I wonder how some of the worst elevation changes of that route compare to the Fredericksburg section of OTET...

This afternoon I mapped the first climb of the day on one day of my just-completed tour. 704’ in 2.9 miles. It started 0.1 miles after I left camp. What a way to start the day. And that wasn’t even the hardest climbing section I would face that morning. Ended up splitting the planned 64 mile day with 4,400’ of climbing into two days, especially since it was warm and very humid.

I kept hearing Danny Glover in “Lethal Weapon” saying “I’m getting too old for this ****.” :D

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

I'm late seeing this. Glad you had a good time, and on behalf of Cincinnati, let me apologize for that stretch of crappy road between route 50 and Lunken Airport (about mile 57 to 60 on the interactive map of the southern portion on ohiotoerietrail.org). Bad pavement, can be a lot of traffic, and some wonderful industrial smells (I think that's mostly from the paperboard recycling plant, but I haven't stopped to investigate). They're working on a connection on the east side of the airport at Beechmont which will keep you on bike paths, but it's not quite done.

It looks like if they put a MUP bridge in next to the one on Beechmont that would do it. I looked at google maps street view and the Beechmont bridge doesn't look very cycling friendly. That whole stretch of road is elevated and blocked off by guard rails from the trails below along the river.

Something I do is break up mileage with different segments. My original theory for that was "daily mileage". However, I have yet to adhere to that for any length of time. The only places that works if I have absolutes for where to shut down/start. Otherwise, things unfold how they do. If I stop in a town to resupply or sit at a restaurant and eat a meal/recharge batteries that can easily kill 1/2 or more of the miles I intended to do that day.

However, if you break segments up it does get you around the condensed elevation graph so that in and of itself can be a good tool.

It is too bad you can't scale the distance with the zoom level of the map on RWGPS. If you could do that, at leas the option of locking the zoom of the elevation graph to the zoom level of the map, or locking the elevation to the entirety of the route, that would be great. Maybe a future improvement to RWGPS will include that. We'll see.

I CAN do that in my ridewithgps account - break it down into user-specified/highlighted segments - I can do so myself since it is my file, but I have my route file listed as 'private'. I'm afraid that in order for others to fully access it, it might also give them the ability to edit my route without my say-so... And that ain't gonna happen!


I have this 1045-mile ride budgeted for about three weeks! 21 days, including three non-riding days... Those three 'off' days could be because of adverse winds/rain/ or just needing a break. Oh, and I chose to plan the route clockwise around the state to take advantage of the prevailing wind out of the southwest - especially along the wide-open Lake Erie shoreline - in the 'sheltered' Ohio River valley, the winds are not as much of an issue...

IF, (and IF is a pretty big word) I get this route officially sanctioned by the State or some 'cycling entity', then the route would be the route and up to the individual rider how far they want to ride in a day, just like the GAP/C&O... I'm just trying to lay the groundwork for the route itself...

Anyway, I am trying to balance MY daily ride mileage based on where the towns are to better allow stopping points whether for historical significance or overnight lodging along the way. In some places, the towns where one might find overnight accommodations are are 10 miles apart, and sometimes 30-40 miles...This is NOT meant to be just 'git-er-done' riding! I live about 15 miles south of Lake Erie, so my personal 'first day' is to ride from home to the route east of Lorain and then on to Mentor/Fairport Harbor - about 65 miles. Day two takes me 50 miles to the OH/PA line at Conneaut, Day three to Pymatuning Lake (30 miles) or Sharon PA(50 miles)...

You are going to be in my neck of the woods and I know the roads well (at least by car - I don't road ride much around here due to the good rail trails we have near my doorstep). If you'd like me to second-party check your route in this stretch as far as traffic, etc., I'm happy to do so.

1.I don’t believe anyone but you can edit a public RWGPS file.

2. I rode through Conneaut on the way to Erie crossing the country in ‘99. Stopped for lunch at a concession stand at a beachfront park. The woman working there was so impressed with what I was doing that she gave me a tote bag that read “I ❤️ Conneaut.” The last thing I wanted was something else to carry, but I would have felt guilty refusing the gesture. Carried it all the way home and gave it to my mom, who actually used it for a long time.

One thing to remember on those elevation profiles is that they often (maybe always) show a sharp uphill when a trail goes through a tunnel, because the elevation of what the tunnel goes under is what is used. Usually only an issue for longer tunnels but on long rides the false elevation gain shown can add up.

Here's a simple Google maps example: The all downhill stretch on the Great Allegheny Passage trail from Deal PA to Frostburg MD shows 751 feet of up, much of it due to the 2 spikes you see - which are both tunnels.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e7cf2448c5.jpg

Adam, Great ride and great presentation. Ride on Brother!!

