Did a recon ride of Mines/Hamilton/Sierra/Calaveras yesterday with friends who are signed up for DMD for the first time. I planned to ride it this year, but with Death Valley not happening, I started late on developing a base. Getting to the bottom of Sierra at around mile 60 was brutal enough -- I don't want to think about getting there with an extra ~80 miles in my legs. On the plus side, riding up the back of Hamilton with fresh legs was really nice.