I'll start a new topic later, but for now:
I got on the salt about 5 this afternoon. It was a hazy 100F. From Land's End to the pits is about 3 miles of hard and pretty smooth salt, with it getting a bit damper as I got closer to the pit area. I'll get a pic up for you later tonight.
The start line is only a quarter-mile or so off Land's End, and all the salt is pretty hard. I didn't see anything scary (like a year or two ago) on the way to the line. I could discern where the underground river crossed the area - but only by visual cues -- no soft spots. Course 2 runs kinda parallel to the dike - maybe a half mile or more off it (I didn't look carefully).
That's enough - gotta go check into the motel. Later - -