Import waypoints from Garmin GPSmap into R

Question

I would like to import waypoints from my Garmin GPSmap 62 into R. I have about 270 waypoints saved on the GPS unit. I can use Garmin's BaseCamp program to export them, but I would like to do this with R.

Once I plug the Garmin unit into my computer (Mac OS X) via USB, the file system I see is the following:

~ $ cd /Volumes/GARMIN/
/Volumes/GARMIN $ ls
Documents   Garmin      autorun.inf
/Volumes/GARMIN $ cd Garmin/
/Volumes/GARMIN/Garmin $ ls
BirdsEye             Garmintriangletm.ico gmapbmap.sum
CustomMaps           JPEG                 gmaptz.img
CustomSymbols        Profiles             startup.txt
ExtData              SQL                  system.xml
Filters              Text                 wytopo11.img
GPX                  fs_image.ver
GarminDevice.xml     gmapbmap.img
/Volumes/GARMIN/Garmin $ cd GPX
/Volumes/GARMIN/Garmin/GPX $ ls
Archive                 Waypoints_12-MAY-13.gpx Waypoints_19-MAR-16.gpx
Current                 Waypoints_13-APR-15.gpx Waypoints_20-OCT-16.gpx
Nav                     Waypoints_13-JUN-13.gpx Waypoints_21-MAR-16.gpx
Waypoints_01-MAY-14.gpx Waypoints_13-MAY-13.gpx Waypoints_21-MAY-14.gpx
Waypoints_02-APR-15.gpx Waypoints_13-MAY-14.gpx Waypoints_21-OCT-16.gpx
Waypoints_02-MAY-15.gpx Waypoints_14-JUN-13.gpx Waypoints_22-MAR-16.gpx
Waypoints_03-APR-15.gpx Waypoints_14-MAR-16.gpx Waypoints_22-MAY-14.gpx
Waypoints_03-JUN-13.gpx Waypoints_14-MAY-13.gpx Waypoints_22-OCT-16.gpx
Waypoints_03-MAY-15.gpx Waypoints_14-MAY-14.gpx Waypoints_23-MAR-16.gpx
Waypoints_04-MAY-14.gpx Waypoints_15-APR-15.gpx Waypoints_23-MAY-14.gpx
Waypoints_05-APR-15.gpx Waypoints_15-JUN-13.gpx Waypoints_24-MAR-16.gpx
Waypoints_05-JUN-13.gpx Waypoints_15-MAR-16.gpx Waypoints_24-OCT-16.gpx
Waypoints_05-MAY-14.gpx Waypoints_15-MAY-14.gpx Waypoints_25-APR-15.gpx
Waypoints_06-APR-15.gpx Waypoints_16-MAR-16.gpx Waypoints_25-OCT-16.gpx
Waypoints_06-MAY-14.gpx Waypoints_16-MAY-13.gpx Waypoints_26-APR-15.gpx
Waypoints_07-JUN-13.gpx Waypoints_16-MAY-14.gpx Waypoints_26-MAR-16.gpx
Waypoints_08-APR-15.gpx Waypoints_17-JUN-13.gpx Waypoints_26-MAY-13.gpx
Waypoints_08-JUN-13.gpx Waypoints_17-MAR-16.gpx Waypoints_26-OCT-16.gpx
Waypoints_10-APR-15.gpx Waypoints_18-JUN-13.gpx Waypoints_27-APR-15.gpx
Waypoints_10-JUN-13.gpx Waypoints_18-MAR-16.gpx Waypoints_28-APR-14.gpx
Waypoints_10-MAR-16.gpx Waypoints_18-MAY-14.gpx Waypoints_29-APR-14.gpx
Waypoints_11-JUN-13.gpx Waypoints_18-OCT-16.gpx Waypoints_29-APR-15.gpx
Waypoints_11-MAY-13.gpx Waypoints_19-APR-15.gpx Waypoints_30-APR-14.gpx
Waypoints_12-MAR-16.gpx Waypoints_19-JUN-13.gpx Waypoints_30-APR-15.gpx

Within the GPX directory, there is a Current directory that contains Current.gpx.

I'm not sure if that is the file that contains my waypoints, but this is what I started with.

I tried to load this into R with rgdal:

> readOGR('/Volumes/GARMIN/Garmin/GPX/Current/Current.gpx', layer="track_points")
OGR data source with driver: GPX 
Source: "/Volumes/GARMIN/Garmin/GPX/Current/Current.gpx", layer: "track_points"
with 9759 features
It has 26 fields

There are way more entries than waypoints that I expect to have. Also, none of the columns in the data slot of this SpatialPolygonsDataFrame have the names of the waypoints.

So, am I looking at the wrong file? Is there a better way to load the waypoints into R?

Answer 1

I found that (not surprisingly) the waypoints are found in all of the .gpx files whose filenames start with "Waypoints". I also found the function plotKML::readGPX to be the most intuitive for me.

library(plotKML)
setwd('/Volumes/GARMIN/Garmin/GPX')

# identify gpx files that contain waypoints
files <- list.files(pattern='\\d\\d.gpx$', full.names=TRUE)

# combine all waypoints into a dataframe
allwaypoints <- list()
for (i in 1:length(files)) {
    allwaypoints[[i]] <- readGPX(files[i], tracks=FALSE, routes=FALSE)$waypoints[, c('name', 'lon', 'lat', 'time')]
}

allwaypoints <- do.call('rbind', allwaypoints)