Best Gaia maps for Baja

[LandCruiserPhil]

I found that Google Maps has some road detail that the others don't in Baja, so I imported that at Z=17 into Gaia (it was only 800MB) following the custom map import instructions I found here. Downloading it to the iPad was pretty easy because the tile limit was 100,000 tiles per download meaning it was only 14 downloads.

I also have ESRI imagery for all of Baja now at Z=17, taking about 70GB. That took an incredible amount of time because the tile limit is 10,000 tiles which required 336 downloads. There may have been a different way to do it but I think this difficulty is deliberate.

I still have 46GB available so I may try to import some OSM info beyond what is in the base map. Also I will download the Google Maps info into the Google Maps app itself, which will make that extra detail routable, which it won't be as a map image in Gaia.

I'm impressed with how much the iPad holds. BTW we have several backup devices (Garmin and PC) as well. The PC has all of the Baja imagery from gMapCatcher and (I assume) Garmin Basecamp as well.

One of the advantages of android Gaia is it does not limit your DL to 100,000 tiles. At least it didnt when I was test both a couple years back.

 

[AntonLargiader]

I don't know the revision history of the app but I don't think it's an Android/IOS thing. Different map sources have different single-download limits and I think I read about that on the Gaia website.

 

[AntonLargiader]

Back from Baja. The satellite imagery combined with the Gaia/tablet interface was BY FAR the most useful thing we had available. Most of the tracks we were on could only be evaluated by that imagery. ESRI seemed to be several years old, though. With the amount of erosion and so forth down there, things can change a lot in a short time, so having recent imagery is very important.

For instance, outside La Paz, there is a flyover ramp on the bypass that wasn't particularly new but simply did not show up in the imagery.

We often cross-checked the visible tracks against the GPS to see which ones were considered to be more significant (double line, single line, dashed line) and we also had a whole different set of images on a laptop that we got with GMapCatcher. I also had Google Maps images, which were useful as well, and the actual Google Maps App with saved files for all of Baja. You really want everything you can get for the sort of driving we were doing, way out in the brush.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Just returned from Pole Line Road in Baja. Equipped with several Gaia ariel maps, topos, E32, paper maps, and the famous Baja Almanac were no help for 54 miles north of the Pole Line Road to Laguna Salada. With the recent rains there are no trails or roads visible at all. This was one of those times all the maps in the world offered no help. Back to the compass and 24hr later we hit Laguna Salada for ~25miles of (mostly) dry lake bed.