I bought a Garmin Vista HcX for my recent tour on the Lewis and Clark trail. I downloaded ACA's waypoints, thinking that would make the gps useful. Not so much. The ACA waypoints include every possible stop, bike shop, campground, restaurant, etc. and they have options for routes all on the same file, so you end up with WAY more information than you need or can use. They also use arcane names for their waypoints so you need a code book to interpret them.

I went through a couple of their routes, tried to determine exactly which roads I would take and which waypoints I would possibly need, and delete all the rest. It was very time-consuming but it made the information usable, after a fashion. However, I ended up turning the gps off while I was on the route, and only using it for miscellaneous things. The maps were eaiser to use.

One time the gps was helpful was when I wasn't on the ACA route. I had to get from the Amtrak station in Portland to my motel on the north end of town. I created my own route at home using Google maps (bicycling) and the Garmin software. It worked great. It was especially useful when I came upon a closed bridge in a very confusing part of town. I had entered the waypoint for the motel. As soon as I left my planned route, the HcX recalculated and created a new route that worked. It wasn't on as bike-friendly roads, but I got to my destination.

The gps was also useful for finding restaurants, car rental agencies, motels, and various things that came up on the trip. I used it just for fun sometimes, to check on elevation gain.

A couple of times it was counter-productive. There were several MUP paths on my route, and the Garmin mapping software doesn't recognize them. It tried to take me on the roads that paralleled the paths. I would have been better off ignoring it and simply using ACA maps. As my tour progressed I learned to do this. During the last week I hardly used the gps at all, until I got to Missoula and had to start figuring out a place to stay, and a place to rent a car to drive back to Portland. It was helpful, though the phone book was more helpful.

I'll probably take the gps on my next tour, but will do my own route planning and mapping, and will be aware of it's limitations.