[Az-Geocaching] Waypoints 'n' Routes 'n' Software 'n' GPSRs

[Team Tierra Buena]

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.
 
Visit http://www.elsewhere.org/journal/gmaptogpx. 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).
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
I hope some of you find this a worthwhile addition to your arsenal.
 
Steve
Team Tierra Buena
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