GPX - All the routes (OK some missing) and most of the passes

Wapping

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Something of a labour of love in the hope of answering the question: "Where's the Passo de Lost and how can I get there on great roads from home?'.

I have put together all of the routes I have assembled, ripped, borrowed, and stolen over the years. Some I have even ridden.

GO TO POST 43 FOR THE VERSION CREATED AND UPDATED JANUARY 2016

How to use the file:

(1) It is in BASECAMP, hosted on Dropbox. It is a BIG .gbd file which, depending on your connection speed, may take a while to download. It may take a while to open in BaseCamp or Mapsource, too. Be patient.

(2) There are more than 250 routes, so the map will seem very cluttered. Do not panic. Zoom in and out, play around, you can't break it. If you do somehow manage to cock-it up, don't worry you can just download it again from Dropbox. Or, better still make a copy and tinker around.

(3) When faced with such a large 'blotch' of flags and labels it may be a bit daunting. Map source and BaseCamp can help you. Most bods know near enough where they want to go, let's say Dijon. Hit the 'Find places' button. Type Dijon into the city box. Hit the 'Find' button. Click on one. Is it the right place? Yes? Good. Now zoom in and out to see the routes just around that area. Make it into a waypoint perhaps? That way you'll be able to go back to it very quickly.

(4) Not many bods will ever want to use ALL the routes on one trip. I suggest people simply highlight and copy the routes or waypoints you need, just as if you were copying something in Word. Play around. Joining routes up, chop bits out, use the 'Selection tool'. Go into an individual route's 'via points' tab. Copy bits, add bits. Add a waypoint perhaps? Recalculate. Copy other routes' segments in. Recalculate (check your 'Preferences'). Watch what happens as the line zig-zags around and then re-forms. Change the colours of routes. Lay one route on top of another, to see if the changes you made did what you expected.Trace over routes. Try changing the colour, so the route you are tracing in stands out.

In short, have fun. I learned a lot about how BaseCamp and originally Mapsource worked when I created or copied the routes; BaseCamp in particular is now a very powerful tool when you get the hang of mucking about in it.

(5) Are ALL the routes there? Obviously no. One day it will be finished.

(6) Are all the routes 'Great roads'? On the whole pretty good and amongst the best. Are they perfect? No. By-and-large they all came from good quality sources, so I guess they are about as good as it gets for a decent holiday.

(7) Are there any glitches? In 100's of thousands (maybe millions) of road miles transcribed, probably yes. DO CHECK THEM and don't moan if you go up a goat track.

(8) Any suggestions, hints, mistakes and general piss-taking..... ping 'em up, please.

Richard
 
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Thanks for posting the routes, very generous of yer :clap
An awful lot of work / experience in that selection
I bet it was fun checking them out tooooooo
Brill :thumb2
 
Thank you very much. I just received the Alps book for christmas so this will be a very useful addition as I while away a few hours plotting potential routes.

Cheers.
 
Thank you - a really useful resource which will save hours.
 
Who was it who said ‘so many roads, so little time’ :)

Thanks very much Wapping, I may find use for some of these routes this Spring :thumb
 
Update on the Dropbox file

I have added a fresh route, Chunnel to Dijon, highlighted in green.

It serves two purposes:

(1) It's not a bad way to get halfway down the east side of France from the Calais coast without hitting motorways or lots of real main roads. In short, a good mixture of N and D roads. It is though over 350 miles, so it will take all day even if you don't slouch.

(2) To hopefully show how to (in this case partially) join up (or get to) some great roads.

For example, if you wanted some pretty good roads not far from Calais, you could follow the green line down to say, Château-Thierry and pick up a good choice for a long week-end or a bit longer.

I will try adding some more 'How to get there' examples as I go along.

Richard
 
Many thanks Mr W. :thumb2

I've created separate files from your file for routes by Country.

It makes the planning for ride outs from a base easier to spot.

And I had nothing to do on Tuesday :aidan
 
Fantastic! Thanks very much for setting this up, and the advice on how to use it. :thumb2

Another beer to come from me..... :beerjug:
 
And thanks from Austria too!

Wow! That's an amazing amount of work, thanks for sharing, very generous of you. I'm sure it is appreciated and many people will enjoy planning trips with these routes as guide.

I have a few suggestions based on local knowledge if they are any use. At the moment I have them only as circular routes from our place but I can rework them to fit into the same format as yours. I will also have to incorporate some of your waypoints were they are close to mine to avoid to many of the things. All this is a long winded way of saying it might take some time! When I get them sorted how would you like them sent?

John
 
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Thank you Wapping , your efforts are appreciated.

Gets my vote for a sticky thread! :thumb2
 


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