Pre-rode the Mar 2026 Desert Series 400k ride today, starting at 5:49am and ended at 12:25am. Total time of 18 hr 36 min. Got a late start to the ride since was up until 1130 with Landon at hockey. So started this ride with 4 hours of sleep. Great route, nice temps, some favorable and unfav wind, but not real bad. Did exploring of bathrooms in Buckeye. I was able to keep my food & water intake going well. Opted to go all the way from start in Sun City area to Queen Creek, 125 miles, before I stopped for lunch at Ike's! Another great sandwich at this Ike's. I ate both halves and had at lest 3 cups of the angry vanilla soda. Yet making the sandwich a combo was $4.50, and not sure that was worth it. Got to the top of Adero Canyon before had to put on night clothes and really turn on headlights. I did have some anxiety as the night wore on about my headlights. I had the mounted one and Ay Up. As usual I started off using the mounted light. When the indicator turned red, I decided to try the experiment of charging the light from my main battery. Turns out that while charging, the mounted like goes to the blinky mode. Useable in an emergency, just not desirable. My main concern was my power bank was only at 2 lights! That was hard to believe since I started at 4. So a quandary about do I risk charging my light and run down the battery before the GPS computer needs juice. Figured the GPS would last those last 40 miles. Plus I had my phone as backup to record progress. I knew the route, so that was not an issue. Continued on with the test. Turns out my mounted light while charging eventually got to indicator blinking green! So stopped charging it. All worked out well. The big highlight of the trip after Ike's, was the sunset view over Phx as I descended from Fountain Hills. Got a great photo of Camelback Mtn. Even at 54F I was chilly so put on my orange wind breaker over the vest. I never used my blue woolie base layer. PRE-RIDE EMAIL sent to Mike S 2/25/26: There were 2 areas of major road construction and 1 of unknown nature. All mileages are in the original route miles with my miles at end of entry: 1a. Mile 176.9 - 177.2 New pavement has been laid starting from I-10 overpass down to Yuma Rd. The cue about cattle guard is no longer relevant due to these improvements. (per my start: mile 31.9 - 32.2) 1b. Mile 177.2 - 178.7 rip and replace of north bound lane (not our direction) is ongoing and only the south bound lane is open. See photo. No north bound traffic is allowed. The construction worker I talked to says: Construction works on Saturdays & they will start on the South bound ( way we are going) on March 10. I plan to drive over there on Thursday, early in day, to see progress and see what they think road status will be on Saturday, Mar 7, of ride. (per my start: mile 32.2 - 33.7) 2. Mile 25.8 - 27.3 Ellsworth Rd from E Germann Rd to turn into AZ Athletic Grounds is having a new lane replaced/installed. In some places traffic is reduced to 1 lane with plenty of construction cones. My guess is this project will have significant progress before the ride date and may not be an issue. (per my start: mile 130.5 - 132.0) 3. Mile 144.1 E-sign on Clearview Blvd "Road Construction 2-24-26 TO 3-10-26". I am unsure of the nature of this work. Since project ends the Tues after our Sat ride, maybe this will be a non-issue? (per my start: mile 248.6) POSSIBLE CUE ADDITIONS/NOTES: Mile 173.1 Maybe add this cue. "Water/RR at Tartesso Comm Park 0.5 on right" Mile 189.2 Maybe add this cue. "Water/RR at Edgar Rec Park by playground". The open restrooms are by playground, in the middle of the ball fields. Water is available there and at the closed restrooms on south east corner.(per my start: mile 44.7) Mile 218.0 The only dog chase was here. (per my start: mile 73.7)