Dual Sport GPS Routes vs Tracks

I spend most of my saddle time these days on dual sport rallies and similar events. For many of these events I receive GPX Tracks or Roll Charts or Both. As you may know, GPX navigation files come in either Route-form or Track-form, and Tracks are the norm for dual sporting. Of late, though, I've noted that some participants in the regional rallies (perhaps nationally) convert the Tracks to Routes. Such conversion can be accomplished on software applications like Garmin BaseCamp. I think this conversion is a mistake.

What follows is my opinion on why we do not want to convert the Rally Tracks to Routes. Of course, opinions, such as those reading my blog, may differ.

The photo above is my Garmin GPSMap 64st tracking the Event Organizer's path and accompanied with a roll chart during the 2018 Devils Creek Dual Sport Rally.

Routes and Tracks

By way of background, a Route is a map-based navigation wherein a GPS device navigates the motorist on roadways along a series of points (think of tacks sticking in a paper wall map) using embedded electronic navigation preferences and avoidances. By map-based, I mean those roads and waypoints carefully mapped out for Garmin City Navigator, TomTom Navigation and GoogleMaps (all three are different databases, btw). A Route needs one of those three maps to navigate and will navigate only along the "recorded" roads and to/from "recorded" waypoints. 

A Track, on the other hand, is simply a ground-based recording of movement without regard to roads and waypoints. While a Track needs basic mapping perspectives for things like longitudes, latitude and, in some instances, elevation, it does not care about roads and waypoints and doesn't need any maps, such as City Navigator. For a few examples, I create, use and reuse Tracks for hiking, mountain biking, hunting and kayaking because there aren't any navigation identification points (roads or waypoints) in Garmin/TomTom/GoogleMaps for the locations/areas for conducting those kinds of activities. The photo below is an example of a hiking track in Garmin BaseCamp.

File Photo

Application to Dual Sport

Taking this closer to home, from the riding perspective, dual sport events are essentially "navigation" events. We're not out there racing or getting graded on our trials performances. No, it's about navigation, and a lot of work went into that navigation. 

The reason Tracks are used for dual sport navigation is so riders can navigate the exact recorded paths that the event "Organizers" created for the ride (i.e. concise-navigation). The exact path was determined so as to include all those cool dirt roads and technical areas that the Organizer's thought would make for a great ride; oh, and avoid obstacles that might make for a bad day for someone. This is basically to say, for purposes of dual sport navigation, (i) the Organizers and not the GPS device have designed/determined/designed the navigation path participants will ride, and they have done so by actually riding and recording the paths and (ii) some of the paths selected by the Organizers may not even be roads that are recognized by the maps stored in the GPS device and used for Routing. As a result, converting a Track to a Route will change the path for the dual sporting event, perhaps significantly. On the former, (i, above) even if the GPS device recognizes the track-path as a roadway, it may divert the rider to a totally different recognized roadway because preferences/avoidances (e.g. fastest route) tells the device to do so. On the later, (ii, above) there are many trails on the Organizer's path that are not even recognized on the map services (e.g. City Navigator). In those cases, the GPS device decides how the rider will navigate point-to-point using only recognized roadways.

This screenshot is a Motorcycle Track in Garmin BaseCamp.

File Photo

So, aside from camping, sponsor tents, drinking beer and vintage motorcycle shows, dual sport events are basically concise-navigation-events and conversion of a carefully developed and recorded Track to a Route creates a Route that will be different from the path that the event Organizers spent lots 'o hours putting together. I do understand that not all GPS devices are designed to navigate tracks. In those cases, hopefully there's a roll chart available.