greenstork

I have very much the same question as the previous poster. I just purchased a Garmin eTrex Vista Cx for an upcoming European bicycling tour and a number of other outdoor activities I do.

I also bought Garmin's City Navigator Europe and I'm in the process of plotting my routes. I guess it's more of a hobby activity since I don't anticipate using the GPSr to navigate while on the bike. I'll most likely use maps because it's difficult, if not impossible, to map a bicycle route that DOESN'T follow a roadway. Garmin's City Navigator maps, while very informational, simply do not have bike routes and bikeways.

What I'd like to be able to do, and I'm not sure it's even possible, is scan my bike maps (Fiets Atlas of all of The Netherlands bicycle routes - 1:75,000 scale), import the maps into Mapsource, calibrate/overlay them to the actual scale and GPS coordinates, and then map my route in Mapsource for export to the GPSr. I don't need to export the scanned maps to my GPSr, but it would be very helpful for route planning.

I don't know if this is even possible but I'm also concerned that it may be that accurate either, if the maps don't "line up" just right to the Mapsource coordinates. Could you please elaborate on how you get scanned maps to line up perfectly with GPS coordinates?

I'm curious to understand how other people use GPS on tour. Does anyone use it to navigate by, using a pre-planned route? Or is it simply used a reference, to navigate around a large city, find hotels & food, or for when you get lost? I'd like to believe that someday, you can map an exact route and use your GPSr for navigation but I have a feeling that that day has not yet come, not until there are good bicycle route maps online and usable in Garmin's proprietary software. Until then, I'll plan to map out a loose route & upload it to my GPSr, using Garmin's City Navigator Europe road maps, and probably only reference it when I'm lost using my paper map.

ephemeralskin If it's too difficult to explain here, please PM me with more information. I have a few follow-up questions as well. Thanks for the info, you've inspired me to geek out before my tour.