I’ve just released an update to EatSleepRideGreatDivide.com that I think is pretty cool. In addition to showing detailed elevation profiles of the route, riders carrying a SPOT tracker can add their ride information (blogs, etc.) and have their position shown on the map. You can also view a rider’s multi-day trail with a profile and ascent/descent statistics of the terrain they covered.

Those sitting at home can follow along and see who’s where and read up on their adventures. Those en-route can look ahead to see where other riders are (when in town).

So, if you’re riding the Divide this year and carrying a SPOT, add your information to Eat. Sleep. Ride. Great Divide. Give me and the other superfans out there the pleasure of living vicariously through your adventures.

Sorry for this interruption of my regularly scheduled sporadic journal entries, but I have something cool to share.

As you may have noticed from my journal entries so far, I often observed (complained about?) a huge difference between the map elevation profiles and actual ascent/descent on the ground. Well, I wanted objective data to find out if this was just my weary mind over-exaggerating the climbs or the elevation profiles being overly-smoothed.

So I plotted the route on Google Maps and wrote some code to show precise elevation gains/losses for any section of the Great Divide. As a cool addition, the application also shows an elevation profiler for any selected section. Check it out at eatsleepridegreatdivide.com. If you’re planning on riding the Divide this year or racing the Tour Divide, you may find it useful.

*Special thanks to Scott Morris and TopoFusion for the uber-detailed GPX data.

Mom,

Though I may be deep in the woods of Montana, likely far from any town and cell phone service, I want to wish you a happy birthday. I appreciate the support and encouragement you give me through comments, phone calls, and your visit while in Grand Teton National Park.

Talk to you soon,
Dave

Disclaimer
Wordpress (the software back-end of this blog) has a feature to schedule posts to show up on future dates. Hopefully it posts this on the correct day (timezones are tricky). So Mom, if this shows up on the wrong day, do not think I do not know when your birthday is…its the software’s fault…