Failed yet again to get enough sleep for a 7am start - was in bed and sort of zoned out, but didn't actually sleep. Cancelled the alarm and got up mid-morning.

Didn't actually get to the trailhead until 2:30 pm.

Took another spill while riding fast hoping to get to a key junction by 8pm. Very fortunate to have only a tiny spot of road rash on my arm, but I found myself sitting legs extended on the trail and utterly locked with cramps - was several minutes before I could even get up as any attempt to gather my legs made the cramps worse. Someone southbound was nice enough to stop and wait until I was back on my feet. Had to walk a ways to loosen up before I could ride again. Got back on and made it to that junction at 8:20 instead, and rigged my lights there (sunset was officially 8:30 or thereabouts).

Finished the last ten miles of the one-way ride slowly under a headlamp.

So I can still do what I could do a month ago. But cutting the time close is not smart. Snapped a picture of the taxi dispatch booth at the train station so now I have their phone number...

Was very glad to have the larger more stable wheel that I feel like I can trust, at least once I'm up on it. Realized that up-grades after road crossings usually mean the crossing road is on an incline too, so a couple of times mounted up on the road's downgrade and then did a quick turn into the trail.

Drank something like 8 liters of fluids, and it pretty much all came out as sweat. Mostly water with nuun tabs, some gatorade, gatorade with nuun, etc but cramps suggest I was still too far on the water side. Was very glad to have dry clothes, a long sleeve shirt, and a ski hat for the heavily air-conditioned hour and half train ride back.