Best place to buy Garmin maps

[Sarge789]

So recently I made a thread requesting thoughts on the Garmin 62s on a crazy sale at Cabelas in the states.. due to all your help I went and purchased it and have been tinkering around with it. It seems to be a good device, now I just have to get some maps. I'm hoping to get one that can duel as a backwoods/nautical map. I don't need anything crazy for the ocean but it would be neat to see some nautical mapping for BC lakes and coastal shoreline. I'm hoping to use this not only to find my truck while walking the woods but also for some fishing, as well as to mark crab traps and a duck blind.

Any good suggestions on where to get maps for a good price?

Thank you,

Sarge789

[tinhorse]

Not sure where to get maps but if you download oziexplorer and google earth you can design tracks on google earth to areas you may want to hike into, save them as a kml file then open them in ozi and transfer to your garmin. We use them in forestry all the time and man is it ever nice. There is lots you can do with them.

[RustyBrit]

Do yourself a favour and buy the Backroads Mapbooks BC GPS Chip (micro SD). I have it in my Garmin Dakota and love it. Great for the backroads, hunting, lakes and has good shoreline detail for the boat too.

I bought the BC vs. the Van Isle version and am glad I did after taking it to the north country for moose twice now. Also, do some research on how to install the complimentary computer version it comes with. That makes computer scouting pretty sweet too.

I will say one BIG negative about it though. The latest map update the only way to get it was to (and I am not joking about this) take the chip, put it in an envelope, and mail it to Victoria and wait... Are you funking kidding me? Its 2014?!?! They have gone sooooo anal about making it so people can't copy it, they made it so they can't even update remotely.
Oh well, I will stick with V 3.0.

[srupp]

Gps central...Alberta...get the backroads maps sd..da da..done
Srupp

[dog812]

Its not necessary to buy backroads mapbook anymore.. But it is a great company. their maps work great with garmin
I havent really noticed a difference between Version 1 (which i did purchase long ago) and Version 4 now... but they are worth it.

[Eagleeyes]

Garmin Monterra is a great model to use for hiking. Garmin's Birds eye imagery seemed like a great idea but I get the same results without having to pay the yearly fee. I have 3 google apps added to the unit, google maps/engine, mytracks, and google earth. Before I hike/hunt I download a portion of a google map for offline use. Then when i'm out in the feild I can run the mytracks to record the hike, gps position of pictures/waypoints etc. If I want a real (GOOGLE EARTH)overhead view I boot up the google maps and there is the area that I saved on the Monterra unit! Barely use the garmins stock gps program. Anyways I like the unit and find that with taking pictures/video and such it has a battery life of about 7 hours max.