Trailpeak provides a free GPS data sharing service! Any trail you see on trailpeak allows you either to upload GPS data (as a text file) or, download it into your GPS. We also plot all GPX, KML, & G7TOWIN text file (google maps) submissions so users can preview the data. Just upload 1 to get 3 credits.

In this tutorial, you'll find plenty of good reasons to learn how to upload and download GPS data from your GPS, and, in fact, being able to download trail waypoints into your GPS allows you to find a trail using your GPS, and, stay on it. If you are already a GPS pro then you probably already know how to save GPX files from your GPS software. If you simply need instructions for G7TOWIN, a free program, go to the very bottom of this tutorial. GPX is now a very common format, and most programs support it. We also support KML (an output of Google Earth). You can google GPX to find considerable information on this format.

Trailpeak is a trail sharing service, which supports GPS exchange. Which means, someone (hopefully you) will use your GPS to record a trailhead or all of a trail and submit it. There are plenty of trails on trailpeak that need someone to followup and GPS, afterwhich you simply have to click on the "Upload GPS" icon in any trail that does not yet have GPS data available. On we go.

Once finished with this tutorial, you can use our GPS Forum to ask questions from experts and other users, or, read the following articles that have been written by trailpeak members and volunteers:

• GPS Data on Traillpeak, use it!
• All about maps, which ones, where to buy?
• Solve the pain, don't give me no techno!
• Added safety while skiing
• Small Boat (Kayak) GPS manual

Now, let's get going, and get into the some basics, print this off, or get comfortable and read on ...

Learning GPS

We've got some great tutorials and articles and links to point out here, along with the main trailpeak tutorial on this page itself. We'll guide you through it all. You can also take our one-day introductory course to GPS, topo-maps, and compass. You'll see notices on trailpeak home page for our next course. Or just keep reading here, and then follow up directly with other GPS users by using our GPS Forum.

We'll help you get started with GPS, and, before long, you'll be able to upload and download GPS track files and waypoints with ease.

GPS overview

First off, consider the following brief facts:

1. GPS units operate best with a clear view of the sky
2. GPS units need batteries to operate, but, most (and all GARMINs) retain their data while you switch batteries.
3. GPS is easy to learn.
4. As a backup, ensure you have and know how to use a map and compass.
5. GPS coverage is global and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- nice.
6. Simply put, GPS can display your lat/long position, or, UTM Easting and Northing (metric)
7. Every GARMIN GPS can be used like a "tape-recorder" to map your trail!
8. Using a compass and GPS together is the safest combination, learn both!
9. GPS is accurate to within meters now, since the U.S. removed selective availability

GPS Tutorials

Here are a few tutorials on GPS itself, a few links that we like:

1. Garmin's GPS Info page
2. Trimble GPS Tutorial
3. How to use GPS, an excellent manual! (almost free)
4. Joe Mehaffey, Jack Yeazel, and Dale's GPS information pages!

This might be a good time to get familiar with co-ordinate systems, so that you can take a GPS reading of your position and simply cross-reference it on a topo map. You can choose to use (by configuring your GPS) either latitude and longitude (North-South lines) or the UTM system, which gives you your position as an Easting (in meters) and a Northing (in meters). The UTM grid system is easy to use, but, you must ensure you configure your GPS unit to the same DATUM as on your topographical map you'll use in the field. Otherwise you could be a couple of hundred meters off and wondering why your GPS is crap. It isn't. So, you'll want to understand topographical maps, and this has little to do with GPS itself, it's all about co-ordinate systems. The same ones on any topographical map.

UTM Grid System

But how simple is meters North and meters East, on your topo map along each axis, and read from your GPS? Yes, it is pretty simple. So, do yourself a favour and pull out a topo map, any topo map. Can you find the DATUM, look for something like NAD27, and, NAD83. Can you find in the corners, a reference Northing for the corner of the map. Northing is the number of meters you are North of the Equator, five million + meters North of the equator. Simple, try that as a campfire game and win loot! Eastings are simply the number of meters you are inside the zone - and we won't go into detail here on Zones - cause your topo map simply gives you an Easting number on each corner (x axis), and every kilometer along the x axis, and you simply have to plot the Easting off your GPS display onto the x axis of your topo map to see how far East or West you are on the map. Still there? remember, GPS Forum, ask away, anything. And definately read the GPS tutorials above.

And a good, sweet, and short UTM tutorial exists at: USGS UTM Tutorial

Use trailpeak - share GPS data, click on "Upload GPS" in a trail!

Once you are familiar with the basic GPS concepts, UTM co-ordinates (Eastings and Northings - very simple), and the basic operation of your unit, you can practice on simple hikes or walks. Once you've done that, you'll want to get the full value from your unit by uploading and downloading trails from www.trailpeak.com and heading out to the trails.

