I Propose a Toast!

A few days ago, I got an email from the Seattle International Randonneurs' mailing list about their upcoming 400. I didn't really care about the ride, per se, as it starts in frickin' Ephrata, which would make it a bit of a challenge to get to the start, but the online map of the route caught my eye. It was created using a tool called bikeroutetoaster.com. Heavens be praised! This is exactly the kind of tool that I have been hoping for since before the Google Maps Pedometer was created. It contains the following highly awesome features:

* One-click waypoint setting
* Automatic route finding
* Drag & drop waypoint relocation
* Automatically generated cue sheets
* Scroll-wheel zoom
* Easy route archiving
* Automatically generated elevation profile
* GPX import/export

Now, it's not perfect -- the drag and drop waypoint relocation can be a little goofy, especially if you'd trying to revise a really old part of your course. The elevations can be kind of crazy, but that's par for the course with contour map extrapolations. Finally, I've heard that the export to GPX functionality might not be fully implemented yet. But, hey, it's freaking free. And awesome.

Needless to say, I have gone hog-wild designing possible future randonnees over the last few days. I'll be sharing them in this space over the next couple weeks.