GPS trails or routes?

[bijou22]

I have a Lowrance Global Map 3500c and after reading the handbook it goes through trails and routes. When would you use a trail and when a route?

 

[tommays]

Re: GPS trails or routes?

The unit will make a trail (purple)for every trip you make it is usefull as you can follow it home without any planing of a "route" should you get lost or fog ect

You will need to go into the trail menu and turn off old trails or the display will become clutered with them ( you can also make it stop making trails if you want )

If you have a trail it can be given a name and you can pick it and navigate it in forward or reverse as the unit will break it down into waypoints that will use all the GPS functions to tell you time to go, range and bearing ,ect


A route is a preplaned trip that requires you to mark each waypoint and if your makeing a long trip is a very usefull planing tool

I Have had my 3500C for over a year and it will take some time BUT once you understand all the features they work very good and are very easy to use


Tommays

 

[Boatist]

Re: GPS trails or routes?

If you go out for a short trip you could follow your trail back in. Problems with trails is could take you a very long time to get in. As a example You head out on a fishing trip trolling for Salmon, or trout. In this example I head out trolling for Salmon and troll up the coast for and hour. We catch two fish so make a turn and keep trolling tha area for another hour and catch some more fish. Now it getting very foggy and the wind and seas are picking up. Now I could follow my trail back where I am circleing the area where we caught the fish for about an hour and it would finally takes me back in.

If I have a route in the unit instead of traceing back the trail I came out on I could follow the route that would take me straight back in.

A route is just a serries of waypoints that will get you out and in safely, Or take you to your favorite spot.

Two ways to build a route. When it clear and your headed out you can set waypoints at every point where you have to make a turn to follow the channel out to the open water. Once your out in the open water of a lake or ocean now you can head to your favorite spot. Very inportant thing to remember when building a route is your going to use straight lines from waypoint 1 to 2 then from 2 to 3 then 3 to 4. So if there shallow water or a rock sticking out along the way you must set a waypoint that will guide you around that rock or shallow water with a safe margin. That way when it foggy, dark, heavy rain where you can not see you follow your route and will get in and out safe.

I follow my routes every time when heading out to the ocean where it is offten very foggy. I follow the route even if it bright and sunny to get out and back in. The reason is the day the fog roll in at 2 oclock I know I can trust my route to get me back in safely. When it bright and clear is a good time to follow the route and stay on course as close as possible and make sure your route does not put you in any danger.

When I building a new route I use buoy and land marks to set waypoints at a lot of the time. If you have to go thru a narrow channel I usually set a waypoint before the narrow channel and after the narrow channel. This way if your comming out or in your hit a way point before the narrow channel and then head at the other waypoint on the other side of the channel at the perfect angle to do it safe in any weather.

About the only time I follow a trail is if I am drift fishing and we pick up a bunch of fish in one area then they quit. We pick up and follow the trail back and drift thru that area again. This time if we again pick up a bunch of fish we set a waypoint for the next time we go out and try it again. If it works on another trip then the waypoint is going to get a name and some comments in my log book.

 

[bijou22]

Re: GPS trails or routes?

Some very useful comments here, thankyou so much. I saved a trail I made the other day in my 3500c, but because I wanted to edit it, took out some waypoints of the return journey because we went sightseeing after the main destination which I no longer required. After deleting the last few waypoints of the trail and then going back into the trail they kept re-appearing all the time and the trail did not save as I wanted it to. Instead it created a route from the trail that I edited but was exactly what I wanted. Is this correct and is it a way of creating routes from trails?

 

[Boatist]

Re: GPS trails or routes?

I do not think of waypoints as any part of a trail.

It like you need to go to the store and get some supplies. You can take your car or your truck and your can get their several ways.

Waypoints are not part of a trail. A trail is a bunch of markers you drop as you go to so you can follow the marker to get back.

Waypoints are spots you mark where you want them. Could be a Buoy, and could be shallow water spot to stay clear of, Could be a boat ramp, Could be a favorite fishing spot.

When making a Route I chose waypoints that I need to reach before turning to head to the next waypoint then the same for the next.

Having said that if I follow my route to get out of the harbor out to open water and I do not turn off trails I then will have a trail that follows the same route.

Everyone is different but I do not normally follow the anything marked on the screen when running a route. I turn on digital data that will tell me magnetic bearing and distance then I use the compass to match that bearing. The wife will follow the same route but use the steering indicator and distance.