The basic operations that most manufacturers support include setting and clearing waypoints, saving groups of waypoints as routes, and recording a tracklog. A waypoint is a single UTM point (an Easting and a Northing) that you can store in your GPS unit memory. Most units allow you to store several hundred. A tracklog is a continuous 'trail' of points, usually recorded automatically by your unit every 30 seconds or so - hands free recording of your trip! GPS units have a display and show your 'tracklog' as you walk. GPS units allow you to read out your current position in UTM or d/m/s. Most also calculate trip distance, give you a compass feature (while moving), and, come with a few other bells and whistles, but, you can get started with the basics right away.

Cable Connector GPS to Computer - a la Lo Cost!

Next you'll want to buy or make a cable so that you can upload your tracklog and waypoints to your computer. Then you can upload data and download data from your GPS to computer. Build a cable using PFRANC.COM and save $50 bucks, then, use that to take our GPS course, start sharing data, and, in the process improve your safety on the trail. Search and Rescue uses GPS, airline pilots, sailors, why not you? Just be equally prepared with compass, and, topo map. Knowing how to use a topo map with grid system to correspond to your GPS readings is the key. It's all quite simple really, but we want to help you do more, we want you to share GPS data and allow others to benefit from the data you collect. That could be as simple as a trailhead waypoint, or, an entire trail, or, the middle of a lake (a good way to find a lake), or, a cabin.

GPS Software

You'll want to look at a plot of your trip waypoints and tracklog and save the waypoints in a file to share with others. That's the fun part. There are a number of software packages from free to full-featured, including:

1. G7toWin - basic upload/download, and we plot G7TOWIN into a preview map when you submit! Although we accept any text file GPS upload, it's our default
2. Memory Map supporting scanned federal topo maps (not downloadable to GPS)
3. GARMIN mapsource - really the best value out there and supports (vector) topo maps which will even download to your GPS, outputs GPX format!

GPS Software - GARMIN Mapsource really has become standard, but you can also grab the free stuff like G7TOWIN - and we support that format directly here on trailpeak as well.

You'll need two things to share GPS data (apart from a GPS). One, a data cable, that is covered above, again we recommend visiting pfranc.com to learn how to build one for pennies instead of paying $50. Second, you'll need some GPS software, and there is plenty of freeware out there (for a small donation) that does the job just fine for uploading and downloading GPS data from your GPS to your computer. We'll give you some recommendations.

Many people use GARMIN Mapsource since these vector maps can be downloaded into a GPS, but there are pros and cons. Purists will prefer using real topo maps to look at on the PC, but the low cost of TopoCanada and TopoUSA to get all topo maps for an entire country for $150 is hard to beat, and they download to your GPS. For raster maps (scanned versions of the actual paper 1:50,000 NTS mapsheets) which you can use with GPS software on your PC, check out e-topo, which you can find from www.maptown.com. Regardless, you might want to get G7TOWIN since it costs nothing (which will import other formats, waypoint+, etc.), and then configure it for your own GPS, whether Magellan, GARMIN, or other. There are two classes of GPS software, the freeware (G7TOWIN) that does basic upload and download to your GPS, and that's what G7TOWIN is, and, if you are short cash, heh at least this freeware then opens up trailpeak to you and is quite sufficient (although you can upload any .txt file to trailpeak, we recommend G7TOWIN .txt or .g7t files).

There's plenty of GPX / Mapsource info on the net, and at the bottom of this tutorial there's more on G7TOWIN the way we like it set up if you submit that format to us.

The Karma (work) - uploading GPS data for others

Please only submit text files (output from your GPS software) when you click on "upload GPS" in one of our trails, and please indicate the format in the trail description, or, in your comments in the review. If the data has been submitted in G7TOWIN .txt (freeware) format, we'll plot it, and show you a preview, a very cool mini-map of the trail. Many Trailpeak trails are in G7TOWIN format (we had to pick one). You can use G7TOWIN to upload and download GPS data from your computer. The real benefit of course, is once downloaded, you can use the data to "hone" in on a trail-head, or, waypoiont, say maybe a cabin, or, a fork in the trail. If you don't use G7TOWIN, you can still upload any GPS file format, but it has to be a text file.

The Karma returned, downloading GPS data - save hours finding a trail!

When it comes to downloading, if you've added a GPS trail, you've got credits (1 up for 3 from us) you can use to download others. Simple. It's all free, but we've gone with a credit system to encourage more submissions from members. If you don't have any GPS software, such as G7TOWIN, and you are patient, you can always print the text file out and pick out the waypoints to enter manually on your GPS. But surely you don't want to do this, some trails have dozens of waypoints, and thousands of trackpoints. And trackpoints serve as a very useful "map" of your trail, so you can visually compare your position to the trail!

