Reviews > Software > Topographic Mapping > National Geographic Back Roads Explorer > Kelli Wise > Initial Report

National Geographic Back Roads Explorer - Initial Report August 9, 2004

Personal biographical information:
Name: Kelli Wise
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Computer used: genuine Intel processors - Pentium II, Pentium III
GPS used: Garmin Geko 301
Printer used: HP Deskject 950C (color inkjet)
Email: ciyd@comcast.net
Location: Western Washington, USA
Date: August 9, 2004

Backpacking background: I've been car camping and hiking for 20 years and sport climbing for 10 years, but am new to backpacking. My backpacking style is lightweight but not ultralight. I am striving for a suitable compromise between safety and comfort. The majority of my hiking experience is in Western Washington so I get a lot of wet weather experience.

Field information: Washington state, Oregon with possible field testing in Idaho and Texas.

Product Information:
Manufacturer: National Geographic
Model: Back Roads Explorer
Year of Manufacture: 2004
URL: www.nationalgeographic.com

17 CD set of maps covering the entire United States of America.

System Requirements:
Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, NT 4.0 and higher.
Works with all color and black & white printers supported by these operating systems.
486 DX/66 MHz PC or higher
16 MB RAM 2X CD-ROM drive
256-color monitor

Features:
From the retail box and the web site:

"Back Roads Explorer combines topographic maps and up-to-date road information to help you get to your destination and back again."

"With Back Roads Explorer you can:

• Seamlessly scroll across the entire US with four levels of map detail, including 1:100,000 scale topographic maps.
• Customize and print photo-quality maps.
• Add current road and street information and 3D shaded relief.
• Draw your own routes and create elevation profiles.
• Export maps to Palm or Pocket PC.
• Load your GPS with routes & waypoints."

"Customize maps in Back Roads Explorer with digital photos, notes, symbols, and web links. You can draw your own routes and create elevation profiles to see distance and all the ups and downs. After customizing your map, print photo-quality maps on your inkjet or laser printer. Back Roads Explorer is GPS-ready out of the box - there are no upgrades required. Easily transfer waypoints and routes between your GPS and Back Roads Explorer by using the planning wizard."

The maps are scanned USGS photo quality maps. Levels 1 & 2 are USA maps from National Geographic World Atlas. Level 3 are 1:500,000 USGS national map series. Level 4 are USGS 1:100,000 maps with up-to-date roads and streets.

The National Geographic web site also has a page called mapXchange where users download maps and routes. There are currently no files for Back Roads Explorer on the site.

First Impressions:
The software was shipped via UPS and arrived in a brown, corrugated box. Inside the box was the retail box, a shipping memo, and some wadded up paper for padding. The retail box is a glossy, full color software box with a foldout coverwith screen shots and some of the features listed. There is also the ubiquitous comparison table which compares the features of the Back Roads Explorer and the DeLorme Topo USA.

Inside the retail box was a shrink wrapped bundle consisting of 17 CDs and a single sheet of paper with the installation guide. According to this sheet of paper, the detailed user manual is available from the Help menu of the software. Also included was a promotional CD for Earthlink which I will discard.

Installation experience:
I have 2 computers at home of different generation of Intel processor. The oldest machine is a 450 MHz Pentium II with 64MB of RAM. This machine, which is named BLUE, is primarily used for simple tasks such as word processing and email and is pretty crippled with spyware, cookies, and a general lack of good computer housekeeping on my part. The second machine is a 933 MHz Pentium III with 512 MB of RAM. This machine, which is named RED, is primarily used for intensive tasks such as photo editing, sound editing and recordiing, animation, fractal generation, etc. The machine names correspond with the color of their network cables. In all cases of non-freeware software, I only have one installation of software per license. I do not illegally copy software or in any way violate the software licenses that I have agreed to. I mention this since my intention has been to install the Back Roads Explorer software on both machines to see how it performs with different generations of processors. When the software was installed on BLUE, I tested its performance and then uninstalled it from that machine. I then installed the software on RED where it will reside until the end of this test series.

Installation instructions are very clear. Installation on took under 4 minutes. Installation required a reboot of my computer. I already have the TOPO! state series for Washington installed on RED computer and the installation went smoothly and did not delete any of my previous data. TOPO! state series has 1:24,000 and 1:100,000 maps and the Back Roads Explorer has 1:100,000 maps. Uninstalling the program from BLUE went without a hitch.

On BLUE, I installed the program only. On RED, I installed the program and copied the data for the Oregon and Washington state maps onto my hard drive. Instructions for adding the data was in the help files and were clear and correct.

