Jim Bensman's Maps

Jim Bensman's Map Page

Good news! I now have installers for the mapsets. All you have to do is run the files. The maps are also now compatible with version 6.14 (and newer) of MapSource. There is also now Mac versions.

I make free high quality topo, trail, and POI maps for Garmin GPSs. There is now a land ownership map. They are all transparent maps so they show over City Navigator and City Navigator will still autoroute.

They are free. You can pay me back a couple of ways. You can contribute tracks of trails you GPSed or POIs you have coordinates for. If you GPS the trail, set the GPS track set up to most often and auto. If the trail has a name, name your track that. No trail is to small to add and even parts of trails are fine. I like to geocache (www.geocaching.com) and do not enjoy puzzle geocaches-I would rather spend my time making maps. So you can send me answers to puzzle caches you figure out (or create) to pay me back for the hundreds of hours spent making the maps.

Here are some samples of what my maps look like in my Colorado 400T (with the DEM data enabled):

Pere Marquette State Park

West Tyson County Park

Forest 44 Conservation Area

Here are some screen shots from my 60CSX:

Pere Marquette State Park

Forest 44 Conservation Area

West Tyson County Park

These links are for the Windows version.

Sometimes there will be a newer version on GPSfiledepot where the maps are hosted-I update the maps there more often than I update the web page.

This link is for the Topo Maps Current as of 4-8-09

This link is for the POI Maps Current as of 4-8-09

This Link is for Other Maps Current as of 4-8-09

This link is for Trail Maps Current as of 4-8-09

This link is for Land Ownership Maps New as of 4-8-09

This has all the Federal Ownership for IL/Mo I could find. While it is transparent, it will cover up City Navigator. So it is a map to use just to see where boundaries are. This should not be normally enabled. Just enable it when you need it

The files are hosted at http://www.gpsfiledepot.com/ You can get other free mapsets there. The Mac version is also posted there. Just look for the mapsets under Missouri or Illinois. There is a link to download the Mac version. I just ran Garmin's Mac Converter and these are the files that were created. If you do not understand how to use the maps, also check on that site.

This link is for a GPX file of the trails included in my IL/Mo Trail maps. Current as of 2-8-09. It will open in most programs (including GoogleEart, ExpertGPS). Only the trails are included. This is a bit of a pain to create so it will not be updated as often as my MY Trails mapset and I do not plan to do it for any more states. This may be used for only personal non commercial use. It has about 7,000 trail segments.

As of 12-18-08, the maps are now installed in C:\garmin\ I just got Vista so I had to move the location. If you installed the maps with an earlier version of the installer, no problem. If you installed the maps with the complicated directions, run mapsettoolkit to uninstall the map sets before running the installer it.

Here is the readme file for the maps:

Maps by Jim Bensman

These maps are compatible with MapSource 6.13 and above (i.e., they now work with version 6.14). It may not work with some of the older versions of MapSource. In MapSource look under Help, About to see the version number. If you have an old version of MapSource, you will get an error message when trying to open it or the trails may not appear as a thin red line.

I make free high quality topo, trail, and POI maps for Garmin GPSs. They are all transparent maps so they show over City Navigator and City Navigator will still autoroute.

I know they work well in the 60CSX and Colorado. I have a CO 400T so I am optimizing them for the CO. I used to make CDs and give them away. Having them online seems to be easier. So I am going to go that way. I have also figured out how to make an installer. So now installing the maps is much easier.

They are free. You can pay me back a couple of ways. You can contribute tracks of trails you GPSed or POIs you have coordinates for. If you GPS the trail, set the GPS track set up to most often and auto. If the trail has a name, name your track that. No trail is to small to add and even parts of trails are fine. I like to geocache (www.geocaching.com) and do not enjoy puzzle geocaches-I would rather spend my time making maps. So you can send me answers to puzzle caches in the St. Louis area you figure out (or create) to pay me back for the hundreds of hours spent making the maps. Hey would you rather me spend my times improving the maps or figuring out puzzles?

All of the maps were made by me ((geocahing Myotis)-Jim Bensman). Most of the trails have been GPSed or traced by me-but others such as the Forest Service have given me trail files. Other people have also contributed GPSed trails and traced trails.

