The Rainier Paragliding Club, established by Kim Smith when he moved from Issaquah and Tiger Mountain to Cinnabar and Bremer Ridge, has branched out geographically from its roots. There are now eight or more pilot members in the Port Townsend/Bainbridge Island area. So it makes sense for one of their fly-ins to be held on the Olympic Peninsula.
We arrived Friday afternoon after a leisurely start and various detours to avoid traffic congestion, and a stop for lunch at a park overlooking the recently completed second span of the Tacoma Narrows bridge. Mike McIntyre's wife, Arliss, welcomed us to their yard where we set up our tent, then offered us a map to the Blyn site where Mike had taken Don Daly and Chris King for a flight. It was about a 30 min drive to the LZ and then maybe another half-hour to the launch, which looked a LOT better than it did 15 or 20 years ago when Dave Chuljian, a surfer, hang glider and dentist from PT, took us up there. John Erickson, who had ridden up with us, decided to drive so Mike launched just as the wind speed went to zero. Neither C.J. nor I felt that our wings were sufficiently pressurized to make the transition from launch to air over a steep log pile, so we aborted and drove the vehicles down. On the way back we stopped at QFC in Hadlock and picked up a roasted chicken and some good bread for dinner. By the time we reached "camp", Mike had a campfire going and more pilots were arriving.
Saturday we got out of camp around 1100 and rendezvoused at the Brinnon Motel where we parked some cars and carpooled to the 2Bear LZ, then up the winding a brushy road to launch. It was in fact the same one C.J. and I had launched from twenty-five years ago with our old Dove when Steve Hollister, Rolf Johansen and others had taken us here on a road trip. Conditions were very light but got better, if not good enough for the locals to launch. However, CC Cunningham had seen two turkey vultures climb out from below launch, and he was convinced that it was time to go. That was good enough for us and we followed CC off launch with forward inflations. We all had nearly 20 minutes with some definite good climbs in very smooth air. The three pilots who followed us were a little too late but had smooth sledders. It may not have been quite dinner time but we had all skipped lunch and were ready to adjourn to the Geoduck Tavern in Brinnon. In spite of the Hood Canal seascape visible from the windows, burgers and beer were the predominant choice, although C.J.had the chowder and calamari. We made another stop at QFC on the way back to camp to pick up fixings for smores which were a big hit around the campfire that night.
Sunday dawned gray and gloomy and the forecast was for rain, although some pilots tried to convince themselves otherwise. We got the tent (the new condo-size Tomie Peak) down and everything packed up before it really started to rain around 1000. After a tour of Arliss' impressive stone carving workshop, we left for Port Townsend and the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium at Fort Worden State Park. There was no charge to walk along the beach looking at the hundreds of demo kayaks and booths of other gear. We talked to a New Zealand exporter (Incept) who had a bunch of inflatable sea kayaks and one nice-looking white water boat. We also stopped at the Seda display and, just for fun, tried picking up the Tango remembering how heavy the one we borrowed from Annie was. We were shocked to find it felt lighter than our Gemini even though it is much longer (3 ft longer!). That's something to think about for the future.
From Port Townsend we headed south and across the Hood Canal Floating Bridge to Port Orchard where we spent the rest of the day visiting with Michelle DeVoe. Later, Bill Beck showed up and we had a delicious dinner of eggplant parmigiana. Home by 2200.
We arrived Friday afternoon after a leisurely start and various detours to avoid traffic congestion, and a stop for lunch at a park overlooking the recently completed second span of the Tacoma Narrows bridge. Mike McIntyre's wife, Arliss, welcomed us to their yard where we set up our tent, then offered us a map to the Blyn site where Mike had taken Don Daly and Chris King for a flight. It was about a 30 min drive to the LZ and then maybe another half-hour to the launch, which looked a LOT better than it did 15 or 20 years ago when Dave Chuljian, a surfer, hang glider and dentist from PT, took us up there. John Erickson, who had ridden up with us, decided to drive so Mike launched just as the wind speed went to zero. Neither C.J. nor I felt that our wings were sufficiently pressurized to make the transition from launch to air over a steep log pile, so we aborted and drove the vehicles down. On the way back we stopped at QFC in Hadlock and picked up a roasted chicken and some good bread for dinner. By the time we reached "camp", Mike had a campfire going and more pilots were arriving.
Saturday we got out of camp around 1100 and rendezvoused at the Brinnon Motel where we parked some cars and carpooled to the 2Bear LZ, then up the winding a brushy road to launch. It was in fact the same one C.J. and I had launched from twenty-five years ago with our old Dove when Steve Hollister, Rolf Johansen and others had taken us here on a road trip. Conditions were very light but got better, if not good enough for the locals to launch. However, CC Cunningham had seen two turkey vultures climb out from below launch, and he was convinced that it was time to go. That was good enough for us and we followed CC off launch with forward inflations. We all had nearly 20 minutes with some definite good climbs in very smooth air. The three pilots who followed us were a little too late but had smooth sledders. It may not have been quite dinner time but we had all skipped lunch and were ready to adjourn to the Geoduck Tavern in Brinnon. In spite of the Hood Canal seascape visible from the windows, burgers and beer were the predominant choice, although C.J.had the chowder and calamari. We made another stop at QFC on the way back to camp to pick up fixings for smores which were a big hit around the campfire that night.
Sunday dawned gray and gloomy and the forecast was for rain, although some pilots tried to convince themselves otherwise. We got the tent (the new condo-size Tomie Peak) down and everything packed up before it really started to rain around 1000. After a tour of Arliss' impressive stone carving workshop, we left for Port Townsend and the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium at Fort Worden State Park. There was no charge to walk along the beach looking at the hundreds of demo kayaks and booths of other gear. We talked to a New Zealand exporter (Incept) who had a bunch of inflatable sea kayaks and one nice-looking white water boat. We also stopped at the Seda display and, just for fun, tried picking up the Tango remembering how heavy the one we borrowed from Annie was. We were shocked to find it felt lighter than our Gemini even though it is much longer (3 ft longer!). That's something to think about for the future.
From Port Townsend we headed south and across the Hood Canal Floating Bridge to Port Orchard where we spent the rest of the day visiting with Michelle DeVoe. Later, Bill Beck showed up and we had a delicious dinner of eggplant parmigiana. Home by 2200.
No comments:
Post a Comment