GPSrChive Discussion Forum

I am very familiar with turn-by-turn instructions when following a route - but can you get turn-by-turn instructions when following a track? The garmin web page "Differences between routes and tracks" says:

"Tracks are best suited when it's necessary to travel on a very specific path to reach the desired destination. When navigating a track it's possible to recreate an exact hike or ride that you or someone else has completed previously. If you go off course on a track, the GPS unit will redirect you back to the original path rather than recalculating a new one."

My question is - how does it redirect you back to the original path?

I experimented today, and there were no turn-by-turn instructions, and I have no idea what the Distance to Next was telling me (about halfway along the route, "Distance to Next" became the same as Distance to Dest" - with lots of turns still to come).

They are not turn by turn direction per se.. but some Garmin units have a feature called TrackBack, or BackTrack, which provide compass bearing to points along the route in the reverse order they were created.

Yes, I investigated "TracBack" on my unit, but is is only for the Current Activity - so probably unlikely to ever be used (and certainly not useful for navigating some pre-planned track).

If you have a saved track, which is a favourite, meaning being on the first page if you press MENU - MENU - Saved tracks;
then you can use FIND - Tracks and select that track.
I have not tried how it actually works, but functionality seems to be there.

yes, the Find allows me to pick the track and select "Go". The resulting guidance is just a bit lack-lustre.