if possible to get even a rough elevation gain of a day, it really helps in knowing how hard the day will be.
depends on your gearing, if your bike is geared too high, then you bust your ass, your knees and leg muscles really, and this takes a lot out of you...
Good thoughts. That's why I am looking at things. Although, there could be other slow-downs besides just elevation - which is also why I started the thread. I recall there being a portion of trail in the last 100 miles or so that floods easy, for example.
As to the gearing - I have a Mountain Tamer Triple adapter set up for a quad chain ring giving me extremely low gearing. Looking at the last elevation graph at A (not the whole Ohio to Erie graph before) - I had to walk that ascent. Even with the ridiculously low gearing on the bike I didn't have it in me to pedal that. I got up a little bit but there was no way I could keep my momentum up and stay upright on the bike. Once I stopped there was no way to get back on the bike and start going again. So I just walked it.
The more regular 50 mile ride I referenced before is around 1100ft of elevation gain. That is doable. However, thinking about multiple days back to back of riding that isn't an ideal amount - at least right now. As the riding season progresses that may ease up so that will be a decent benchmark ride.
On a side note - I just swapped out my Mountain Tamer chain ring this afternoon. I had the 17t ring on there and replaced it with a 20. I don't use it very often. The jump down to the 17t ring is giant. We'll see how the 20 does.