Creating GPS Routes From Tracks Using Garmin Basecamp

One of the nice features of Garmin’s Basecamp software is the the ability to convert a track into a route. A track is a record of where you have been. A route is a plan of where you want to go.

Under normal circumstances you create a route in Basecamp, save it to your GPS and then navigate using the route. After your journey ends the GPS saves a track of where you had been. So a route usually yields a track, and not the other way around.

But if you are wandering around aimlessly or doing a recce for a future ride, then the ability of converting a track to a route comes in handy.

Basecamp comes with track editing tools which let you trim or delete parts of a track where you took a wrong turn or got lost and had to turn back. For example, the track for today’s ride through the Anshi National Park in Karnataka started and ended at my home in Porvorim. I edited the track and moved the start and end points to a junction on the Bambolim bypass. If I send this route to someone I don’t want them coming to my home to start and end their journey.

After you clean up the track you can use Basecamp to convert it into a route with just one click. You can save this route to your GPS device to navigate later or even export it to a GPX file and send it to someone else or upload it to the internet for others to use.