I rode the Cairngoms Loop last weekend and borrowed a friend's Garmin Dakota 20. I've never used a GPS unit before but I managed to load the Open Street Map as a base map and a GPX file. I tried it out on a local loop and all seemed fine.

Then I loaded up the Caingorm Loop GPX file and set off from Blair Atholl happily following my little green line until it ended about 20km in. I fiddled around a bit and tried reloading it but basically only 15% of the GPX file had loaded (yes I know I should have checked beforehand that it had loaded, lesson learned ).

I'd ridden much of day one before anyhow and then I discovered the loop is actually drawn into the basemap so all was fine. But any ideas why the GPX file didn't load? Is there a maximum number of waypoints the unit can handle? Would I have been better off breaking the file up into parts? Thoughts welcome

Where did you get the GPX file from and is it a track or a route? A route is made up of waypoints and you've a limited number, should be used when you want to go from waypoint A to waypoint B, etc. but don't mind about the actual route taken. A track is an exact route drawn on the map and is what we normally want.

What was the file type? It wants to be a 'Track' and not a 'Route'.

beaten to it by Bob

It was a track, but I'd converted it to a route using Viewranger and exported it as a new GPX file. Would that work? Or does Garmin need a special route format?

Why did you convert it to a route? Keep it as a track and you'll be fine.

When it was a Track it wouldn't show up in the "Route Planner" section on the GPS and so I couldn't load the GPX file.

Where did you load the file? I think Dakotas use the same file system as Oregons so it should go in the GPX folder.

I put it in Garmin\GPX. This worked with the local loop I loaded in there, although it was only a 6km route.

Then I selected the Route Planner icon on the GPS unit and selected my Route. There's also a Where To? icon, but I didn't use that.

It should show then (I think)

Where did you get the file from? I'll try and load it on my Oregon to see if it's OK.

The original file was sent to me by a friend, but no idea where he got it from. Here it is:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz80Rw ... sp=sharing

Would be interested to hear what happens when you load it. Almost certain it'll be user error on my part.

THanks :)

Just re-uploaded that file (which is a Track) and used the Where To? icon to load it. Works fine and the whole file loads.

It was the Route/Track terminology that had me confused. Thanks for guiding me towards the solution!

I think I see what the problem might be.

I've loaded the file and it shows on my map, but ...

The file is called "Cairngorms Loop.gpx" but the name of the track it contains is listed as "bikehike course". It's one of those GPX foibles. Your computer uses the filename "Cairngorms ..." and when you look at the file listing loaded on your Dakota that's what you'll see. But, when it comes to listing the tracks your Dakota (and all Garmins) use the name of the track.

Have a look in your Dakota's track manager and you should see one called "bikehike course", that's your Cairngorms loop file.

Edit.

Just opened your file in a text editor and almost at the top of the file is this (my highlighting):

<trk>
<name>bikehike course</name>
<trkseg>
<trkpt lat="56.774790" lon="-3.843370">
<ele>159.5</ele>
<time>2016-10-06T19:52:15Z</time>
</trkpt>

Which proves my point above. If you want to you can do the same and change the name to "Cairngorms Loop" and it will appear on your Dakota correctly named.

Thanks Bob, that does explain the other mystery. I’d figured out that the file was called bike hike course on the Garmin, but had no idea why.