THESE DAYS you can pick up a great GPS receiver like the eTrex Venture HC* for little over $100 but you might think twice if you wanted to pick up a topo map at the same time, since a product like Garmin's Topo 2008* would almost double the dent in your wallet. (*Amazon link)

Fret no more however as there are many great, reliable and free mapping alternatives just a click away from your mouse. Trailspotting gives you a quick look at these and how to get them running on your Garmin receiver.

Robomatt's Northern California Topos
If you hike in Northern California and you're looking for topo maps, then let me introduce you to your newest personal hero, Robomatt. He's handily crafted many high quality maps around the region, mostly to a scale of 1:24,000 which are based on the USGS 7.5 minute series that we've previously covered here. Matt covers most of NorCal's greatest hits, including Kings Canyon, Lake Tahoe, Lassen, Monterey, Sacramento, San Francisco Bay Area, Sequoia and Yosemite.
- Robomatt's Maps
- Robomatt's tutorials & more information on his maps

Hawaii Topos
Mapcenter hosts maps for several of the Hawaii islands, all freely downloadable for personal use. Currently at the site you can find coverage for the Big Island, Kauai and Oahu.
- Hawaii on Mapcenter

Uploading maps
To upload your .IMG map into your GPS device you'll need to download some software. For windows users we recommend using IMG2GPS, a user interface that operates a second program called Sendmap - both programs can be downloaded together from the link below. Software for Macs should also be available.
- IMG2GPS & Sendmap
- Sendmap (free, scroll 2/3 down, windows linux & pocket pc)

Tangents
- More free maps: Garmin Map Search
- More free maps: Mapcenter
- GPSMapEdit (view & edit IMG files, Windows)
- Touratel topographic maps (via)
- Wikipedia: Topographic Maps