The National Geographic’s Topo mapping software is $99 and comes in packets of one to three states (depends on size). I got the maps for Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. I used my Vista GPS to record a trip to the badland neat Attica, IN and was able to generate the following map:
The software is nice but I still wish I could do more with the print options. I was able to get around this by saving the map as a jpg and them use Photoshop to add additional features.
I also got the full version of Google Earth for $20. Here is the same track on Google Earth:
There were several places that I lost sat signal but I can repair the tracks manually if I wanted.
I have to admit that I am really not 100% happy with any of these software systems. I have tried MapSource, Google Earth, TOPO 4.0, and USAPhotoMaps. None of them seem to be as user friendly as the unit interface on the GPS itself. I really enjoy my Vista GPS unit and its interface. I can operate it with one hand and everything seems very intuative. It is obvious to me they spent some time developing it. The software on my PC is where I get frustrated. Here I have a much more robust system (keyboard, mouse, large screen) and yet the software is very counter intiative and frustrating for me to use. I realize the "selling points" of many of these GPS is the unit itself, not the software that comes with it but I bet Garmin/Magellen could make a killing if they made a better PC interface for their units.