We Have Questions

 

How Many Hills is This?

3 February 2024

"Garmin says we have six hills," Heddy announced. We all know her Garmin is a liar. 

This blog post can be shelved next to Plain Jim's deep dive into the actual grade on the closed-to-cars section of Province Line Road. 

I'd dug out a route from last summer because I had no time to get creative this week. We'd be facing a stiff wind from the north. The temperature would only reach the low 40s without the wind chill. I figured I'd stick to my usual roads. 

The ride was full at 10 people. 7 were regulars. There were two new folks. One had been a ride leader decades ago before getting sucked into the breeder vortex. The other, aiming for a triathlon, had reached their sanity limit with indoor training. 

I didn't used to pay attention to elevation gain. I'd plot a route, see that it had about 50 feet per mile, and forget about it. Now, though, questions have come up:

Why does the elvation reported by Ridewithgps differ so much from what we record on our GPS devices? And why, even among those of us with the exact same model, do our devices report vastly different elevation gains and maximum grades at the end of a ride? Google Maps are Google Maps. Satellites are satellites. Garmin is Garmin.

We were all working from the same route, the one I posted on the ride calendar. Ridewithgps thought that there were four true climbs in 42 miles:

My GPS dumped one of those climbs, leaving me with 3,

while Heddy's Garmin added 2 more to the original count.

While it's true that there was very little I'd consider flat on this ride, I have to agree with Heddy's GPS that Carter Road from ETS to Bayberry is a hill.

We were all in agreement that the slog up Woodsville Road from Route 31 to Mine counts as a hill. It was the one I warned the new folks about. 

Interestingly (or not), Ridewithgps decided that the Woodsville hill is only part of one long ascent from the Stony Brook all the way to Mine Road.

Next up, Linvale from Route 31. 

"Is this a hill?" I asked of Heddy's Garmin as we passed the steep spot where Snydertown comes in.

"Nope."

"We're climbing the fucking Sourland Mountain!"

"Not a hill."

Ridewithgps says it is. Our Garmins beg to differ.

We went all the way up and over the mountain, then turned left on Rocktown Road. You know the spot. It's a vertical moonscape with a dogleg thrown in. I call it a hill. So did our Garmins. Ridewithgps says nah.

We rolled up and down from Wertsville to Boss. Our turn onto to Bowne Station sure looked like a hill, but who are we to belive what's in front of us?

We took Alexauken Creek Road into Lambertville. 

We stopped at Union Coffee. There was some discussion about which of the city's three coffee shops (that we know about, anyway) makes the best rest stop. Luminary has a lot of indoor space but limited snacks. Union has the best snacks and limited space. LTC has no space at all, indoors or out. Lambertville Bakehouse is kaput after about a year in business.

All devices were in agreement that there's a hill on Rocktown Road out of Lambertville.

Ridewithgps included more of the hill:

Heddy's GPS added the rest of the climb to the high school. 

Dinosaur Hill is, apparently, not a hill by any measure except our experience. 

But the steady upwards roll on Woosamonsa from Route 579 apparently counts.

And that's enough of this nonsense. 

I prefer not to have my GPS tell me there's a hill ahead, and what the grade is, and how long I'll be on it. After giving it a try in Acadia National Park, where there are no flat roads, I turned that feature off. 

(And while I'm on the subject of peevish nonsense, why is it that my front through-axle takes a 5 mm hex wrench, but my back through-axle takes a 6?)