Same with high bridges over rivers. I mentioned this in another thread. Map the Hiawatha Trail. It has at least a dozen tunnels and a few high trestles. Ruling grade on RWGPS is something like 23%. Obviously not possible on a rail-trail. It’s the 1.66 mile St. Paul Pass Tunnel.

Thanks, smudgy! "Now go ride your bike!" :D

The Beechmont viaduct is rideable if it's not near rush hour. The exits are tricky, though, with merging traffic. (Just the bridge and the viaduct near Lunken Airport, the rest of the highway is two lane and busy.)

The Cincinnati and Little Miami trails will finally be connected next year! They have started a $7.9 million connector (!) to extend the Little Miami Trail across the river and connect to the Lunken Airport trail. From there, it's painted bike lanes to downtown.
They are tunneling under the levee, then bolting a bike bridge onto the side of the highway bridge: https://www.google.com/search?q=litt...ridge&tbm=isch

Nobody else can edit your public ridewithgps route. They can easily "copy to my routes", then edit their separate copy.

With my "basic" paid ridewithgps subscription, I can create a named "Event". I use this to group related area routes together, and see how they are related to each other, overlaps or extensions. The event map can show all the routes at once, or one at a time. There's a link to each original route page. This is helpful for a multi-day tour too. I haven't tried the free "collections" grouping, that might work too.

With a paid subscription, I like the Trace tool. If I'm using an existing route of mine or someone else as a guide for a new route, the Trace converts the old route into a gray line on the map. It's now just a visual feature of the map, no route is started yet. So I can change the starting point, use part of the original route, then head off into different roads. Easier than referring back to the original route on a separate page, going back and forth to the edit page.

The elevation spikes can be startling: extremely steep climbs over a tunnel's ridge or dropping way down to a river instead of on the bridge. For routes used by a group or club, I sometimes use the Flatten tool. Select a short section of the route just including the bridge or tunnel, then click Flatten. It draws a straight elevation line between the selection start and stop points. No more crazy grades or excess elevation numbers. It shows up this way when downloaded to bike computers, too.

(The free rwgps account is good for most riders. I do like the features of the paid version for tools I use when creating or modifying routes.)

This was the route I had initially proposed to my fellow riders, but I was outvoted on the matter based on the divided highway + ramps. I don't think it would've been bad on a Sunday morning. Then again, the official OTET route wasn't bad that morning, either.

This trip looks awesome man What an adventure

Wife and I recently bought a lot to build our retirement house on top of a limestone bluff outside of Huntsville AL. The 'hill' is a 880' climb in just 1.5 miles! 661' at the base, 1541' at the top. I'm gonna need 'billy-goat-gears' to get up that hill to home! Yep, I'm getting too old for this sh**!

I'm late to the game but saw your link in another thread a_d_a_m

I appreciate the scoop on the ride and will keep your experience in mind as I explore central Ohio. I just moved to Westerville and plan to explore the trail headed north.

2022 Little Miami Trail updates
The trail is closed at Grandin Road, about 5 miles north of Loveland, for a bridge replacement. I think it's closed until the end of 2022. The detour has some fairly steep climbing on roads. (There's alternate road routes out of Loveland that are nice for riding, with low traffic. Not official, but used by local riders.)

The Beechmont bridge connector will be open this month! It's the final link between the existing Little Miami Trail and the Lunken Airport trails. From there, it's painted bike lanes to downtown Cincinnati. Yeah!

Yep, Beechmont opens this week if I recall. I saw an aerial shot of the work they did and it looks first-rate...from the sky. Wonder how it will be to navigate.

The stretch between Westerville and Glenmont is some of the better OTET riding! Enjoy!

We have a week off in mid October. We plan to drive, park car, and do an out and back for 6 days. What part of the trail would people recommend?

Edit: sorry, not to derail comments about favorite sections, looks like we will begin at Erie's shop in Massillon and head SW.

If you do that, you will start your ride with about 12 miles of trail (the Sippo Valley Trail), have to cross the Lincoln Highway (4-lane divided) and then 17 miles of Amish country road/hills. Truthfully not my favorite stretch to recommend to people.

The trail north of Ernie's Bike Shop is pleasant to/from Akron (actually, decent all the way to Cleveland), as is further south between Fredericksburg and Galena.

Thanks, so we may drive further, skip that section, which would allow time to get to the Miami river trail.

I rode the new Beechmont bridge this morning, and it’s great. Nice and wide with a good view of the river and bump outs with benches for people who want to stop and relax without blocking traffic. Such a huge improvement over Wooster Pike.

No signage yet so navigation might be confusing for folks who don’t know the area, but I assume they’ll fix that soon.

One very minor quibble is that the OTET online map directs people to the west side of Lunken airport and across the connector trail north of the airport. I would recommend the east side of the airport instead, just to avoid that short steep pitch at the east end of the connector. I’ve seen quite a few people have to get off and walk up it even without a loaded bike, and one person crashed going down it just because it’s unexpected on an otherwise pretty flat trail.