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On November 2, the Death Valley century was my sixth century. This time, we were a group of riders from Caltech. Some were riding the century, some the double century. Well, I'm really too slow for riding the double, besides I don't enjoy riding at night, so I was going for "only" 100 miles. Since the ride was starting very early on saturday, we did the road part on friday afternoon, and stayed at the Furnace Creek campground for the night.
The century ride was not complicated: just ride straight from Furnace creek to Jubilee pass, turn around and come back to the start. This way we could see all the nice colors that Death Valley offers, in the morning as well as the afternoon. Personally, I think the best time of the day is just before sunset, you see plenty of red, orange, green from oxidized rocks.
The second night I camped at the Mahogany flats, overlooking the valley at 8133ft. I left my car at the Thorndike campground, and hiked with tent and sleeping equipment to the Mahogany flats, since the last mile is very bad for low-clearance cars like mine. My plan was initially to hike during the night to Telescope Peak and watch the sunrise from the top... actually, I was too lazy and tired to do that, and just hiked a couple miles on the trail in the morning, to enjoy the view on the valley. The full hike to the top will be for next time !
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