What’s the difference between a backroad and a byway. For the most part byways are routes that a passenger vehicle or street motorcycle can easily travel. Backroads are more rugged and usually require a high clearance vehicle, four-wheel drive or a dualsport motorcyle (or dirt bike where legal) to safely tavel the route.

There are exceptions to this rule. The byways are usually listed in books and web sites as byways. The backroads are listed as such in books and web sites on backcountry travel.

Some backroads are referred to as Type II byways: A Type II byway is a byway that requires high-clearance vehicles. The road is not paved, although its dirt and gravel surface is routinely graded by the county. Grades, curves, and road surface can be negotiated with a two-wheel drive, high-clearance vehicle without undue difficulty. During rain and snow seasons the road is likely to be impassable.

DeLorme StreetAtlas

Just a few words about StreetAtlas. The StreetAtlas transfer to GPS program does not let the user download track logs. A real bummer in my opinion. There is a work around for this. Use G7ToWin to download your Street Atlas files to the GPS.

Early Garmin Units

Until very recently, Garmin would not let you store track logs to a saved track file. All track log data was store as the active log. (Applies to units before the GPS V and other newer units). So track logs on the older units will have to be loaded up as an active track file and saved. Otherwise, you will run out of room in your active log for all the track log data that you might want to save.

Up through Treknow Release 2.1, all of the track logs were reduced to 250 points or less to match the Garmin requirements of early units. With TrekNow Release 3.0 track logs are supplied as active (maximum resolution), 750 point, 500 point and 250 point saved track logs.