I had a question on the weekend about the difference between a route and a track. I thought I would share it on NPS as well.

Information from Humminbird site.

Introduction to Navigation

Use you Humminbird to mark waypoints at areas of interest and to navigate to those waypoints via a savable route. A route represents the shortest intended distance between waypoints. You can also view and save tracks, which represent the actual path of the boat.

Waypoints, Routes and Tracks
Waypoints are stored Positions (latitude, longitude) that allow you to mark areas of interests or navigation points (i.e. a maker buoy, dock, or a fishing hole.

Routes links two or more waypoints together to create a path for navigation and are used in trip planning. You can link individual waypoints together by using the GOTO key. A route represents your intended navigation and shows the shortest path from each waypoint to the next. As you travel a route, staying on the route line is the most efficient way to get to your destination, although you should always look out for obstacles not shown on the chart.

Tracks consist of detailed position history and are displayed as a breadcrumb trail of trackpoints. The Current Track shows the position history since the unit was powered up. You can clear the Current Track or save it at any time. The current track represents your actual path so far.


Trackpoints
The receiver usually records trackpoints as you travel. The trackpoints define a track formed by connecting the points with lines. The "track" would represent the road, trail, path, etc. that you followed. Curves are formed with short line segments. The GPS receiver draws your track on the map screen with lines defined by the trackpoints and a mapping program draws your track on the computer screen (with or without background maps). The purpose of trackpoints is to define lines for forming two dimensional ("linear") features.

In general trackpoints don't have names or symbols. They may have a date/time stamp that allows the speed to be calculated for the track segment (track leg - line connecting two trackpoints). The distance is calculated from the location coordinates.

Thanks
Jason