Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I bought this software for my Garmin Etrex Vista HCx GPS mainly for use while kayaking in Minnesota and Wisconsin. After checking the maps of lakes that are among the more fully detailed, however, I find them not up to par for my mapping needs, and I don't have the option of using another company's map program with my Garmin GPS since the format is proprietary.
I knew ahead of time that only about 8% of Minnesota's 15,000 lakes were represented, and not all 1200 lakes included in the software were shown in great detail. I wasn't happy about that, but at least I knew about it up front.
The most glaring omissions in Inland Lakes is where the map fails to show connections between some lakes in a chain, such as where Lake Calhoun connects with Lake of the Isles via canal in Minneapolis, rivers that connect to lakes but not on the map, such as where the Sauk River connects to Kraus Lake near Cold Spring MN, and rivers that are missing sections on the map where in reality they are contiguous, like the Sauk River again, between Cold Spring and the Mississippi River. If you are exploring inland lakes and rivers with these maps in your GPS, you would likely also need other maps that fill in the gaps in the electronic map. To me, if Garmin is going to charge as much as they do for a map, the lakes and rivers they include should at least be accurate. If I get in trouble in the wilderness while kayaking, an accurate map is a must. At the very least it is expected. Paper maps have less errors.
Because of these issues I am thinking of buying a Delorme PN-40 GPS which comes STANDARD with Topo USA including topographic, lake and street maps, and comes with a $100 credit toward their USGS Quad maps, aerial and satellite maps for about the same cost as my Garmin Vista HCx and one set of flawed optional maps. That way if one map isn't 100% accurate, I can check another one to fill in the blanks, and I'm quite sure that between Delorme's standard topographic and lake maps, I'll be able to find more than 1200 lakes in Minnesota. I'll have an even better chance of finding those hidden lakes with USGS Quad, aerial and satellite maps at my fingertips.
So in summation, I've found Garmin's Inland Lakes maps to be useful, but it's not as precise as I need it to be. That's too bad, because I like my Garmin Vista HCx GPS. Yet if I'd known about the flaws I found ahead of time, I never would have bought the maps or the GPS from Garmin. I'm still using the two for now, but I'll be checking Google Maps or Google Earth first, before I leave on a trip.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Garmin MapSource Inland Lakes Continental United States Freshwater Map DVD (Windows)
Spend the day fishing, boating or just enjoying the water on thousands of lakes and waterways. U.S. Inland Lakes contains comprehensive coverage of freshwater lakes throughout the region. Most maps include contour lines, high-definition shoreline and bathymetric detail. They also contain navigation aids, wrecks and obstructions, river and creek channels, boat ramps, rivers and streams, and major roads and highways.
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