Name: Ken Bigelow
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Height: 5’ 9” (1.8 m)
Weight: 205 lbs (93 kg)
Email: krb84108 (at) yahoo (dot) com
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah USA
Date: July 5, 2005

Backpacking Background:

I was first dragged on a backpacking trip eight years ago and have been addicted to it ever since. My adventures vary in length from a weekend to over two weeks. I consider myself a mid-weight backpacker as I bring along a few luxuries, such as a tent. From spring through fall I typically backpack in the mountains or desert, while in winter I often go snowshoeing. I typically see a wide variety of climates ranging from 10 F (-12 C) with snow to 90 F (32 C) and sunny with just about everything in between.

Product Information:

Manufacturer: National Geographic
Website: www.nationalgeographic.com
Product: TOPO! Streets & 3-D Views Expansion Pack
Year of Release: 2004
MSRP: $20 (US)
System Requirements: Windows 98, 2000, ME or XP
DirectX Version 9 (included)
8MB Video Card

Field Conditions:

Up to this point in the test period, I have used the program itself at home on my computer. Prior to each trip I trace my determined path, view both an elevation profile and three-dimensional fly-thru of the trail, and then evaluate any detour options. I bring the data obtained from the software along in the form of GPS downloaded waypoints and printed maps. I already have taken trips to the Grand Gulch primitive area, Capital Reef National Park, Bryce National Park, Fish Lake National Forest, the Wasatch Mountains and the Uinta Mountains. The terrain has varied greatly and has included wet and muddy corridors, slickrock, steep and rocky terrain, snow-covered trails and plain old dirt paths. Temperatures have ranged from 35 F (2 C) to 95 F (35 C). I have seen all types of weather ranging from heavy rain to sunny. The elevations experienced have been between 4000 feet (1220 m) and 10000 feet (3048m).

Expansion Pack's Additional Software Features:

While in 3D mode, a toolbar appears at the bottom of the screen, which allows users to perform a variety of functions. The features not in TOPO!'s earlier edition are as follows:

The Fly option follows the traced path from beginning to end with a 3D view of the area. This is the option I use the most as it shows topography as a hiker would see it while along the trail. My only real complaint with this function is that is does not seem to recognized less pronounced switchbacks. By less pronounced I mean the tight ones that keep switching back and forth almost immediately without ever going in one direction for very long. The Fly feature shoots straight up these (and indeed all uphill sections) as if they were nothing. On the trail those switchbacks tend to take me more time and cause me a substantial amount of grief.

The Spin function rotates the three-dimensional view around 360 degrees to show a panorama of the area. I rarely use this as the keyboard arrows allow me to do the same thing manually by using the arrow keys.

The Speed of both the Spin and Fly functions can also be adjusted on the toolbar. I prefer the slower speed when using the automated Fly and Spin features as I can absorb the views without everything going by so fast that it becomes blurry. When manually operating in 3D, however, I like to use a faster speed as it tends to get me where I want to go faster.

The Tilt function permits the user to look up or down. This is nice when I want to look up from the base of a mountain to its peak or vice versa. This is particularly handy when used in conjunction with the Elev function.

The Elev function changes the three-dimensional view's elevation in relation to the map. By manipulating the Elev function, users can modify the 3D view to range anywhere from showing the area as seen on the trail to looking down on the 3D topography from an overhead view above. This is certainly an entertaining feature and really seems to come in handy when navigating to a trailhead. I find it easy to mark the trailhead with one of the many TOPO! symbols, turn on the street settings so that all the roads are highlighted and their names shown, then elevate the 3D view so I'm looking down on the nearest city and essentially have a three-dimensional road map of how to get to the trailhead.

3D Road Map Showing Trailhead Access with Manipulated Elev Function

The Options function brings up another list where the user can adjust some of the settings. These include changing the units, printing/exporting, tools, GPS, shaded relief, data folders, automatic updates, mapXchange and 3D. Most of these were present with the original program and are pretty standard. For example, the unit's options include changing the coordinates (either to degree-minute-seconds, degree-decimal minutes, decimal degrees or UTM), distances (either to miles, kilometers, feet or meters) or elevations (either to feet or meters above mean sea level) to match whatever the user wishes.

The 3D setting is unique to the expansion pack and it permits the size of the 3D map to be reduced or enlarged. For longer trail sections the map size has to be increased in order for the 3D magic to work at highly detailed scales. Hardware is a big factor on this one and at the largest 3D map size, my system is extremely slow in loading the maps. The vertical exaggeration can also be increased so that the topography can appear up to 40 times steeper than the actual terrain. This proves useful in a couple of different scenarios. If I'm looking at a relatively flat section of terrain I can change the vertical exaggeration and suddenly the rolling hills become more prevalent. This means that in areas where there are no mountains the three-dimensional view can still prove useful. Changing the vertical exaggeration also helps emphasize the topographical differences on the trail. When modified, canyons seem deeper, mountains taller, and uphill sections tougher. It leaves less to my imagination when determining the difficulty of a trail. Another situation where changing the vertical exaggeration helps is on longer trails where I do not need highly detailed maps and do not wish to change the 3D map size.

