National Geographic TOPO! Streets & 3-D Views, Expansion Pack

Field Report

Tester Information

Name: Raymond Estrella
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Height: 6' 3" (187.5 cm)
Weight: 200 lbs (90 kg)
Email address: rayestrella@hotmail.com
City: Huntington Beach
State: California
Country: USA 
Date: August 3, 2005

Backpacking Background:

I have been back packing since I was 14 years old. My style of hiking is to get up early, and hike hard for most the day. I put the miles on, usually 15-18 miles a day.(24-29 k) I like to get to my days destination early enough to enjoy the afternoon. Most of my hiking is in the Sierras. I hike year ‘round, in all weather. I am making a concerted effort to lighten weight everywhere I can, without giving up a comfortable tent, and cooking good meals.

So far in 2005 I have logged 380 miles (608 km) with a pack on. Coming up is half the John Muir Trail, and 3 days in the Mount Whitney area.

The product

Manufacturer: National Geographic

Product: TOPO! Streets & 3-D Views, Expansion Pack

Year made: 2004.

MSRP: $19.95 (US)

http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/topo/

The software comes in a stiff 4 color paper tri-fold package. It has slots on each of the interior pages to hold the 3 CD-ROMs included. One is the set-up disc, the others are map data discs. The installation guide is printed inside, along with a serial number.

The following is from their Web-site.

System Requirements:

Windows 98, 2000, ME, & XP; DirectX version 9 (included); 8MB+ video card that is Direct X9 compatible is required for 3-D views. Also requires at least one TOPO! State Series

With TOPO! Streets & 3-D Views you can:

Draw your own trails and fly along the trail as it winds and climbs to your destination.

Stop anywhere along the trail to zoom and pan to see the view.

Use resizable split screens to expand any screen for better viewing.

Lay an updated road network on your map on either the 1:24,000 or 1:100,000 scale USGS topo maps

Click on any street to see its name and to make it easy to find your destination.

Get the latest USGS quad maps and updated roads for any of the TOPO! State products. Live Map Update automatically searches your defined areas to see if something new is available and gives you the tools to quickly download new information to replace older quads and roads.

Get GPS USB support with the latest connectivity built in to enable you to use your TOPO! software with the newest GPS receivers.

Field Conditions

Since beginning this test, I have hiked from 400’ to over 14000’ elevations, in temps ranging from over 100F (38C) by the Kern River, to 13F (-10C) on Shasta. I have encountered extreme desert conditions, snowy alpine accents, and river crossings. I have been from as far south as Palm Springs, to as far north as Mt Shasta, in California. As I do a lot of elevation gain/loss in my hiking the 3-D feature has been useful during pre-trip planning.

Second phase

For some in depth use of the program I used it to map out a May hike of the Skyline Trail from downtown Palm Springs California, to the top of Mount San Jacinto. It runs from 450 (135m) feet above sea level, to 10820’ (3246m). It was written up in the May 2005 issue of Backpacker magazine, “The 10 toughest trails in America” And a June trip to Mount Shasta to climb the Avalanche Gulch route to the summit. It starts at 6950’ (2085m), and tops out at 14161’ (4248m).

As neither of these trails are marked on the USGS topo’s, I used the Forest Service map of Shasta, and an online map showing the approximate trail of the Skyline to hand draw the routes into TOPO! with the Route tool. Then I ran the 3-D Fly-over tool, by right clicking the route and picking the appropriate button. The computer then splits the screen, loads the necessary data to memory, and starts at the beginning of the trail at a default setting of Tilt and Elevation, and runs along it. My brother-in-law Dave was amazed by it. The program does not do a very good job of following switchback, or hard change of direction, though. It tends to cut corners. And if I drew the route backwards from my destination, I am stuck with viewing it backwards.

A better way for me to use the 3-D feature is to click the 3-D button on the toolbar. The screen will split again, and the program will accumulate the data needed. But from there I can choose to click on the right screen (which is the conventional topo look) and using the mouse to click on the map to progress the red arrow that was inserted when the 3-D function started. This will result in the 3-D view in the left screen moving my point-of-view along the route. A more natural way to me, (and to anyone that plays many computer games) is to click the cursor on the left screen. This will default the movement control to the arrow keys on the keyboard. I can then go forwards, backwards, right and left at will,. This allows me to follow the route much tighter. This is the way I use it. I adjust the Tilt and elevation a little bit from the default settings. (This is done at the bottom of the 3-D window)

The 3-D feature is quite worthwhile to me. I have been using topo maps for 28 years, but it is neat to see the rise and fall in front of me, instead of in my head. And for a beginner to topographic reading, it would be an excellent tool to help understand what they are looking at on the map. I even think it could be marketed in that way.

Unfortunately, I can not write as highly about the Streets portion of the program. The nice thing about it is that it will highlight the sometimes hard to find Forest Service and back roads that many of my trail-heads are on. But in many instances they are off course. Or in the case of the Shasta trip, it showed the road to Bunny Flats trail-head actually running a mile (1.6k) up the trail itself. If I had not caught that I would have figured my approach hike to be a mile shorter than it was, and would have expected less elevation gain for the day. By turning the Streets button off, I could see that there was a dotted line signifying a trail, where a moment ago it was a road.

The Streets do not do anything as far as mileage or route planning. I can draw a route, the same as I would for a hike, along the road, and get the distance that way. But you can do that in the regular TOPO! also. A program like “Streets and Trips” would be better for this use.

In conclusion at this point of the test I think that the 3-D portion of the program is a winner. It is not necessary though in my opinion, it just makes the main program more fun. I feel it is worth the extra expense and additional learning curve.

The Streets portion does not do anything for me other than highlight some hard to see minor roads.

I will continue to use the program during many more backpacking trips to come this summer.

The initial Review of this test may be found at,

http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/Software/Topographic%20Mapping/TOPO%20Streets%20and%203-D%20Views/Raymond%20Estrella/Initial%20Report/