BBT,

I tried using the ACA routes for my trip of the PCH. I found them annoying as they really did not follow the road. They just kind of pointed you in the right direction so you are never really sure that you are on the right road. The ACA routes seemed more trouble than they where worth so I did not use them.

You can route on the Garmin GPS, no need for a PC. The GPS has various preference settings for routing. One of them is bicycle but sometimes it does too good of a job in keeping you safe. There where several times when it tried to take me way out of the way to avoid a "busy" road. But one time I remember in particular, it wanted to take me 30+ miles out of the way, when the real destination was only a few miles. I knew the shortcut and knew it was not all that bad so I took it instead of the recommended routes.

Once past a certain point the GPS will recalculate but it is still going to try and take you the safest route for bicycle.

You can set it to car and then pick options to avoid freeways, that seems to do a little better job.


One feature I wish it had was an option to consider elevation changes in routing. Sometimes it is faster to go a few miles further and avoid a shorter distance over the mountains. Then again you might prefer the climbs and it would be nice to be able to pick the route with lots of climbs.