I had a competition in Phoenix, AZ this weekend, and took my GPS (Garmin 64st) with me to fool around with it a bit. I really hadn't used it much, so I wanted to see how easy it was to operate. I was able to use it on a hike, (Camelback Mountain, Echo Canyon Trail) and while on approach into Phoenix, and driving to Sedona and back.

This fooling around has taught me a little, and has raised some questions. I think I will only ask one question at a time, and keep my multiple questions in this one thread.

First question is:
What type of daily routine do you guys use? I want to get home from a trip and be able to see how many miles I paddled and portaged, trip total and daily totals. I want to be able to mark both sides of portages, and campsites. When I returned from this trip, I had a jumble of lines all over AZ, with straight lines connecting when I turned the GPS off to when I turned it on again. I think my process should be the following:
Turn on GPS
Save current track then clear
mark waypoint
mark beginning and end of portages
mark any point of interest
mark campsite for the night
save current track then clear
power off

If I do that, each day will be separated into different tracks.
Is that how you guys do it? Am I missing something, or over complicating?
I will get into the editing on basecamp in a later question. I am just curious if I have a grasp on how I should be using the GPS.

"jumble of lines all over AZ, with straight lines connecting" part of the learning curve, it's either tracking on or tracking off.

Go into MAIN MENU choose SETUP choose TRACKS. TRACK LOG choices on off and how to display. RECORD METHOD distance time or auto, for canoe and foot travel I like distance. RECORDING INTERVAL chose an apropriate distance or time between waypoints, for me it's about 50 feet, or 0.01 miles. AUTO ARCHIVE select when to archive. COLOR take yer pick.

Turn on GPS
Save current track then clear
mark waypoint?
--tracks are sets of waypoints and can be picked labled and specialized any time--
mark beginning and end of portages?
--same thoughts--
mark any point of interest
--before ya forget what where they were--
mark campsite for the night
--established campsites I do not as they are part of the maps on and off my GPS--
save current track then clear
--name it so it is easily distinguished, I like to archive soon as possible--
power off

As with so many tech items how you do it is determined by what works for you. Mine was a regular companion when new just so I could learn and discover what worked for me. I worked in an international commodities warehouse and tracked whole days at work then unraveled the info latter.
Geocaching is another way to discover GPS functions and methods.

Far as sharing data, a few tips. Know what position format is used, personal preference is hddd in degrees, mm.mmm'. Finaly several MapDatum are listed most common is WGS 84.

butthead

I guess the answer depends on what you want from your gps. Personally I couldn't care less about my saved tracks or where I've been. Unless I do a track back to find my way back to my camp or car I never use that function. Some think this is very important information. My nephew likes to track his bike ride for training.
I use my gps to mark waypoints, see where I'm at on the map. It sounds like you want to save your routes for future use. You said that you have your route lines then straight lines. If you don't want the straight lines then just start your gps anytime you are moving. Then you will have one solid line of your tracks to save later as a route. Others here should be a good help on this.

I have a 62st. Perhaps some of my suggestions for option settings will have identical counterparts on your 64st, or at least similar.

It seems that you are doing it approximately how I would suggest. Here is my outline, for comparison...

At the beginning of any travel, I try to remember to power up early enough to give the unit time to figure out my location, especially if I have travelled any long distance since last powering down.

If I know that all previous data has already been saved, I'll go to Main Menu>Track Manager>Current Track>Clear Current Track>Yes. It's pretty obvious what this does, but I like that it also automatically zeroes out the trip odometer, saving a step.

If I am in a hurry, and I'm not sure if the previous track data has been saved yet, and there's no time to do it now, I'll at least try to remember to go to the Trip Computer>Menu>Reset>Reset Trip Data Timers, etc.>Yes. This zeroes out the trip odometer, ready to measure your day's travel, but will continue add your upcoming track to the end of the existing Current Track, including that (possibly quite long) straight line connecting the two tracks connecting the end point of the Current Track making up your most recent previous adventure and where the Current Track takes up to plot the beginning point of your next one. (Of course, this can be edited in BaseCamp after getting home.)

Along the way, mark whatever positions you want with Mark>Enter. I wish that renaming the resulting waypoint and changing its icon on the spot were a bit easier, but I still try to take the time to do it. "Was that a good fishing spot? or was that where we saw that moose?..." Fishing hotspot or not, it seems like I come home with most of my waypoints bearing a fish icon...

At the end of that day's travel (or upon returning from that morning fishing outing or hike in the woods), I'll try to remember to save the track and give it a name, sometimes allowing the default date and time to be its temporary name. Once I am confident that it saved correctly (checking that shows up in the track list), I'll delete the Current Track and turn off the unit... Ready to start over. Don't panic if you don't see your track name right off... scroll down (my 62st displays only 7 at a time in the list): they are listed by your distance away from the beginning point of that track, in ascending order. Maybe that sort order can be modified; I'm not sure.

After a number of tracks have been saved, you can total your cumulative trip distance by adding up all of the distances displayed for each individual track with Track Manager>CHOOSE TRACK NAME>View Map. The track name and distance for that individual track show at the top of the screen.

You can always edit tracks later in BaseCamp to save them for posterity, including splitting and/or joining tracks, and eliminating those inevitable "as-the-crow-flies" straight lines. But, I think that's a future question...

Sometimes, tracks might not be as smooth as you'd like, or perhaps they seem to enter an unnecessarily huge number of points along the way. There is a setting to solve that under Main Menu>Setup>System>Tracks.
I have:
Track Log: Record, Show On Map
Record Method: Auto
Recording Interval: Normal
Auto Archive: When Full
These are probably defaults, and I have never found a need to change them.

Thanks guys. Sounds like I was on the right track.
Butthead:
You said you put one of the settings to "distance", and default is "auto". Can you explain what differences there are between those settings?
You also said that you like to "archive" the tracks as soon as possible, I am assuming an "archived" track is the result of hitting the "save" button. No difference, right?

Next question:
After a little researching, it appears that there are some geocaches in my local State Park. (Mounds State Park, Anderson, IN) How do I get started with a geocache in that park?

RECORD METHOD distance time or auto

simply a choice of time based intervals or distance based. I assume auto let the GPS chose.

Archived are less likely to be deleted. Saving, saves as a current track subsequent tracks add on to that file, current tracks can be archived separately.

Geocaching.com, sign it to become a member.

butthead

You can, however, Save Current Track, give it a name, and then, Clear Current Track... and any subsequent recording will be on its own, separate from any previous tracks.

I've never used, nor fully understood, "Archive Tack."

Thanks.
I have joined the site, lots of caches in the area! I am also learning how to edit the tracks with Basecamp. Seems pretty straight forward, if I run into any snags, i know you guys will have the answers.

"I've never used, nor fully understood, "Archive Tack."

Just another drawer in the desk.

butthead