With topics ranging from Custom Maps to custom icons, and hints for features such as track navigation and track archiving, my engineering friends in outdoor recreation have been updating the Trail Tech blog to help you get the most out of your Garmin outdoor handheld. Easily accessible through the On The Trail section of Garmin.com, Trail Tech is a hands-on guide to specific features and updates, written by the same brilliant minds who design our innovative handhelds. To give you an idea of the helpful insight you can gain from Trail Tech, here are excerpts from recent posts, with direct links to each. 

Understanding Track Archiving Improvements: In the latest beta firmware, Oregon 450 and 550
devices add more utility to track archiving. They now support adjusting
the automatic archiving to occur daily or weekly. For
many, adjusting this setting will reduce tracklog clutter on the map
display. (Click here for more on track archiving)

Personalize Your Map with Custom Symbols: With the latest beta firmware
for Oregon 450 and 550, users can create entirely new or replacement
symbols for waypoints and geocaches New symbols are
grouped together in the waypoint symbol list under the “Custom” heading. (Click here for step-by-step instructions)

Getting More Out of Track Navigation: We’ve added automatic detection of high- and low-points using elevation
stored in the saved track. These points are added
to the map and listed on the active route page. If
you have significant landmarks, campsites, trailheads, restrooms, or
other points saved as waypoints, our new track navigation includes all
waypoints located along the track and lists them on the active route
page. (Click here for more on track archiving)

Creating Garmin Custom Maps in Five Easy Steps: This unique feature allows users to combine Garmin map drawing technology with georeferenced map images, effectively putting a paper map inside your Garmin GPS. (Click here for step-by-step instructions)

Stay tuned to Trail Tech for more GPS tips and tricks, and get even more enjoyment out of your adventures this spring and summer!

Garmin bloggers Peg and Jake team up on more tales from the trails:

PEG: After two months of snow, ice and otherwise unfriendly running conditions, who wouldn’t be game for more of the same at a trail race promising “rocky, rooty, hilly bridle trails and single-track trails”? It had been two years since Jake and I did Psycho Wyco, put on by the KC Trail Nerds, and it was high time for a second run at it.

JAKE: Technically, it was our third run at it, because we did sneak out there in December for a practice session. I’d like to think that we were following in the footsteps of elite distance runners like Ryan Hall and Deena Kastor, who recon a course before they race it, but it’s hard to do thorough research when you’re laughing and talking the whole time – while trying not to slip and fall. Yet it must have done some good, because our December loop seemed shorter and easier than it did two years ago, so logic would suggest that race day would be a breeze. A very stiff, cold breeze. 

PEG: Too bad that cold breeze wasn’t enough to turn the sloshy trail into something more of a solid state. When we hit the bridle trail early in the race, it was already a thick, oatmealy texture due to the 100+ runners who started a little earlier for their 20- or 30-mile jaunt. Since we’d started near the back of the pack, Jake and I did our best to weave through runners and hounds early on. After about 20 minutes of dodging bodies, branches and boulders, I was breathless and my Forerunner 405 reminded me that my heart rate was already averaging 155. Looking back to our race in Garmin Connect, it was no wonder that second mile felt worse than mile 20 in a marathon — we’d climbed more than 350 feet.

JAKE: It’s not the 350-foot climb in brownie batter that jarred me – until later – it’s looking at my tracklog on Garmin Connect and seeing how, from the 2.75-mark to the 3.5-mile mark, we actually only progressed 10 feet. That’s why people love (and loathe) trail running – you can run around in circles, tackling ankle-breaking switchbacks, only to come back to the opposite side of the aid station you saw long before. And all of it can get pretty disorienting, which is why it’s nice to know that our Forerunners could lead us back to start – or a warm vehicle – if necessary. But because the KC Trail Nerds marked the path so nicely, I only relied on the GPS in my Forerunner 310XT to track distance, pace, elevation and auto-lapped splits (I guess that’s still asking it to do a lot).

PEG: Lest you label Jake and me members of the Techno Trail Nerd subgroup, let me just say we weren’t alone with our data-logging devices. Check out this photo of the start. It’s as if the race director yelled “ready, set, start your Forerunners …”  Love seeing that many of our fitness devices at races and I’m sure the 30 other Garmin folks racing that day took note as well. We had runners representing many faces of Garmin — from the lone 50kers in our group, engineers Kurt and Jon, to a few from industrial design who perfect the look and feel of our devices to Tom, hardware engineer who makes sure our fitness devices are as rugged as any mud-loving trail nerd would desire. Top participation honors go to Garmin’s product support folks for having several runners there … and a camera to document our clean start.