User interface:
I have been using the National Geographic TOPO! state series for about a year. Both of these map series, plus the others that National Geographic offers, run on the same engine, which is TOPO!. Each map series consists of distributed data files with more or less detail and resolution depending on the product.

I was pleased that the Back Roads Explorer product installed over my existing Washington state series maps without incident. I did get an upgrade in the TOPO! Engine during the install but, so far, it has not adversely affected my Washington state maps. For those readers who have one of the state series maps and are considering adding a new TOPO! Product, this is good news!

Below is a screen shot of the program with a hand drawn route shown in yellow. The user interface differs from a typical Windows compatible program in that there is no Edit tab. A little hunting around to find all of the functions is needed at first. When drawing in the route, I went to level 4 of the map and magnified this to 200%. By going to level 5, the program magnifies the map but none of the street data is available. Level 5 on Back Roads Explorer is a magnification of the 1:100,000 maps while the level 5 on the state series are actual 1:24,000 maps.

Screen shot of Back Roads Explorer showing a hand drawn route in yellow

The toolbar has a lot of different icons and moving your cursor over them gives a text description of them in the lower left hand corner of the screen. Right clicking on the map allows me to select the level of map and any additional magnification up to 400%. Selecting from the toolbar gets me into different modes: drawing, waypoints, markers, etc. Adding a waypoint lets me label the waypoint and puts the GPS location data on the screen.

In use:
I've only installed the program, hunted around the maps and drawn one route in the past week, so there are a lot of functions that I cannot comment on. I can, however, comment on my experience with program given that I've not read the user guide.

While drawing the route, I noticed that there is no 'undo' command. If your hand slips while drawing, you have to either delete all the drawing you've done or split the route into two and delete the bad section. The directions for the latter process are not really obvious anywhere and splitting the route only seems to be available when I right click on the route. Drawing the route also provides distance information. After the route is drawn on the map, an elevation profile can be generated. Interesting information if I'm headed into the mountains.

With the program only installed, the program will prompt you for the CD that corresponds to the state you want to look at. It specifies the actual CD number, which is helpful as there are 17 CDs in this series. Loading the map and moving around in that state is slower and depends on CD ROM access speed. Installing the state data onto my hard drive speeds up the process significantly since I don't have to load the CD and bus speeds on hard drives is faster than for CD ROMS. I didn't think it was necessary to load all 50 states onto my hard drive since it is unlikely that I am going to be travelling to most of them any time soon and I can always add them later should the need arise.

Test Plan:
This software will be tested with the following compatible hardware:
Compatible GPS=Garmin Geko 301
Compatible PC=900 MHz Pentium III, 512 MB RAM, 48X CD ROM,256 color monitor
Compatible OS=Windows 98
Printing of maps will be using a color inkjet printer

My summer and fall several weeks of personal time in which I will be traveling throughout the Pacific Northwest. I will be traveling to trailheads and tourist destinations, homes of friends and family, and to and from airports. I have planned trips in Washington and Oregon. I will be using the Back Roads Explorer software to create maps to get me to my destinations. I will also be plotting GPS waypoints and checking them against my handheld GPS device.

I hate fighting with big foldup maps while I'm driving. Having a small 8" x 10" (A4 size) piece of paper is much easier to handle and having different levels of zoom available to look at while driving is much more convenient. I have used several of the mapping tools available on the internet to plan trips and they are good but have their limitations. The Back Roads Explorer software looks like it solves some of the problems that I have with the online tools: it's available offline, it allows me to plot a route, it allows me to print custom maps without all the graphical headers, and load GPS waypoints into my handheld GPS unit.

I will be plotting trips that include travel on city streets, trailheads, interstates, and country roads. Are Forest Service roads included in the software? I'll be checking this. If so, the topographic data of the map will be very useful because many of the Forest Service roads I've traveled in Washington are poorly marked and a topo map is extremely helpful in finding the right turn-off which leads to my intended trailhead.

In town, I'll be using the maps when geocaching, a sport I am just starting to enjoy. The GPS features will be very useful here.

How good is the software when getting around a big city? I still struggle with staying found in parts of Seattle and Portland, OR remains a mystery to me. Will the maps be useful when I'm traveling on foot downtown?

I'll be checking the editing features of the software and it's overall ease of use.

I would like to thank National Geographic and BGT for the opportunity to test the Back Roads Explorer software.

Reviews > Software > Topographic Mapping > National Geographic Back Roads Explorer > Kelli Wise > Initial Report