Went exploring this morning

Impressive, I can't believe that you didn't turnaround at mile 6.75, going that extra 0.75 mile downhill just to turn around and climb back up an 18% grade takes serious commitment.

BTW, is this info from a garmin? - I have a Timex with gps - but is doesn't give elevation :-(

The road ends at a major highway (4 lanes of tractor-trailers going 70 mph) I'll take my chances with the mountain. The data is from Delorme topousa.

Hey Dave,

Have you ever done the loop going north on 501 out of Lynchburg to the Blue Ridge Parkway at Apple Orchard Mountain then drop off the parkway and go back through Bedford on 608? (Not sure of the route number here.  It is the road from Buchanan to Bedford to Moneta.  My memory is failing.  I am getting old.)  And back to Lynchburg on 221.  The climb from the James River on 501 to the top of the mountain on the Blue Ridge is about 10 miles and is a test of manhood.   The descent to Bedford looks like the roller coaster posted elsewhere on the boards today.  You live in some of the best climbing country anywhere.

Great ride.

TW

I know this post is going to expose me as a total neophyte-wide-eyed-rookie, but how much do you have to spend to get equipment that will give you feedback like that?  That's incredible!  I'm totally blown away and feeling like I gots to gets me one of those!  Of course where I live my chart would almost always look like this  ______-----------------___________--------------___------------ since we don't have a lot of hills.

 Garmin is the brand name I see thrown around a lot here and I don't want to turn this into a thread that belongs under 'Gear...'.  Just tell me this.  Is that feedback typical of the equipment that's available or is that a top of the line/costs a zillion piece of equipment?

Yeah, that's just a software package, and a pretty good one at that. But unless he had a GPA, Dave (rlusi) had to plot out the route on the software to get the elevation chart. The Garmin Forerunner 301 (for example) will upload the route automatically, along with your speed and heartrate information. Some of the software out there will even import the weather data from your workout period. Pretty neat stuff.

Here's a link to the upload of one of my bike rides on MotionBased:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=13273&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=341218

Oh, the 301 is around $170 these days, and the MotionBased Lite is free.

Thorntons Gap, Rt. 211.  It's a killer... 

Is that Thunder ridge? If it is, then no I don't get that far east too often. Most of my riding is around Roanoke (Franklin County).

Today's ride was out of Boones Mill route 684 to route 615 and back. As far as I can tell from USGS, the gap does not have an official name.

I did this entire route once when I lived in Lynchburg and just the hill climb part one other time.  I thought you did some time at CVCC and thought you might have done this route back then.  Perhaps, not.  This route goes past Peaks of Otter which is a more recognizable landmark.

I wish I had a triple back in those days.

TW