Dead Zone in Northern B.C.
Wed, 05/26/2010 - 1:52pm
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 17 years
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I just got back from a trip to Vancouver for a car show. I use my old Garmin 330 since it isn't a big loss if it got too wet or stolen. It mounts on the window of the Lotus that is pictured in my avatar.
I noticed this time that the cities or Blue River and Valemount don't have any POI's for gas or food. It is an old map and was only updated once but strange that they forgot those places all together back when the Garmin was new. Gas stations and restaurants in small communities don't often change. I haven't checked my 250W yet to see if they are included.
Bob
Northern BC POIs with Garmin's CNNANT 2011.10
I just got back from a trip to Vancouver for a car show. I use my old Garmin 330 since it isn't a big loss if it got too wet or stolen. It mounts on the window of the Lotus that is pictured in my avatar.
I noticed this time that the cities or Blue River and Valemount don't have any POI's for gas or food. It is an old map and was only updated once but strange that they forgot those places all together back when the Garmin was new. Gas stations and restaurants in small communities don't often change. I haven't checked my 250W yet to see if they are included.
Bob
I checked Garmin's latest map and found the following:
Blue River: the only POI is for lodging at an Inn
Valemount: has two lodging choices, a pub, a health center (centre?) and a couple of golf courses
Then I figured I'd check the most remote northern BC town I've been to, Atlin. No POIs at all there.
Travelling north--there are about 2 dozen POIs for Dawson & oodles for Whitehorse YT, and none for Inuvik and Tuk, NT. (None for Keno but one for a liquor store in Mayo YT--I see Garmin prioritizes for alcohol in the Far North
)
My conclusion: when travelling these roads, carry a Milepost Travel Guide with you that's not more than a dozen years old
Interesting: in Inuvik, the river is not shown, but the Tuk Winter Road is, so I assume the river pretty much follows the Winter Road.
Yup
We stayed in Valemount a couple of days last year before moving over to camp at Mt. Robson ... and noticed the same thing with the current (at the time) Garmin map, probably 2010.2.
Interestingly enough, my son's Garmin, with an older map, showed all of the POI's in Valemount (gas, lodging, restaurants).
I think that in the interest of "room," in the later maps, Garmin (Navtec) removed the POI's in the smaller, out of the way, towns in the interest of having room for the growing number of POI's in the US and Canada.
Unfortunately, we were trying to find a gas station as we approached Valemount and were a bit panicked when our Garmin said there were none nearby.
Beautiful country, however. Our hikes on Mt. Robson were spectacular ... and I pretty much forgot about the lack of POI's in Valemount.
Garmin 205, 260W, 1450LMT, 2460LMT, HEREwego for iPhone ... all still mapping strong.
Ditto for northern Vancouver Island...
I was up there in 2007 with my nuvi 350, which had been updated a few times by then. There was a LOT of towns that were ghost zones for the GPS, not showing the city and/or anything in it, and so I created a file that is published on this site. Bottom line: anything created by people is less than perfect, and there's room for improvement.
So, my 2 cents (or Twoonie, for you Canadians) is to add to the file as well.
GC
Nuvi 350, GPS Map 76CX
The Yellowhead through BC
I checked Garmin's latest map and found the following:
Blue River: the only POI is for lodging at an Inn
Valemount: has two lodging choices, a pub, a health center (centre?) and a couple of golf courses
[SNIP]
My conclusion: when travelling these roads, carry a Milepost Travel Guide with you that's not more than a dozen years old
It's a bit disappointing NavTeq (or whomever) would neglect this area. Highway 5 between Kamloops and Jasper is a MAJOR roadway - it is part of the Yellowhead Route across western Canada (and follows the VIA Rail Line for anyone who has taken the train across Canada). Valemount, and especially Blue River, are popular destinations for snowmobilers. Considering the distances between towns on the Highway 5, it would definitely be a good idea to know where food, gas and lodging are available!
Fortunately there's a thick forest just on the other side of the ditch... because there aren't a lot of official rest areas on that road