Total altitude from SF to Yorktown

[Johan]

I wonder if there is anyone here who has biked from San fransisco to Yorktown via American express & Transam with GPS or altimeter. Me and my brother biked this splendid route during a couple of months this summer, and I recall all these hills and started to think about the total altitude on the trip. I have no clue? Anyone?

Best regards, Johan Sweden
 

[Pat Lamb]

If you can plug in the GPS routes to a topographic mapping program (like DeLorme's Topo), you can add it up and get an estimate.  However, there are problems with many such programs zig-zagging between contour lines, when the road is actually smoother.  Sometimes the elevation gain is off by 2.5X, sometimes it's pretty close.

I did this sort of thing with our route (TransAm to Great Parks to Northern Tier), and came up with an estimate of 100,000 feet of climbing between Yorktown, VA and Berea, KY.  I don't know how much it really was -- I suspect 100,000 is too high, but my legs think it was way over 40,000 feet!

I'll have to dig up the numbers to get you east of Canon City.