Originally Posted by
Machka
So you've got to take online mapping programs with a grain of salt. They are helpful to a point. I much prefer paper maps ... more accurate and you can tell which roads are gravel and which are paved! Some provinces and states even have cyclist maps so you can see things like shoulder width and traffic density. Check with your local tourist info place for such things.
I agree with you. However, for a >1000km trip, I find the online map program gives me suggestions of a rough set of "via" points that I can then look for in my local maps and in less populated areas a set of candidate cities that might have motels if I'm credit card touring. The online mapping program is rarely my final result, but it gets me started.
On the other hand, some paper maps can also have the gravel/paved issue. In Western Kansas there is a route known as "Old US-40" which was the main highway before Interstate-70 was built. It used to be paved but there were two counties that decided to tear up the pavement and go back to gravel. When cycling through, I had two maps that seemed to conflict with the older one indicating more pavement than the newer. When all was said and done, I cycled ~50 miles of gravel though that wasn't a big concern - if it had been there was an alternate route I could have switched to...