navigation

---

Garmin's sports watches and bike computers are probably the most common devices among active cyclists and (trail) runners for recording a ride, tracking distance and speed along the way, and navigating a route.

Garmin suits navigation particularly well thanks to its wide range of features. It used to be in a league of its own, especially in sports watches, but these days many other brands have gained nearly equivalent features. DC Rainmaker's 2024 comparison of Garmin, Hammerhead Karoo and Wahoo is worth reading if you are shopping for a new bike computer.

When buying a Garmin, check that it supports both map and route navigation features: the cheapest Garmins, and especially the "wellness" series watches, do not, but most models meant for outdoor sports do.

Using Garmin effectively for navigation takes a bit of fiddling with the settings at first, plus learning how the device's features work. This guide covers using Garmin with the Trailmap app, but the tips apply to other apps too with a little adaptation.

Garmin Fenix and Edge

Getting set up

First do the following preparations (if you haven't already):

• Register for Garmin Connect, from here on the "GC service"
• Download the Garmin Connect app to your phone
• Connect your Garmin device to both the GC service and the app
• Register for Trailmap, using the web version. On the user settings page, choose "Connect Garmin" and follow the instructions.

Strava is not essential, but it is recommended:

• Register for Strava
• In the Garmin Connect app, choose "Settings --> Connected Apps --> Strava" to connect Garmin to Strava, so that rides recorded on your Garmin transfer to Strava automatically

The Garmin interface

You need at least a reasonable grasp of your Garmin's interface and basic functions for navigation to go smoothly. The menu structure differs from one Garmin device to the next — bike computers and watches in particular differ significantly from each other. Reading the manual and using it to browse the device's menu structure is pretty much essential to getting comfortable with the device.

The settings and functions that matter for the map and navigation are, unfortunately, scattered across many different places, some of which are quite hard to find.

At least the following places are worth checking on your Garmin when you're hunting for the right submenus: activity profiles, and under them navigation, which often holds the map, navigation and routing settings. Another place is the top level, directly under map and/or navigation. Under navigation, once you find courses, the top right corner of that list (the "..." button) hides some more key settings for route guidance — very well hidden indeed!

On the Edge (at least the 1040), the general navigation menu is only reachable by pressing from the home screen; it is not under the settings button on the next level.

The map

One of the finest things about Garmin is the ability to install your own maps on it. For moving on trails, it's worth installing the Trailmap Garmin MTB map and possibly the NLS topographic map (developed by hylly.org) as well. Instructions for both, and the MTB maps themselves, are in this article.

If you want to route on the Garmin device itself (rather than just load routes onto it), you need to install or update Garmin's own maps. Instructions are in your device's manual.

Newer Garmins also have several map-related settings: they may be found either under the activity profiles or at the top level in settings under "navigation" and "map". The effects of the settings vary significantly between devices, so it's best to try them on your own device and find the ones that suit you. I recommend at least looking through these:

• Map theme & detail: affects how the map looks and how much detail (e.g. buildings) is shown
• Orientation: North up or Track up, i.e. whether the map always stays in the same position with north at the top, or turns to match your direction of travel. I use the latter if I'm navigating by the Garmin, and the former if the route is mainly there as a backup on the map.
• Auto zoom: whether the map scale changes with your speed
• Track & history line color: the colours of the route line and the path you've covered. These are worth testing in bright sunlight so you find a colour that works for your eyes, especially for the route line.

Transferring a route to Garmin

Routes drawn in Trailmap, or loaded onto the Trailmap map, can be transferred to Garmin in two ways:

1. The traditional way is to first save a GPX file from Trailmap and then transfer that file to the Garmin, either directly to the device or via Garmin Connect, from where you can send it to the device itself. Even older Garmins support this, but the catch is the number of steps the transfer takes on older devices. You can find instructions for this on Google, and there are many ways to do it depending on your Garmin model and how you want to handle the transfer.
2. The newer and considerably smoother way is to transfer or sync the route straight from Trailmap. More detailed instructions and tips below.

Syncing a route to Garmin means, in practice, sending the route to the Garmin Connect (GC) service, from where it moves automatically or manually to the Garmin devices you've connected to the GC service.

In Trailmap, syncing or sending can be done as follows:

• When saving a route, select the "star" button — you can also do this later on the "routes" page, where all your routes are listed. Selecting this syncs the route automatically to the GC service, meaning that whenever you save changes you've made to the route in Trailmap, the new version is also updated to the GC service and from there all the way to your Garmin devices. It's worth testing this route update in practice, as there may be differences between Garmin devices.
• Sending a route: from the button in route drawing mode. This sends the route to the GC service once, but unlike the "star" button above it does not keep syncing the route.
• Sending a track or Strava activity: first open the track on the map, then click it with the mouse or tap it on a touchscreen and choose "send to Garmin" from the list.

