Black Brook Road
5635.0 m · net rise 221.7 m · total ascent 240.0 m · overall 3.9% · evidence quality B (good) · Savoy · Massachusetts · share
Shape: stepped — 53% of the climbing sits in a quarter of the distance; longest continuous stretch at 10%+ is 304 m.
Found purely from mapping and LiDAR data, and not yet matched against books, race records or lists — it may be well known to locals under a name we've never heard. It was cross-checked against the state road inventory, OpenStreetMap and the point-cloud evidence for a graded road bed, but a discovery can still be an artifact of the terrain model or the map. Treat it as a well-evidenced hypothesis until someone has ridden it. If you know this road, tell us what you found — photographs, corrections and local knowledge all welcome; the map links below let you scout it first.
≈ Overhead cover (tree canopy or structures) spans 14% of this route — detected by comparing the surface model (DSM, treetops and rooftops) against the terrain model (DTM, bare ground). Under cover the bare-ground model is built from fewer laser returns, so metre-scale readings can wobble; maxima whose window sits in a covered zone are marked ≈ below — less certain — the flag does not say whether the true value is higher or lower. Longer windows average over more clean ground and are steadier.
Gradient ladder what do windows mean?
| Window | Maximum | Located at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 m (diagnostic) | ≈20% | 5168–5170 m | under overhead cover |
| 3 m (diagnostic) | ≈19% | 5168–5171 m | under overhead cover |
| 5 m | ≈18% | 5166–5171 m | under overhead cover |
| 10 m | ≈17% | 32–42 m | under overhead cover |
| 20 m | ≈16.2% | 27–47 m | under overhead cover |
| 25 m | ≈16.0% | 26–51 m | under overhead cover |
| 50 m | ≈14.6% | 21–71 m | under overhead cover |
| 100 m | ≈13.7% | 22–122 m | under overhead cover |
may start earlier Extent detection suggests reviewing where this climb starts/ends.
Map
Check this route yourself: Google Maps route via their router · Street View at the base where coverage exists · geojson.io our exact measured line · OpenTopoMap
This climb's data: OCL JSON — the full gradient ladder, quality flags and provenance in the OpenClimb Ladder format.
Surface: mixed (17% unpaved), according to each state's road inventory: .
Access: Listed, not ranked, 2026-09-05 (door ruling): the road is real but the mapped line is off to one side (Peter, 2026-08-26) and the re-line is held on the length invariant; its true steepness is unknown until re-lined. 32nd by rise in Maine, one place off the big-gain door.
Measured, not vetted. This page records what the laser record shows about the road's shape — nothing more. Nobody has necessarily ridden or inspected this road for the survey, and a page here is not a recommendation and no guarantee that the road is open, surfaced, rideable or safe. Gates, private sections, missing rights of way and hazards do not show up in elevation data. Check access and conditions on the ground and make your own judgment.
Ridden it, or know better? Submit data for this climb no account needed · Share this climb
Route colour = gradient over a 25 m window: <10% 10–20% 20–25% ≥25%
© OpenStreetMap contributors · topo tiles © OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA) · vector tiles OpenFreeMap · aerial imagery USGS (public domain)
Profile
The profile and gradient chart share one position — move your pointer over them and the marker follows. Colors are the gradient bands; the shaded span is the steepest 25 m. Any 25 m figure is good to about a point either way (why).
Measurement card
| Elevation | USGS 3DEP (The National Map) — USGS 3DEP 1 m DEM, MA_Western_B24 (collected 2023-24) |
|---|---|
| Resolution / CRS | 1.0 m grid, EPSG:26918; sampled every 1.0 m, bilinear interpolation |
| Tiles | x66y472, x66y473 |
| Road centreline | /mnt/HC_Volume_106727764/site-corpus-fresh/us/black-brook-road/black-brook-road.geojson |
| Quality status | evidence quality B; caveated windows: canopy or structure |
| Analysis | OCL 0.1.0, analysis 0.1.0, run canopy-all-260903, calculated 2026-09-03 |
Provenance
{
"analysis_version": "0.1.0",
"sample_interval_m": 1.0,
"interpolation": "bilinear",
"smoothing": "none",
"gradient_windows_m": [
5.0,
10.0,
20.0,
25.0,
50.0,
100.0
],
"diagnostic_windows_m": [
2.0,
3.0
],
"elevation_crs": "EPSG:26918",
"elevation_resolution_m": 1.0,
"elevation_tiles": [
"data/cache/usa/ma/USGS_1M_18_x66y472_MA_Western_B24.tif",
"data/cache/usa/ma/USGS_1M_18_x66y473_MA_Western_B24.tif"
],
"calculated_at": "2026-09-03T12:58:49+00:00",
"road_source": "/mnt/HC_Volume_106727764/site-corpus-fresh/us/black-brook-road/black-brook-road.geojson",
"run_id": "canopy-all-260903",
"elevation_provider": "USGS 3DEP (The National Map)",
"elevation_licence": "Public domain \u2014 USGS 3DEP 1 m DEM, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey",
"elevation_dataset": "USGS 3DEP 1 m DEM, MA_Western_B24 (collected 2023-24)",
"elevation_tile_ids": [
"x66y472",
"x66y473"
],
"climb_origin": "discovered",
"canopy_source": {
"kind": "ept_corridor_max_return",
"ept_source": "https://usgs-lidar-public.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/USGS_LPC_MA_ME_MA_QL2_UTM18_L1_2015_LAS_2018",
"ept_crs": "EPSG:3857",
"station_coverage": 0.998,
"cell_ground_m": 1.0,
"nodes_failed": 0
},
"license": "ODbL-1.0",
"license_url": "https://howsteep.org/licensing"
}