Читать книгу Five-Star Trails: Charlotte. Your Guide to the Area's Most Beautiful Hikes онлайн

13 страница из 34

Further, despite the high quality of the maps in this guidebook, the publisher and myself strongly recommend that you always carry an additional map, such as the ones noted in each profile opener’s “Maps” listing.

Elevation Profile (Diagram)

For trails with significant elevation changes, the hike description will include this graphical element. Entries for fairly flat routes, such as a lake loop, will not display an elevation profile. Also, each hike description’s opener lists the elevation range from the start of that specific route to the hike’s highest point.

For hike descriptions that include an elevation profile, this diagram represents the rises and falls of the trail as viewed from the side, over the complete distance (in miles) of that trail. On the diagram’s vertical axis, or height scale, the number of feet indicated between each tick mark lets you visualize the climb. To avoid making flat hikes look steep and steep hikes appear flat, varying height scales provide an accurate image of each hike’s climbing challenge. For example, one hike’s scale might rise 800 feet from the trail’s start, while another might rise 160 feet from that start.