Waypoints are labelled. Having GPS data (waypoints) for a trail can save you hours finding a trail, so we hope you take advantage of this service.

The bottom of this tutorial has step by step with G7TOWIN (or any text file) and our upload / download controls. If all of this sounds like Greek, but you are keen to learn how to use GPS, read on. The simplest way to contribute is to type just the trailhead co-ordinates into your trail description that you provide on trailpeak (when you click on "add trail"), in UTM or d/m/s. Just read it off your GPS. Just type it all in if you don't have GPS software or the time to upload text files. For a few waypoints, this is fine, but we've built support to handle hundreds of waypoints per trail, and thousands of trackpoints, for those that do upload GPS data to their computer. In the long run, this will save you time. You'll find specific details further below on how to upload and download.

Putting it all Together

At this point you'll want to practice the whole process, end-to-end. Here's what it looks like to record a trail:

1. Turn your GPS unit on and let it orient itself (while lacing up the boots)
2. An option: Clear all existing waypoints and tracklog from your GPS (unless saving particular waypoints for use)
3. Keep your unit clear to the sky, your GPS looks for satellite signals
4. Begin walking/biking/skiing/kayaking
5. "Mark" waypoints of interest as you go
6. When finished, turn the unit off, that's about it, simple!
7. Bring it home, plug your cable into the back of it, turn the unit on, and get ready to upload
8. Click on your GPS software to launch it
9. Configure the GPS software to work with your type of GPS (e.g. GARMIN etrex). For G7TOWIN, set it to V2 (version 2), UTM co-ordinates, metric.
10. Select "Upload" to get your tracklog and waypoints - usually a pull-down menu option
11. View your route or trail using your software.
12. Save your data as a text file from your GPS software, for upload to trailpeak.com. Our preferred format is G7TOWIN (which will import OZI format), MAKE SURE you savve it as .txt format, Meters, UTM, V2 (Version 2). If you do, our software will recognize it and plot it
13. Log on to trailpeak.com
14. Click on the "add trail" button at the top right of our site, or select the "upload GPS" option when viewing an existing trail
15. Upload by clicking on the GPS text file of your choice - you'll be prompted for that
16. Similarly; download a GPS text file from a trail -- once our editors approve your GPS submission, your credits will be available to use. To make that go quicker, you can e-mail us (info@trailpeak.com) when you have submitted GPS data.
17. Ideally, you can open up the downloaded text file format in your GPS software (say if you have G7TOWIN), but worst case, simply display the text file and load them into your unit manually. In time, we'll support other formats.

It's really not that hard, the above sequence is fairly generic, so, just get a unit and start practicing. Let us know if you have any questions, and, ask other members for help using our GPS forum. For the above sequence written specifically to G7TOWIN, see below.

If you use GPS data from us be aware that this data is used at your own risk, as we are providing a shared forum for users to exchange trail information. We do not warrant that ANY co-ordinates or any other information provided on this site are accurate.

Upload / Download Specific Instructions with G7TOWIN

First off get a copy of G7toWin, we assume you've got it. Second, you'll need a PC cable. We assume you've got that too.

Next, you'll want to configure G7TOWIN, for Version 2, metric, comma separated delimeter, UTM. UTM co-ordinates are key if you want us to plot your submission. A plot is very helpful as it allows others to see a mini-map of your trail. Having said that, we accept all text file input, we just won't plot anything else but G7TOWIN for now. For a screen shot of the G7TOWIN configuration screen, see the very bottom of this page.

Here's how the GPS exchange works on trailpeak:

1. Click on "upload GPS" in any trail that does not have GPS data
2. In the top left popup, use "browse" to click on your G7TOWIN .g7t or .txt file (or any text file)
3. If it is G7TOWIN, V2, metric, UTM, comma separated, and saved as a text file (.g7t), we'll plot it, you'll see a preview
4. If you like it, click approve. If not, delete, make changes, and submit again (e.g. if does not plot)
5. The rest is up to us. Once we see the new GPS data, we'll either approve :) or delete it :(
6. If we approve it, you'll automatically be given 3 credits for you hard work!
7. The next time you login, you click on "download GPS" in any trail, you should see your credit balance
8. If we've been a bit tardy approving your data, e-mail us. For priority approval, e-mail us right away
9. We're actually working on having an e-mail sent to us as soon as you submit data so we can approve. As our service gets busier though, expect a day for us to review and approve your data. Again, e-mailing us for priority approval will help if you need to use your credits right away for a trail you need to go do! We're here for you!

That's it, below is a screen shot of the G7TOWIN config page. It is noted that G7TOWIN supports .g7t file extensions now, so, if you get a .txt file from us, relabel it to .g7t to be safe.