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Hi everybody,
Newbie here, first post. This is kind of long winded, sorry.

I just got my 60CSx and I already have an older version of Topo! that covers Mt. Hood, Southern Washington, and Oregon Cascades. What I want to do is use the GPS for (1) On trail navigation. My understanding is that the basic procedure is get a fix from the GPS and transfer that information to a printed topo map using the proper map tools; pretty straight forward. The map and compass are the primary navigation tool supplemented by the GPS.

My second purpose is to generate off-trail routes on the computer at home from 24K topo maps and transfer the waypoints and routes to the GPS. If I buy the Mapsource Topo 100K scale maps for the GPS will the Topo!--24K scale--waypoints and routes translate to the Mapsourse display? Or do I need to buy the Mapsource topo 24K memory cards for OR/WA? I want to have the 24K scale printed maps correlate to the GPS display. For details about the terrain I would consult the printed map; to check my specific location I would consult the GPS.

Last question. Are the 24K maps from the USGS site, the free ones, a viable alternative to buying Topo! or the equivalent software?

Thanks for your time, hafdome

Not sure about the scale, but for almost every mfgr, you can only use their maps. Garmin units don't take USGS, nor Magellan. While it is possible to take other maps and turn them into Garmin maps, it is not trivial and not something a novice would want to do.

Thanks for the reply. I know that I have to use Garmin maps to load to the Garmin GPS. The Topo! software says I can put waypoints and routes on their maps on my computer and transfer the raoutes and waypoints to the GPS maps. Also the GPS came with a Trip and Waypoint Manager CD which says I can use that to upload and download waypoints, tracks, and routes. hafdome