A bit late on the reply here, but I did the Ruby 100 route. I thought it was a great ride and event, even though it is fairly new. I would agree about the two sections, coming out of Nantahala Gorge and 28 coming into Franklin leave a bit to be desired with traffic, but the rest of the ride more than makes up for it - the descent off of Wayah is some of the most fun I've had on a bike in a long time.

As to the climbing... I use a Garmin Forerunner 305. I rode from my place 14 miles north of Franklin and back home which added 2500' extra climbing (twice over Cowee Mtn). Subtract that from the total of 10,600' on my total 120 mile ride, and I get 8100' climbing on the Ruby route itself. (which is only 93ish miles BTW)

For what it's worth, in my experience Garmin devices exaggerate elevation data, and I always reduce by about 10%. So I'd guess 7250-7500' actual feet of climbing is probably more accurate. I'm going to start running both a Polar 725S (barometer) and the Garmin and average the two.