How To Create A Route In Garmin Basecamp

I'm not an uneducated or obtuse person. In fact, most days I think I'm probably ahead of the curve, but Garmin is making me feel like I dropped out of school in 8th grade and should be working at the county dump. I will say it's been 10 years since I've fooled with any sort of mapping software, but last time I used it (probably MapSource) I remember it being very user friendly.
I just got a Montana 680t and CN on a SD card. I've downloaded basecamp and express and following the basecamp sticky here I have set up preferences in basecamp. I hook up the GPS and I have my topo and CN map available in base camp. It's all going swimmingly so far..............

And then I attempt to actually use the software.

How the hell do you actually create a route? I want to click a starting point and start panning the map dropping points along the way of where I want to ride. Every time I change from the route tool to the hand to move the map it ends my route. I go back to route tool and it seems to be starting a new one. And when I mess up and want to delete the last couple points, how do I back up? And when I'm done, how do I actually get what I've just done on my GPS?

I realize this probably isn't that hard, but I'm so frustrated right now I want to send this thing back and never own another Garmin product. Could anyone direct me to some instruction that might help. I read the New England riders tutorial, but it doesn't seem to answer some of my most basic questions.

Sorry for the stupid questions, but I'm at the end of my rope here. There is no way a consumer product, that has no user manual or instruction, should be this difficult to use. It's like if you bought a point and shoot camera and you had to completely understand photoshop to be able to get an image out of it.......it just shouldn't be this hard.
Mine doesn't do that when I switch between the Hand and the Route tools.
pick your start and end points and let basecamp do the route.After the route is drawn you modify it
But I want to ride a big loop, so my start and end are the same place.
Then seperate your start and stop points by a few hundred yards or so. Do as above and drag the route to suit.
There are days I wish I'd stayed a gas pump jockey and I envy those county dump guys and gals that get to leave at 5 and not be tethered to a cell phone, but I digress. Winter's on it's way and you'll go from hating BaseCamp to merely being annoyed by late March.
Thanks for the encouragement. At least I know there's light at the end of the tunnel
Emgo Started on a CT70 almost 52 years ago

Highlight the route. Hover the Insert Tool [pencil with a plus sign] over the very last point in your route until a fuzzy black dot appears. Left mouse click and you can stretch the route forward. Takes patience to get the dot to appear the mouse has be in exactly the right place. While creating the route you can also move your pointer to the edge of the screen in the direction you want to scroll, the icon will change to an arrow, then click, which will scroll and you don't have to use the hand tool. Learning how to use Basecamp was very hard for me also. Lots of tutorials out there but most of them were too complex and didn't seem to cover the one simple thing I needed. I just keep at it, probably took 6 months before I made much progress at all. Once you figure it out there is no other routing software that will do all the things Basecamp will do. There are a few things in Basecamp that are just plain stupid but overall if you like to plan rides on your computer or modify other peoples routes I have found nothing better.
Lots of folks recommend this tutorial http://www.newenglandriders.org/GPS/Learn_BaseCamp.htm

Be patient, ask questions, if it was easy women and children would be doing it.

Ken
Here's what I mean. I start with blank map and click route tool. Start in Tellico plains and click 2nd point at intersection of hwy 68 and 39. Then I switch to hand tool to drag map so I can see further west down hwy 39. I then click back on route tool and click a point on hwy 39 by Bell Meadow ln and it starts a new route instead of continuing my initial route. What am I doing wrong here?
Emgo Started on a CT70 almost 52 years ago

In a PC select the Insert Tool, then carefully hover over the route end point until a black circle appears, then left click and continue your route. I don't see the icon on your screen, it maybe under the edit button
Emgo Started on a CT70 almost 52 years ago

This is an example of the circle that appears when your mouse is in exactly the right place and yes it's stupid why it's so hard to get it in the exact right place.
Ok, this works. Although slightly differently on my computer than what you describe I did figure out how to grab the end of the route and extend it.
Now I have a new problem. In the screen shots below you see it reroutes when I extend route from starr mtn rd closer to hwy 315. I assumed it was because I had my preferences set to fastest time, but I changed it to curvy roads and it still moves a big section of my route down to hwy 315? I know I can drag it back, but is there a way to make it stay where I put it in the first place?
Emgo Started on a CT70 almost 52 years ago

No matter where I'm planning on riding I always set mine to "Off Road". That may help some but it seems Basecamp always wants to take the shortest route. I have to use many shaping points to keep the route going where I want it to go. There have been a few times when I could not force it to draw the route I wanted to take. When I zoomed in close at the point where it rerouted usually the rode ended there because of a river or something and then the rode started again on the other side so the routeing software can not route over a bridge that's not there or if the software doesn't know it's there it can't follow that route.
Emgo Started on a CT70 almost 52 years ago

This from the New England MAC tutorial. Using the insert tool.
You should not click on the last point of the route once you switch back from the hand tool because it assumes you are starting anew. When you click back on the route tool (after the hand) and move back the cursor onto the map it automatically resumes from the last point as if you have never switched. At least mine does.
Once you are done with the route you should simply right click and then you can immediately start a new route on the same map. The completed one remains on the map as a separate route.
I agree that's the way it should work, but that's not what mine is doing. It's starting a new route each time I switch from hand tool back to route tool. Is there a possibility there's a setting somewhere that needs to be changed?
ohgood Just givver tha berries !!!

there are tutorials online you'll have to watch/read in order to understand anything about the terrible user interface that is basecamp.

then there are the very specific requirements about track length, matching maps, and a few other pitfalls.

yes, it's that bad, and no, it's not you.
I guess this is why I do not switch to the hand tool when creating routes. I use the maddenly short increment scroll arrows along the edge of the screen.
But I do use the mouse wheel to zoom out and back in between scroll arrow clicks.
I have no idea, sorry. But even if there is, I haven't touched it, meaning that resetting settings to default or reinstalling BC should make it work in exactly that way.
Ok guys. I'm pretty sure the OP is using a Mac. BaseCamp isn't the same between platforms and works very differently. For one, there is no insert tool. ;-) To create a circular route, use the route tool to define it with 3 or 4 points ending a few meters short of your start. It probably isn't what you want but that's easy to fix. Start at a scale that doesn't have to be zoomed to create the route, or use the scroll keys. I switch to a trackpad for BaseCamp allowing me to do everything with gestures. Once the initial loop is created, use the selection tool (pointer) to grab your route at any spot and drag it to a point that better defines your route. You may have to do this a few times but with practice a complex route can be created very quickly.
Most online tutorials are for the windows version and a lot of the process isn't the same.