Route save dialog and the star button Route info card and the star button

Once the route or track has been transferred to the GC service, switch your Garmin on, or if it's already on, choose "sync" from the menu. If your Garmin has Wi-Fi (and a connection), the route transfers to the device automatically; otherwise syncing happens over Bluetooth via the "Garmin Connect" app on the mobile device your Garmin is paired with. Older devices can be attached to a computer with the cable they came with and synced using the "Garmin Express" app.

On newer Garmin devices the route transfers to the device quite briskly over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which makes them a lot nicer to use than the Garmins of five years ago.

Managing routes on Garmin

You can use the Garmin Connect service either in a web browser (Garmin Connect) or by downloading the "Garmin Connect" app to your mobile device. Routes nowadays transfer automatically from the GC service to newer Garmin devices, but unfortunately deleting routes from the GC service does NOT delete them from the Garmin devices. So you need to manage routes separately in the GC service AND on the Garmin devices.

Managing routes in the GC service works like this:

• When you switch off the "star" icon on a Trailmap route by pressing it, the route is also deleted from the GC service
• If you sent the route or track from Trailmap to the GC service directly (without the star button), delete it straight from the GC service list (Courses list)

On top of this you need to delete the route from your Garmin devices separately (if you want to). There are 3 different ways to do this:

1. The device's own interface: go to the "courses" list and select the route to be deleted. On touchscreen Garmins, e.g. the newer Edges, deleting works in several ways: "swipe left" on the name, or "delete" from the top right menu, which lets you select several to delete at once. On watches the interface is a bit awkward: you have to open the route and then choose "delete" from there.
2. Download the "Garmin Explore" app to your mobile device. It works with Garmin watches and handhelds, not bike computers! When you connect your Garmin device to it, you can see which routes are on your Garmin from the bottom menu's "Library" -> "Courses" list. You can delete routes either from this list using the "Edit" button in the top right (then you choose which to delete and hit "Delete" in the bottom right), or by selecting an individual route and doing the same with its "Edit" button. Remember to then select your device via the bottom menu's "Devices" page and start a sync from the "rotating arrows" button — only then do the routes actually disappear from your Garmin.
3. You can attach the Garmin to a computer; instructions are in the link to the Trailmap pages in the "The map" section above. Then, using your computer's file manager, select the routes you want to delete from the "\Garmin\Courses" folder by name and choose "delete" in the file manager.

In practice, what I do is clear the unnecessary routes off my Garmins every now and then — not after every ride, but once the route list on the device has grown too long and makes it hard to find the right route. On the Garmin Edge I delete routes with option 1 from the list above, and on the Fenix watch with option 2.

Navigation in practice

Navigating on foot or by bike is a bit different from using a car sat nav or Google Maps in a city: junctions are more varied and trails often wind about. That's why the exact same style of navigation doesn't necessarily work.

Navigating with a Garmin, you have roughly two options:

1. "Map, own position & route line", which resembles a hugely simplified version of traditional orienteering with a map. That is, you compare the map on the screen and your position on it with what your eyes see ahead. You form an interpretation of how the trails or roads on the map match what's in front of you. The route line then tells you where you should go, and on that basis you work out the right choice at junctions.
2. "Route guidance", which is close to how a car sat nav directs you — it tells you where to turn. Garmins with a bigger screen also show a snippet of map, which helps you picture how to turn. This works well at simple junctions, but at trickier trail junctions it can sometimes be a bit hard to make sense of.

Route guidance example

Which works better depends on the user's preferences and also on the sport (are you on trails or on roads). More on this at the end of the next section, "Navigation settings".

You can start navigating a route in several ways depending on the device. On Garmin Edge bike computers I first select the activity profile from the top level, which activates the activity screen, then I swipe the touchscreen from top to bottom to bring up the shortcuts, press the arrow at the bottom of the screen once to the right to get the shortcuts showing: I pick "Find a Course" from the list, then the route I want from the route list, and the "Ride" button loads the route.

On the Fenix watch the selection is somewhat similar: first select the activity, but then on the first screen I press the middle "UP" button on the left side to bring up the shortcuts, from there "courses", and again pick the route you want from the list.

I don't recommend choosing "navigate to beginning of the course" or similar, which Garmin asks about at the start, because it sometimes produces a rather surprising route, and changing it is several button presses away.

