Mapping My Rides

It's been a couple of weeks since I made a post mostly because I was on vacation for a week in Bermuda. I didn't doing any biking there but did get some nice time on the beaches which are absolutely beautiful. You can see my vacation pictures here.

I also have been speeding some time getting familiar with a new piece of software for mapping out my rides. For the past 10 years I have been using the different versions of Street Atlas USA. Its a pretty good program that allowed me to map out routes and create ride sheets but recently I upgraded to Topo USA, another mapping product from Delorme. Topo USA is very similar Street Atlas USA but adds topographical information to the normal detailed street maps. This is a nice addition especially when I plan rides in the hillier areas of the state and want to decide which hills to take.

For example I am planning a ride to Schooley's Mountain in July. The first thing I do when planning a ride is take a look a NJBikeMap to get a quick look at the best roads to take. I then start mapping out the ride in Topo USA. This involves setting the start and stop location of the ride as well as adding way points to get the route to follow the road that I want to ride on. As I do this I get a good idea of how long the ride is going to be and can easily adjust to route to get the miles I want.

Once I get the route the way I want it I can export the directions to a text file which I can turn into a ride sheet. With Street Atlas USA this was all I could do which was fine but with Topo USA not only can I generate a ride sheet I can also get an elevation profile which tells me how much climbing I am going to do and the grade of each climb. You can see a sample below.





What's even cooler is that I can overlay the street maps with satellite images and get a really good idea of what I will see along the way. I use to use google maps to see the satellite data which was ok but it required me to switch between Street Atlas USA and google maps which made it a little cumbersome. Having the satellite view inside the mapping program makes it easier to get the complete picture.



Of course maps and satellite images are no substitute for doing the actual ride but doing the planning up front gives you a better idea of what to expect once you are on the road.

Some people don't want to bother to do a lot of planning before a ride and prefer to just improvise along the way. I respect that approach but for me I actually enjoy doing the planning and with tools like Topo USA planning a ride is a lot easier.