It was great fun, and some pain too
My route was the 78 to 10 to 60 to 71 to 89.
The weight that I lost wasn't water weight, I just have one of those metabolisms that if I'm doing a lot of aerobic excercise, my body trims up quickly, then maintains a pretty constant body fat regardless of what I eat.
As for the tent, I tried all of that, and nothing worked. Some nights even the sidewalls of the floor of the tent had moisture on them. I guess the problem is especially bad in places with large temperature change between day and night like the desert, but still it was far too much of a problem.