Planning a Trip/Route Part 2 (Taking the GPX on the Road)

June 15, 2018.

For part 1, see How-to: Planning a Trip/Route (with Google Earth, GPX, KML, and more)

So, you’ve done your research and created a route that you’re super-jazzed about. If you’re anything like me, it’s taken you days. Or weeks. Months of work (on-and-off), even. That’s awesome — you’re in a small class of folks who do detailed route planning. Now it’s time to get out there! You know, like this…

Seriously though — the hard part is done, now comes the fun part — seeing the beauty that nature has to offer. Here I’ll cover how I take a route and use it to guide the adventure. As always, there are many ways to do this using all different sorts of technology. But this is what I do. We’ll look at:

• Setting up a tablet for navigation
• Exporting a route to the tablet for in-vehicle use
• Prepping the tablet for offline use when you’re on the trail

Equipment selection

Before we get into setting up the tablet, let’s talk about the hardware itself for a moment. I use an Android tablet — specfically a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 8.0, with 16GB of RAM and a 64GB or larger SD card. Here’s why:

1. As long as you get one with GPS capabilities, a tablet is much more functional than a standalone GPS unit, if you’re willing to create your own maps (which is exactly what we’re doing here).
2. I choose Android over iOS because of cost — Android devices are a fraction of the cost.
3. I choose an 8-inch screen because I like to keep the tablet mounted high on the dash. A larger screen would block either my AC vents or the windshield.
4. I choose a tablet with 16GB of RAM (vs. 32GB or more) because I don’t care how much storage is on the actual device — that’s what the SD card is for. And again, that keeps cost down. A good SD Card is cheap (I recommend this 64GB, or this 128GB card).

And, I should note — the Tab A 8.0 is a cheap tablet — if you spend more you can get a faster processor or better screen, but I don’t feel like I’ve really needed those. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2, and the Lenovo Tab 4 8" are two other tablets that I’d consider.

Setting up the tablet for navigation

Getting the tablet setup is relatively easy — there are really only a few steps.

1. Make sure you have WiFi on and that you are connected to a network.
2. Make sure you have location services turned on in your tablet Settings. Obviously, to use the GPS, any navigation app will need access to accurate location information.
3. Download a navigation application. I’m a fan of Backcountry Navigator TOPO GPS (the paid version — $12 at the time of writing) onto your tablet because it’s got a ton of features and is relatively straightforward to use (as straightforward as any of these type of apps).

1. Insert your SD card if it isn’t already.
2. Configure Backcountry Navigator to save data to the SD card rather than built-in memory by:
3. Tap on Menu > Settings > Storage Options > Storage Root(Advanced).
4. Select the External Storage Card that is presented (if it is not already in the Current section).
5. Click SAVE.

Exporting a route to the tablet for in-vehicle use

To export your route… check out Route Planning Part 2 at adventuretaco.com.

Originally published at adventuretaco.com.