Originally Posted by
Leebo
I'm not that detailed. I look at topo maps and go from there. I figure if a car can drive it, i can pedal it. Got low gears? A sense of adventure? Do people actually plan out every turn and road taken? I look to get a sense but sometimes you miss a turn or a bridge is closed or construction. And pack lighter. I find a double breakfast will best all hills encountered. This summer I plan on maybe touring 5 days from the Boston, MA area to up and around the Lakes area of Central NH. I expect to encounter some hills.
One benefit of preplanning is not running into road construction and having to do a major reroute. Some like when they close Memorial Bridge in Portsmouth, NH a couple of years ago can add 20 miles to your day without trying. By using Ridewithgps I can generally see where sections of road are closed as they won't let me route through those sections. I can try my darnedest but it won't let me go there. I can then go to the state highway dept website and see what the story is. Pretty much always the road is closed when rwgps won't let me ride through. Admittedly there is a stretch right now here not far from me that it won't let me route through that I ride through pretty much once a week. It was closed earlier this year but isn't closed now and they still haven't 'reopened the mapping' to the area.