Electronic Cue Sheets: Elegant Routing on the Garmin Edge 705

For the difficulty of the previous posting, the actual procedure is beautifully simple, assuming you know how to use DeLorme Topo USA, or another routing program that can export routes to GPX. These directions work with DeLorme Topo USA 7.0 and the Garmin Edge 705, but you can modify them as needed.

1. Create your route in Topo. Make sure to include about twice as many vias as you need, to make sure the route is not ambiguous, but don't use over 48 of them! (48 vias, plus start and finish, is 50 waypoints, a usual limitation.)
2. In Topo, go to the Route tab, make sure your route is selected, and select File > Export... Save your route as a GPX file to the device's route folder. For the Edge 705, this is (device)/Garmin/GPX. The route should be small - if it's larger than about 40K, you did something wrong.
   
3. Safely remove your GPS from the computer.

Your GPS device will need good maps to do the actual routing. I recommend Garmin's CityNavigator NT or, if you can legally obtain them, unlocked Garmin MetroGuide maps.

That's all there is to it. The route is now on your GPS device, ready to be navigated. If you have the Edge 705, you can even send the route to other devices using the ANT file transfer tool on the device.

You'll get turn by turn directions, and will never need paper cue sheets again.