Navigating "direct" to intermediate waypoints in a route (Oregon 750)

Discussion related to the Garmin Oregon 7x0 series GPSr
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HCMP
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Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2020 5:12 pm

Navigating "direct" to intermediate waypoints in a route (Oregon 750)

Unread post by HCMP »

I've put up with this annoyance for some time but now have the time to see if its fixable (or if I'm missing something obvious)...

I mainly use my Oregon 750 for multi-day backcountry hikes. I have a route, usually created by studying the relevant maps or converting the track of someone I trust (basecamp and/or mapsource). I navigate this route using "direct" routing as there are generally no trails recognized by any maps I have (true in many parts of Canada). My route then consists of a number of viapoints simply telling me when I change direction and waypoints which I use to mark possible camping spots, river crossings etc. If I make a single route of the whole trip, I am able to tell the distance to destination (which is the end of the trip and could be several days in the future) and the distance to the next via-/way-point (which seem to be treated in exactly the same way) which could be in only 20 metres. Interesting to know but often I really want to be able to choose to know the distance/eta etc. to the planned camping spot for tonight or the river crossing and hence show progress towards that waypoint.

If I go into "current route" and navigate to an intermediate waypoint, instead of navigating via the current route, the device simply gives me a direct bearing to the wapoint which could be directly across an impassable obstacle and certainly not along the trail/route I will be following.

The way that I have got around this up to now is to split the route into what I think will be daily segments so that I can navigate towards the destination for the day but if there are actually multiple points of interest along the way or we have a great day and want to go further this is quite cumbersome.

The easiest solution would be to be able to simply set a particular intermediate waypoint as the temporary "destination" and navigate along the route to that point. Is this possible when using "direct" routing with a lot of viapoints?

A related nice feature to have would be to be able to set data fields in the trip computer (map, compass) to distance to a chosen waypoint. Is this possible (perhaps someone has written an app to do this?)?

If it's relevant I use classic mode.

Any ideas/help much appreciated. Apologies for the long post.
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GPSrChive
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Re: Navigating "direct" to intermediate waypoints in a route (Oregon 750)

Unread post by GPSrChive »

So, as you have already determined, if the maps on the GPSr are not routable, or do not include the trails you are navigating, then the best you can do is create a route with multiple points along the desired path, and navigate 'Direct' from one to the next. Not as accurate or detailed as with a map that has the routable trail you are following, but much better than a single start and finish point 'direct' route.

If I understand what you are asking for, I think you will be able to achieve something very similar by using the 'Active Route' page (see: GPSrChive > Oregon 7x0 > Applications > Active Route).

This page updates dynamically as you travel the route, always showing the remaining distance/time to the next routing point. If you want to look a few route points ahead, you can page forward one route point at a time, in sequence, to view the estimated distance/time for each.

The 'List View' always displays the time/distance from the previous point, while the 'Map View' will provide the total time/distance from your current location.

Please give this a try and let us know if that helps with your request!
HCMP
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Dec 09, 2020 5:12 pm

Re: Navigating "direct" to intermediate waypoints in a route (Oregon 750)

Unread post by HCMP »

I noticed in my original post that I had mentioned a "current route" page; I meant, of course, the "Active Route" page. In any case, the information that page gives seems to depend on the kind of routing that is in force: with direct routing one gets merely a list of waypoints/viapoints a red pennant against the next waypoint/viapoint and that is it.

In any case, one would have to scroll through a large number of viapoints before one got to the waypoint of interest. If one could get the info that one does for other types of routing and be able to filter out the viapoints/shaping points (or whatever Garmin calls them) then that, indeed, would be close to what I need.

I wonder if any of this is configurable in Settings or is there magic that one can put in the xml file for the route that is loaded into the GPS that would affect its behaviour?
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