Navigation settings

Navigation settings and their names vary across Garmin devices. Generally, though, you'll find settings like these: the activity profile's data screens, and the map and navigation settings. On some Edge devices there are also settings in the "..." menu at the top right of the "Courses" list. It's worth having the device manual open when you're hunting for where these settings live on your own device — they're not all easy to find.

In the activity profile's data screens settings, select the map to be shown as one of the screens. Usually this is already on by default. On Garmin bike computers you can additionally choose what information appears at the bottom of the map view, e.g. time of day, distance, 10s power and so on.

Of the map / navigation options, these are the most important:

• off course (warnings): This alerts you on screen and with a beep if you leave the route. Usually this is a good thing, but if you're using the route mainly as a guideline and improvising, e.g. in your exact choice of trail, this setting is mostly a nuisance.
• turn prompts / guidance / guide text: These settings control the so-called turn-by-turn instructions, i.e. instructions on where to turn at junctions. Even if the map isn't showing on the device screen while you ride, these get the notifications on screen whenever a turn is coming up.
• route recalculation: This re-routes you if you leave the route. Mostly a nuisance on trails, may be useful when riding on roads. I keep it off at all times myself.
• course recalculation: The options Garmin offers when you leave the route. For example, "prompt with auto re-route" means Garmin first asks whether you want to "pause" route following, i.e. turn it off temporarily, and if you don't answer, it tries to re-route. "Auto pause", on the other hand, means route following turns off temporarily — this is the one I favour, least disturbance.

Your way of navigating is always somewhat a matter of taste. So it's worth trying different settings in practice to find out what works for you. It's also worth making sure route calculation (if you want to use it) works the way you want — the MTB trail map isn't "routable", so you need one of Garmin's own maps loaded and active for that.

In sports where you're moving on trails, I favour the "map and route line" settings myself, i.e. I've turned off turn guidance, off course and re-routing. This gives me the freedom to improvise and to always see my position and progress relative to the routes on the map, without the device beeping constantly and showing all sorts of warnings (and thereby stopping me from seeing the most important thing — the map itself!). On the road bike, on the other hand, I turn turn guidance and off course on (the Edge 1040, for example, allows these settings per activity profile, i.e. per sport), which gives clear instructions for turns so I don't have to concentrate on navigation so much. Gravel is often somewhere in between for me, and depending on the route I might vary the settings, though usually off course is on at least.

Navigation in the real world

I run and ride a lot of new routes, including ones where I don't know the trails or the roads beforehand. I also often improvise on the fly, i.e. change the planned route a little or a lot depending on which trails or roads look interesting, or I might want to skip some unplanned detour or leave out some planned section of the route.

When I'm out, I'd rather not keep stopping to work out where I should go — I'd rather keep moving at a normal pace, slowing down a bit, of course, if I need to change the route.

For these needs I've found the combination that works best is having the route both on the Garmin (Edge 1040 on the bike, Fenix 6 Pro on foot) and in the Trailmap app on my phone. For the most part, and at least on the easy sections, I navigate with the Garmin. But the trickier bits (a dense trail network, or otherwise a lot of junctions, or improvising underway) I navigate with the phone: a bigger screen, a clearer map and a better interface help a lot when you need to make progress on the map, making choices on the fly.

The phone normally lives in a pocket, either the back pocket of a cycling jersey or, on foot, in a light waist pack; from there it comes out into my hand, or on the bike I mount it on the bars with a Quadlock mount for as long as I need it (both mounting and removing work while moving).

My gravel bike setup

Afterwards, or where did I actually go?

When you record a ride or an outing with a Garmin device, it transfers automatically to the GC service on newer devices (assuming, of course, that you've connected the device and the service). You can review your rides in the GC service, but I recommend taking Strava into use. Following Strava's instructions, you can connect Strava to Garmin so that all your rides transfer automatically from the GC service to Strava as well. Strava has plenty of interesting features: sharing rides with other people, your own heatmaps and so on.

Strava can also be connected to Trailmap: log in as a user and open the user settings in the Trailmap web version. From there, choose "connect" next to Strava. Once connected, the "Tracks and Strava" option under the top menu (bottom menu on a phone) "Tracks" selection lets you easily browse your rides and open one, several, or all of them from a given period (per quarter) onto the map.

That feature is a nice way to look at where you've ridden and when, for instance right after a ride when you want to recall which trails were the best and which ones are "not going through". Right after a ride is also the easiest time to do OSM mapping if you've caught the bug (for that, Trailmap has a function for launching the OSM iD editor with the track preloaded).

A ride on the map