Utah's Highline Trail is well over 70 miles (113 km) long, spends the majority of time above 10,000 feet (3048 m) and bisects most of the High Uintas Wilderness. When I attempted the three-dimensional fly-thru of the Highline Trail an error message appeared informing me that I needed to either zoom out to a less detailed scale or increase the map size in the Options toolbar in order for the 3D option to work its magic over the entire trail. Increasing the map size did work, but it was painfully slow in loading. It was so slow I thought that my computer had frozen and I almost rebooted it. Since I didn't need the detail (i.e. I'm not going to hike the trail this year), I decided to try zooming out and see if it was any better. I reset the map size to its original setting and then had to zoom out to 1:500,000 scale for the fly-thru to work. The three-dimensional detail at this scale, in my opinion, did not show the steepness associated with this trail. To compensate, I had to go into the Options toolbar and increase the vertical exaggeration to distinguish the three dimensional topography. While this definitely points out where the peaks and major lakes are, it does not reveal the location of side trails, creeks and small lakes. Basically, if all I want is a general overview, changing the vertical exaggeration seems to be the way to go. If, on the other hand, I want more details I'll increase the 3D map size and sit on my hands while it loads.

Utah's Highline Trail Elevation Profile

Utah's Highline Trail at 1:500,000 Normal Vertical Exaggeration

Utah's Highline Trail at 1:500,000 With 10 Times Normal Vertical Exaggeration

The automatic updates setting controls the frequency of when to check for upgrades and mapXchange settings apply to downloading street and quad updates. When using mapXchange the user highlights a portion of the state and then the program checks to see if any street or quad updates are available for that highlighted region. A table comes up listing what updates that are available in both streets in quads. The user can then select which, if any to download. This helps the user remain up to date on data. The street updates seem to be smaller memory downloads (1 KB-200KB), while the quad updates tend to be larger (600 KB-3.0 MB).

Performing A MapXchange Update

It should be noted that mapXchange is also a map-sharing application, set up through National Geographic, for anyone using TOPO! software. In order to open a mapXchange file the user must have the TOPO! program for the corresponding state or region. For example, let's say I trace the Joint Trail in Canyonlands National Park and add my own notes, pictures and symbols. I can then post my customized map on the National Geographic website for anyone to download. The kicker is, in order for someone to open my map they must have either the Utah TOPO! State Series or a TOPO! regional program that covers Canyonlands National Park.

In addition to the features already described here and in my initial report the only added function (that I've found) is an icon that allows for the insertion of photographs and notes. Below is a customized map where, among other items, I inserted a photograph and a note. The camera icon (outlined in red) next to Red Pine Lake corresponds to the lower portion where the photo is displayed. This portion shows the picture I inserted along with a caption, the icon's latitude and longitude and some text I put in. Below White Pine Lake (to the right and slightly lower than Red Pine Lake) on the map, a paper icon shows where I inserted a note. I only added text to this and to read it I would have to either click on it or the White Pine Note in the lower portion of the screen (to the left of the displayed picture). This feature is really helpful when creating trip reports that will be less likely to bore family members and friends to death. If the user has a web page hyperlinks can also be added so far away family and friends will not escape hearing about the latest adventure either.
*Note: The user(s) assumes all risks associated with annoying people with backpacking/hiking stories!

Customized Map With a Photo & Note Inserted

Navigation:

The three-dimensional fly-thru has certainly proved useful so far. While hiking in the Uintas Mountains the amount of snow on the trail began increasing dramatically the further I hiked up a canyon. Shortly after crossing the creek for a second time, the trail became buried and I had to put on snowshoes in order to continue. No trail markers or footprints marked the trail as it had recently snowed a few days before. This left me wandering around looking for a easy way out of the canyon. I knew, from my fly-thru with the expansion pack, that I had to cross the creek a third time almost immediately before the canyon opened up a little and the trail steeply started ascending out of the canyon. With this knowledge, I stuck close to the creek until I found a footbridge for crossing. Instead of wandering upstream to look for the trail, I looked at the mountain slopes where the snow became patchy. Sure enough, there were signs of some switchbacks and I was able to follow the trail to some extent.

Now I must concede that any good topographical map provides me with the same data and I probably would have found my way in a similar fashion without having done the 3D fly-thru. The benefits of the three-dimensional fly-thru are more ease of use and a decreased chance of misinterpreting the map. Both of these are excellent toward the end of the day when I'm exhausted. It suddenly becomes easier to see that a trail becomes steeper, or a canyon opens up after going through a three-dimensional fly-thru. If nothing else, the expansion pack has greatly improved my map reading skills.

The expansion pack has also helped me prepare mentally for hikes. I ran through a 3D hike up to Fool's Creek Peak in Fish Lake National Forest prior to hitting the trail. I had already seen what the topography was like and therefore, my morale was not destroyed when I saw that after reaching the top of one mountain I had to descend a bit and then start going up steeper terrain toward the summit. I still had to tackle the terrain; I just was not shocked by its presence. Using the expansion pack certainly removes some of the unpleasant surprises associated with hiking.

Testing Plan:

For the remainder of the test period I will continue using the software to plan hiking and backpacking trips. I will note if the street updates continue providing correct paths to the trailheads and other points of interest or if their accuracy starts diminishing. I will still print off my customized maps for trips and will keep performing a "fly-thru" prior to leaving for my trips. I intend to see if my map skills continue improving or if they were really just horrible prior to using the expansion pack. I also hope to report on if the expansion pack helps me improve my planning skills more than it already has. Although I have been using my Garmin eTrex GPS, I'll save the results for the long term report.

I would like to thank National Geographic and BackpackGearTest for allowing me to test the TOPO! Streets & 3-D Views Expansion Pack

Read more reviews of National Geographic gear
Read more gear reviews by Ken Bigelow

Field Report

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