One could have easily done this ride without lights last night as the almost full moon was more than enough on the way up and all the bright lights on the different bikes on the way down, lit up the road as if there had been cars behind us. As far as your having been off the bike for a while, that is the perfect time to do a nice climb to get back on the saddle. Last night was the first ride in over 4 months for me(GMR June 19), but it felt great to be up in the mountains on the bike again. Everyone that missed this ride lost out on a great time. It was nice meeting new people too, even if I couldn't see most of them. Will have to check out Beanz's pictures to see who was there.