Death Valley double

Second year in a row! I don't have a proper write-up for this, but here we go with some details:
Five of us piled 5 deep into Molly's car after I read some Dr. Seuss in her class for a national reading day. My vocab word was 'deforestation'.
Got to Furnace Creek and checked into our room. Room, what? Megan, Molly and Jen volunteered so we got a free room. Jack and I slept in here and Morgan, John UCLA and another UCLA friend of theirs camped.

In AM we met up for start and Chris Kostman informed everyone that the 17 miles to Badwater was mostly gravel b/c of construction. What the fuck? First I got a flat. Then the UCLA snapped off his derailleur hanger on a $10,000 Colnago! Holy shit. It got hot (surprise!) and our crew was struggling a bit. The course is a 150-mile out and back and then a 50-mile out and back from the start. Last year a bunch of riders quit here. Jack showed some signs he is not invincible and had a rough time on the last 50, but pulled it off. 508 winner Kenny Fast Truck Gecko Souza rode the course in like 10 hours. Geez.
Start

Hiking on Sunday