Quote Originally Posted by ivorygorgon View Post
Zoom- we stayed at Furnace Creek Ranch. Our century went out the other way - Scotty's Castle was the turnaround. I am not sure how hot it was, I don't think it got that hot, maybe up to 90 at the most, but for most of the day it was really pretty nice. I was nervous about riding in the dark, but it was pretty incredible, particularly since part of it was a big downhill. We bought some really good lights so I had no trouble seeing and again, the stars were just incredible.
Oh, 90 with that low humidity would be heavenly. 90 even with our high humidity in the Summer makes for a tolerable ride. Our ride day ended up with temps in the 110º neighborhood. Last year they had similar conditions and a third of the field ended up sagged back to the start. This year almost half of the riders were first-timers in DV, so they didn't want to risk that again. I think they had only a couple of riders requiring SAG back to the start with the modified route, so it was a smart plan.

I would love to see the stars out there without the full moon. Our first night there we went up to Zabriskie Point to look at stars (has become team tradition), but the moon was too bright. I still thought the moonlight was amazing. It surely gives the desert an extra-surreal look.