Most of the trails on the trail maps I have GPSed with my 60CSX or now my Colorado 400T. These trails are extremely accurate. Many agencies, cities, counties, etc. have given me trail data. Other users have also given me GPSed trails. Some of the trails have been traced (by me or others) with ExpertGPS or GoogleEarth. So some of the trails could use more accurate data. If you get more accurate data, send it to me. It should be pretty obvious when you are using traced data as it will likely be off. If the trail is right on, it has been GPSed. If you hike any of these, parts of them, or any other trail, part of a trail you can send me more accurate or new data. It just takes a couple of minutes to add this stuff to the file. The more people contribute, the better the maps will be.

I will periodically update the installer files on my website: http://webpages.charter.net/jbensman/Maps.htm You can then download an updated version with updated maps. The installer will automatically uninstall the older version and install the newer version.

The maps are also posted at: http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/maplist.php?author=4216 You can check there for updated versions. All you have to do is download the binary img file and replace the one on your computer. I am not sure what causes this, but I have had the problem a few times. I think it happens when a file gets bigger than it was when it was first generated. When you are uploading the maps, you may get a message that indicates you do not have enough space in your GPS for the maps. It will be weird as it will say something like you need 30 megs and you only have 500 megs. It does not make any sense since you have more space than you need. If that happens, send me an email and I will generate a new version of the installer and post it. But it is extremely unlikely this will happen. It should happen to me first and when it does, I will put a new installer on line. So before you download the file from this site, check for an updated installer.

All maps are posted at: http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/maplist.php?author=4216 Some maps have restrictions on their use and some agencies that have given me data have asked me to post warnings (the data could be wrong ). But you are OK to use these maps for personal non commercial use. And obviously, some of the data can be wrong.

There are 4 mapsets:

My Topos:

These are transparent maps that show up on top of City Navigator which you still use for route calculation. They have topo lines and hydrology (streams, rivers, lakes, etc). The topo lines are from the USGS and they are more accurate than what is on the 24K USGS maps. I generally use a 10 foot contour interval. Most of the hydrology is high resolution (equal to or better than the 24K USGS). Some places do not have the high resolution data). I have also done lots of corrections to the hydrology by looking at ExpertGPS, Google Earth, and field checks. What it looks like in the GPS is City Navigator with topolines and much better hydrology. This is great for caching as many times it helps you figure out how to get to a cache as you can see the terrain and where the water is. That makes it easier to figure out how to get to a cache as a straight line is not always the best way.

These maps are mostly in the ST Louis MO/IL region. But there are some for some places in IN, OH, KY, and Iowa.

My Trails:

These are transparent trails and points maps. They are meant to show things City Navigator does not have. My St. Louis Area Trail map has about 4000 points and about 4000 trail/road segments. They are trails, parking areas, roads not shown on City Navigator (for example, I have all the roads in Bush Wildlife Area), scenic areas, buildings, shelters, and various other things not shown in City Navigator. They are transparent so they show up over City Navigator like the topo lines. One problem I had with them was trails were sometimes hard to see when there were lots of close topo lines. Someone taught me how to use a new program that allows you to make Garmin display the trails as a thin red line. Now the trails show up extremely well.

These maps cover the ST Louis MO/IL region very well. There are maps for all of IL and MO and other states like IN, CO, OH, DC, NM, KY, Iowa, MN, TN and VA.

My POIs:

These are maps that contain points that are displayed on the 24K USGS maps. They are also transparent. I have also added other things. I found a file with the locations of 54,000 springs in MO and about 50,000 sink holes. I have included them.

These maps cover, IL, MO, CO, IN, TN, DC, Iowa, KY, and OH.

Other Maps:

This set has three maps. One for the Mark Twain Lake (MOGA), Marquette State Park, and Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. These are maps you can use if you don’t have City Navigator. These are non-transparent maps that have roads, trails, topo lines, POIs, and water. In MapSource you can also use them to see everything at once.

Note to those who installed my maps before I had installers:

Just install the new version. You may or may not get a message it is uninstalling the older version. It should work fine. If it does not work, go to control panel and uninstall the mapset and try again. If worse comes to worse, use MapSetToolKit.exe (which you have with the maps) and uninstall the mapsets. Then start over.