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I put routes into the gps via Memory Map which works well. I switch on the device when i reach the start (having cleared the tracklog)and switch it off when I finish the walk. However when I connect the gps to the laptop to see the track on Google earth or memory map the track adds a leg frpom the finish to my home address. I must have activated something for this to occur but it is tiresome as the lenght of the walk is added to by the drive home!

Can I stop this happening?

thanks

I've seen this when the tracklog memory is full. Are you clearing the tracklog before starting?

Yes the track log is never more than 5% as I clear it before each walk.

I think that when you end your walk you don't switch off the logging, you only switch off the gps.

So when you are at home, and you switch on the gps, the logging starts again, making a line between your home and the end of your walk.

Thanks very much- that sounds like it could be it. Can you please explain a little what you mean by logging. Come to think of it sometimes when connecting my last track to the laptop it appears as "active log" but I have never found out what that means.

Thanks again for your help

"Active log" is the the current bread crumb trail. You can tell your GPS to start or stop leave bread crumb trail, which is not the same as turning your GPS on or off.

For example, you can be on a hike, leave bread crumbs, and stop for lunch. Before lunch, you turn your GPS off so it wouldn't waste the battery. After lunch, you turn your GPS back on and it will continue to leave bread crumbs. The before and after lunch bread crumbs are considered as a single "active log"

The following weekend, you go to another start park and go hiking, you can now set your GPS so this new hike will be the "active log", and the prior hikes be saved in your list of logs. If you forget to do this, then the new weekend hike will be attached to the end of the prior hike, and will all be treated as a single "active log".

In your case, when you turn the GPS off at the end of the hike, you didn't tell it to stop leaving bread crumbs. When you got home and attach your GPS to the PC, and turned the GPS on, your home is now attached to the end of the prior hike. You can always use the PC software to delete a leg of the bread crumb, like from the trail head to home. Easy to do.

Thanks for that - your advice has sorted this problem for me - thank you for taking the time.

For those following this string I have eTrex vista HCx and to stop the track log continuing to when I connect to the laptop thus giving another leg to the track, on the Main Menu choose Tracks and the words Track Log should appear in the top left hand corner. Along the top is a choice to turn the track log on/off. To resolve my problem I first saved the track then switched off the track log on this page so the journey from the end of the walk to home is NOT logged as a leg. Problem Solved!!

To make things more complicated;
This way of saving your track will reduce the track to a max of 500 points, and it has no time in it.

But;
You can also log the track on your sd card, with no limit of trackpoints and also the time is saved.
The only thing is that you can't see this track on the screen of the vista, it's for use on the PC.

Please note that the old B&W eTrex Vista does not accept memory cards; you are restricted to the built-in memory, so you can't use this method on "non-x" eTrex models.

The newer colour eTrex vista HCx supports memory card expansion, so you can use this method on all of the eTrex "'x" models, and most newer Garmins (Oregon, Dakota, etc).

Thanks I did not know that - I have a memory card in the gps so I will use it in future.