Lone Pine to Death Valley by Moonlight

Due To Circumstances Beyond Our Control, The 2008 Event Has Been Cancelled.
Lone Pine to the border of Death Valley National Park
and Back By the Light of the Full Moon!

Come for the night - stay for the weekend! Set in the heart of the beautiful Eastern High Sierras, Lone Pine is the gateway to both Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States at 14,496 feet, and Death Valley National Park, the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level. Lone Pine is also home to the Alabama Hills. The granite boulders of the Alabama Hills have been used as a backdrop for hundreds of movies and television shows. The unique scenery seems strangely familiar, triggering memories of places you’ve never been, except at the theater!

Bring the entire family! There's way more to do here than just ride your bike a hundred miles!!!

Start / Finish Location
Dow Villa Motel, 310 S. Main Street in Lone Pine. 800-824-9317. $94 per night, double occupancy. Be sure and ask for the group "Planet" to get the special rate.

Parking:
If you're not staying at the host hotel, please do not park in the motel lot. There is ample street parking nearby.

Check In
Rider Check-In will take place on Saturday afternoon from 3:00pm to 5:00pm at the Dow Villa in room 32. (This is for pre-registered riders only. There are no last minute sign-ups at the event.)

Start/Finish Time
We will have a starting window from 4:00pm to 5:00pm. This gives riders a chance to enjoy the scenery in the light of day before the sun sets at 8:00pm. We encourage those riders needing more time to complete the course to start as early as possible. For safety reasons, there's a nine hour time limit - so the course will close at 1:00am. Please consider your anticipated ride time requirements when deciding what time to begin.

Moonrise/Moonset
The full moon will be rising at 6:08pm (but it takes a bit longer to actually climb above the mountains). Civil twilight ends at 8:20pm. All riders must carry lights, and have them on, after dark!

Ride Descriptions
Century Option: Beginning in Lone Pine, you'll head South on Highway 395. About 1 miles down the road you'll hang a left and start pedaling towards Death Valley National Park. As the full moon rises, you'll make your way past Owens Lake, which has been dry since 1924. (Learn about how Los Angeles "acquired" all the water from the Owens Valley by clicking here.) At about mile 37 you'll reach the border of Death Valley National Park. Here, have your riding buddy take your photo by the Death Valley National Park sign, grab some food and fill your bottles, flip a U-turn and keep on pedaling. Back at the dry lake bed, you'll hang a left and take a little detour around Owens Lake towards Olancha. You'll then retrace the course, and finally make your way back to Lone Pine and your comfy hotel bed. 100 miles with 2850' climbing. That's a pretty flat century!

Metric Century+ Option: Well, it's really 75 miles. Same as the century, pretty much, but you miss the moonlight tour of the Owens Dry Lake Bed. About 2400' climbing.

NOTE: Route sheets are not available prior to rider check-in; so please, please don't ask us to send you one.

Special Rules
Cal Trans and the California Highway Patrol requires single file riding at all times. Please ride as far to the right hand side of the lane as is safely possible. For night riding, front and rear lights, and reflective ankle bands for both legs are mandatory. As tempting as it may be as the full moon lights the sky and the road, please, do not turn off your lights at any time while riding. Not only will you be jeopardizing the future of this event, but you just might get a hefty ticket from a watchful CHP officer. Always remember that your behavior will be a huge factor in determining whether we get a permit for this event next time. Let's all work together to keep Cal Trans, the CHP, and other visitors to this very popular area, as happy and safe as possible!

Lights
As required by law (California Vehicle Code Section 21201), all riders riding in hours of darkness must have a legal front and rear lighting system and have reflective gear on their body and/or bicycle facing in all four directions. This means a white headlight that can be seen from 300 feet and a red taillight (non-blinking) secured to the bicycle and visible from 500 feet; and riders must wear both a left and right reflective ankle band. The more reflective gear and additional lights, the better! Be visible! This is mandatory - and NOT NEGOTIABLE. We're very, very serious about safety - so please note: Riders who fail to comply with this policy will be listed as DQ in the ride results. If you think we're strict, check out the RUSA rules for riding at night (which, by the way, we highly recommend you follow anyway).

If you forget your ankle bands, we'll likely have them for sale at rider check-in for $3.00 each, or 2 for $5.00. Better yet, buy them in advance here!

Hydration
The Owens Valley, just on the border of Death Valley National Park, has some of the driest climate on earth. Most of the time there is no moisture in the air at all. This means every breath goes in dry and comes out wet. Even when you are sleeping in the Owens Valley your body processes about a pint of water an hour just by breathing. This means at the end of 8 hours sleep you have consumed about 1 gallon of water. You must hydrate and replace your electrolytes even when you are not cycling. Therefore we suggest you bring a Camelbak!

While we will provide excellent SAG on the course, we strongly encourage everyone to use a Camelbak. Running out of water on any ride is a bummer at the very least. So, even though we do a great job of "taking care of you" at our events, it's always a good idea for you to take care of yourself as well. Bring a Camelbak with at least 50oz. of water, plus two full-size water bottles. Better to have too much than not enough!

Volunteers
We always need volunteers!!! We can only put these events on with the help of loyal, trustworthy, motivated individuals running the checkpoints along the way. To provide a little incentive, we offer one free entry into any Planet Ultra event for each time you volunteer at a Planet Ultra event. It's a simple formula: "work one, ride one free!" So please contact us to let us know when and where you'd like to help. Please note that the intent of the "work one, ride one free" offer is to encourage riders themselves to give something back to the sport they love. However, we also appreciate when riders bring along family and friends who they've recruited to help out, so we're offering a one-half ride credit to the recruiter if the volunteer doesn't want the ride credit. Ride credits must be used within a year of the date of volunteering.


View of Owens Lake. Photo by Ben Jones	Mt. Whitney October sunset - view from Lone Pine. Photo by Ben Jones	Diaz Lake, just three miles South of Lone Pine. Photo by Ben Jones