Only 355 days to our next Death Valley trip.

This year's trip is over and we again have nice
tan lines to show for it along with racking up
a bunch of fun, challenging, and memorable rides.

The weather conditions, although not affecting our
ability to ride every day, did bring temperatures
colder than we expected and did showcased the
awesome unpredictable forces that shape and rule
the valley and make it a spectacular place to ride.

The conditions also allowed us to explore and
confirm that the valley offers quite a number of
great mt. bike rides of various difficulties and
lengths -- for future reference.

Reene and Jeanne rode every day and every ride
and with nice sunny conditions on the last day
the 24-mile 5-8% climb to the 4,956' Towne Pass
would decided who would pile up the most miles
for the trip. Both reached the top in just over
two hours before racing off the mountain in a
tick over 30 minutes.

That gave Reene a total of 399 miles but because
Jeanne days earlier had made the last 3-mile
climb to Scotty's Castle she had a total of 402
miles. Gabby, although skipping one climb, got
the climber's jersey after winning every climb.

Paul, realizing there was no chance of keeping
up with their relentless climbing, decided that
going to breakfast on the last day was a better
course of action, having already wrapped up the
tour rookie award.

Due to the bad weather all over the south-west
most people stayed away from Death Valley, even
for the long weekend, so this year we mostly had
the roads to ourselves.

Our uneventful trip back to rainy Chico included
most of the Panamint Loop route, a planned new
ride we were unable to do, but it looks like a
fantastic but likely hard 65-mile ride, including
a 6-mile 9+% downhill segment, that will have to
wait until next year.

And to those who stayed home we can only say that
we don't want any crying because you missed out...