Maps wayyyy off?

[TomJr]

So I broke down and spent some of my hard earned cash on an alpha100 and tt15 collars. I tried it out today just around home. First thing I noticed is how off the maps are... The main road ends at my house and the Garmin map has it running all the way up canyon to the crest trail, a distance of 4 miles. Its also missing trails that have been here for over 50 years. The trails it does have are off by 200-400 yards. And to top it off Miller creek is off by over a 1/4 mile...

So a few questions: Are the maps this bad for everyone's area?
Is there a way to add/remove trails, roads and waterways to match what's really here? Are there better maps out there?

I guess I can live with it in my local area since I know it so well, but if I was to travel this does not give me confidence that I would be able to use the maps to locate the best road/trails to get to the dogs quickly. Part of the reason I bought the system is I have been running without tracking and its getting harder to keep up with the dogs(Aging sucks!).

[Jeff Eberle]

I run the land owner maps in mine but even with out them its never been off by more then a few feet

[Rshcwisdom]

I have one of the Hunt Idaho GPS maps with land owner names and it is awesome. I have noticed a few discrepancies in it, but for the most part it is spot on. Well worth the $100 bucks.

[david]

Comparing my experience in several states to your experience, I would say your area is very poorly mapped by comparison. I have a lot of section line roads that don't really exist though. But at least I have an excuse for driving out there in the middle of nowhere.

I agree that the map card I bought for mine,(for ND) after a couple years without it,was well worth the price. Just being able to see all public land highlighted is worth it. Some cards even have land owner phone numbers.

[pegleg]

There's areas where it seems off or overly ambitous. But others its accurate the maps work great so far and I've used it in a large portion of the southwest.

[TomJr]

Does anyone know if there is a way to preview a map, just enough to see if the trails show around my house? These are US forest service trails that have been here for more than 30 years, some much longer than that. Hate to spend $100 and find out its not any better... Also the cards, how would I go about installing one? I don't see any slot for a card on the Alpha 100?

[Rshcwisdom]

Chip slot for alpha 100 is underneath the battery.

[pegleg]

Just use the birdseye it works for most of it except real steep terrain its useful for showing trails in actual use which for most of the Coronado forest is probably best given how poor the trails are maintained. There's the drawback of downloads and blind spots but being so close to a population center its probably adequate