work for EasyGPS and for uploading to gc.com's new "find caches
along a route", and probably lots of other stuff as well.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=615593502-18072006><FONT face="Book Antiqua"
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=615593502-18072006><FONT face="Book Antiqua"
color=#0000ff>Where I find it useful is in loading the route into MapSource and
then downloading the route into my GPS. It's even easier than the MapSource
route creation tool.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=615593502-18072006><FONT face="Book Antiqua"
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=615593502-18072006><FONT face="Book Antiqua" color=#0000ff>This
thing will also generate full-tilt track files, but it will pretty much generate
a trackpoint for every bend in the road. The files are HUGE, so use it with
caution. Probably best for trail hikes rather than vehicular
routes.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=615593502-18072006><FONT face="Book Antiqua"
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=615593502-18072006><FONT face="Book Antiqua" color=#0000ff>I
hope some of you find this a worthwhile addition to your
arsenal.</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=615593502-18072006><FONT face="Book Antiqua"
color=#0000ff></FONT></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=615593502-18072006><FONT face="Book Antiqua"
color=#0000ff>Steve</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=615593502-18072006><FONT face="Book Antiqua" color=#0000ff>Team
Tierra Buena</FONT></SPAN></DIV></BODY></HTML>