JAKE: Too bad they weren’t there to catch my dirty finish. While heading out on my own for a precarious finishing kick – speed isn’t smart without traction – I deftly descended a slippery hill and hopped the trickling water at the bottom. I just kept assuming there would be some firm ground for a landing. Instead, a hungry patch of mud swallowed my leg, choked on my shoe and only spit out my socked foot. So there I was, stopped in midstride on one leg, trying to unearth my stuck shoe. When those efforts proved futile, I buried my socked foot in the sludge, freed the shoe (now filled to the brim with mud) and returned it to its proper place on my foot. A quarter-mile of squishy strides later, I crossed the finish line, but not before catching one of the passersby who had wished me well in the quicksand by saying, “At least you have a good story to tell.” As if I’ve ever had a shortage of those.

PEG: Jake promised we’d keep it clean, but blogging integrity must prevail. We finished this race stinky, sloppy and starving. And that was after just one loop. Hats and mud-caked shoes off to the folks who stuck it out for a second or third loop. Read about the first-place finisher in the 50k, who posted a time of 4 hours, 15 minutes. And stay tuned for Jake and Peg’s next excellent adventure. We’re planning to Rock the Parkway right here in KC on March 27. Join us!

Good morning from sunny Orlando, where we’re showing off the just-released Approach G3 and the newly announced stat-tracking software for Approach G5. The show has only been open for a couple hours, and already my Garmin colleagues and I have been able to save people money. Golfers and industry folks who are accustomed to hidden fees and add-on charges have asked us about annual fees, paying more for more courses or how much our stat-tracking software costs. None, nope and nothing. With 12,000 preloaded golf course maps in the U.S. and Canada – and more on the way – there’s no need to pick and choose courses on a pay-to-play basis. You get them all. The courses are already on your Approach, and updating the expansive database is free and easy. Speaking of free and easy, it doesn’t get much simpler than our new stat-tracking software for Approach G5. This free software update helps golfers easily keep track of fairways hit, greens hit in regulation, putts per round and how far they hit each club. As one pair of seasoned veterans just told me moments ago about the G5, “That’s the best one we’ve ever seen.”

For those golfers looking for a little smaller device to fit in their pocket or bag, I’ve had fun showing off the new Approach G3. It packs the same number of courses and a 2.6” touchscreen into a streamlined design, featuring the easy-to-use interface familiar to anyone who has ever used any Garmin device. And that crossover appeal is always fun to see. People stopping by the booth today have told us how they love their nüvi. Or their Forerunner. Or their outdoor handheld. And now they’re ready to tee it up and take the guesswork out of their golf game.

Good morning from sunny Orlando, where we’re showing off the just-released Approach G3 and the newly announced stat-tracking software for Approach G5. The show has only been open for a couple hours, and already my Garmin colleagues and I have been able to save people money. Golfers and industry folks who are accustomed to hidden fees and add-on charges have asked us about annual fees, paying more for more courses or how much our stat-tracking software costs. None, nope and nothing. With 12,000 preloaded golf course maps in the U.S. and Canada – and more on the way – there’s no need to pick and choose courses on a pay-to-play basis. You get them all. The courses are already on your Approach, and updating the expansive database is free and easy. Speaking of free and easy, it doesn’t get much simpler than our new stat-tracking software for Approach G5. This free software update helps golfers easily keep track of fairways hit, greens hit in regulation, putts per round and how far they hit each club. As one pair of seasoned veterans just told me moments ago about the G5, “That’s the best one we’ve ever seen.”

For those golfers looking for a little smaller device to fit in their pocket or bag, I’ve had fun showing off the new Approach G3. It packs the same number of courses and a 2.6” touchscreen into a streamlined design, featuring the easy-to-use interface familiar to anyone who has ever used any Garmin device. And that crossover appeal is always fun to see. People stopping by the booth today have told us how they love their nüvi. Or their Forerunner. Or their outdoor handheld. And now they’re ready to tee it up and take the guesswork out of their golf game.

The good news: Peg and I went for a lunch run yesterday, and it felt better than I could have hoped. Slightly warmer weather – we just topped freezing for the first time in 2010 – and great conversation made our eight miles seem effortless. No knee problems (knock on wood) and no lingering effects of Vegas and CES. The bad news: It was one of only a handful of runs I’ve done since running Chicago. I blame the holidays, my wife’s irresistible cookies, a flaky furnace and a travel schedule that has me in four time zones in five weeks. But with the spring racing season on the horizon, I need fewer excuses and more exercise. And I have just the tools to keep me honest.

Forerunner 310XT has been my trusty training partner since last spring, pacing me in the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon and personal bests at the Lehigh Valley half and Chicago Marathon. But to overcome my more-than-occasional lack of discipline, 310XT needed help. And that help comes in the form of a supersmart body composition monitor that communicates wirelessly through ANT+ with my 310XT and Peg’s FR60. With Tanita’s BC-1000 knowing what my watch is thinking and monitoring vital stats such as weight, body fat and hydration percentage – among other metrics displayed at Garmin Connect – my bad habits have nowhere to hide. We’ve even put together a tutorial video to show just how easy it is to pair 310XT and BC-1000. And if you’re an FR60 user like Peg, check out our online learning center for these steps and other helpful tips. Because we can all use a helping hand, even if it’s just to move those cookies farther from my reach.