Originally Posted by
FBinNY
As pointed out earlier, Contour maps can show detailed info including gradients. Once you learn to read them it's as easy as pie. They're available on line to look at, but you have to pay for hard copies. The only issue is scale. If you're doing a long ride, you'll need to piece together a bunch of maps.
OTOH, you might reserve contour maps for those places you have a reason to believe might feature steep hills.
Ya, grew up using contour maps with hiking, but my comment was directed at that website. Re contour maps, I've never bothered to try to get access to specific maps when planning trips in the past, and just used road maps. More of an interest of lack of interest to get into that detailed stuff, but have toured in hilly areas a fair amount so with the load I generally take, I know I'm OK with regular roads, so don't obsess about specific gradients.