Yeah, problem is I don't want to try to look at the Garmin for directions because it's going to be hard to see when I need it (in the dark). There's a light, but I don't want to burn the extra battery if I don't have to.

Just going over and over the parts of the route that I am not familiar with in these different routing thingies is going to be very helpful. For the 600, I plotted the parts I didn't know in Topo and then "rode" the whole route in Google Earth. It just really helps to be familiar with the route. I also hope to be riding with Jim during the tricky night parts and he's done the ride before.