C.J. and I went over to Chelan a day early for the annual Beach 'N. After setting up our condo tent at Beebe Bridge campground (which still had the off-season half-price senior rate), we headed up the Butte after a stop to visit with Lori, Kelly, Brian and Darren. Conditions were really light but Tom Johns and Joe Ullman were soaring their hang gliders high above. No other paragliders were on launch or in the air. While I was getting ready to go, Tom landed and reported that lift was plentiful, smooth, and strong at times. I launched between the rocks, had no trouble climbing above the towers and headed west across the saddle to the next bump to get out of the traffic. Tom had reported getting to 7300 ft but I couldn't find the same elevator and got to only 6600 feet. C.J. landed after 45 minutes or so, and I decided that if I could get to 7000 I would try going cross-country at least to WalMart and maybe to the airport, having never tried going north on a paraglider (also, the McNeil Canyon road was closed for construction). As the afternoon progressed the thermal strength and height decreased so I had no chance of reaching 7000 but I took the best climb I had (to about 6200 ft) and glided north. There was not a beep from my vario as I passed over the river and the city of Chelan. I sailed past WalMart and onto the slopes of Deer Mtn where I started climbing again slowly. Tryg's, Paul's and Dave's properties slowly sank below me and I began feeling more confident of reaching at least the airport. Heading north again I stopped at the next summits to regain lost altitude each time finding less to work with. Finally, I was reduced to flying barely above the rim of the Apple Acres Road canyon and continuing across Antoine Creek to the hills south of Wells Dam. By then it was after 1700 and there was no sustainable lift so I turned back and landed in a large field closer to the road for a total distance of almost 11 miles. C.J. was there before I finished packing up having walked back up to Tom and Lori's for the Trooper.
A screen capture of my flight log on Google Earth
Later we went back to Lakeside Park then up to Tom and Lori's again to let them know where I had gotten to, then we went back to camp and prepared supper. Greg Peterson and his girlfriend Shaylin camped next to us and we decided to drive up together on Saturday.
We got to Lakeside shortly after 0830 after a quick stop to get a block of ice at Safeway and signed up for the spot landing contest. After loading Greg's hang glider we headed up. Today there were some more paraglider pilots. Meredyth was there and she reported having made almost the same flight I had yesterday but a couple of hours earlier. Conditions were light again but this time it wasn't soarable and I managed to get in four flights, some with Shaylin as driver and once with Rog and Rebeckah. The first two flights were smooth and I was able to overfly the Green Monster and hug the north spine to fly out over Lone Pine. My third flight was in less friendly air and I took a couple of fairly big whacks crossing the ridge above the saddle. On my fourth flight I crossed to the far side of the "gauntlet" and worked some lift off that ridge before coming in from west of the park. At the end of the day, both Tom and I had tied for first place with neither of us hitting the bulls eye but averaging the white ring on each landing. Kevin White on his PG (once on his tandem with Amy, Rob's girlfriend) was close behind with a bullseye and some blue ring landings.
Instead of a barbecue, Lori ordered pizza from Company Creek and Mystic Pizza; it was pretty expensive but hot and tasty - and much easier. By 2100 we were ready to head back to camp and get some rest - four flights in a day, even with a paraglider, was pretty tiring.
Sunday we spent the morning on the Butte but no paragliders flew and, after the Race to the Beach, Tom didn't fly anymore either. I replaced most of the missing wind streamers on and around the launches then drove back down. By 1300 I had packed up camp and was ready to head home. Lori didn't wait to hand out the prizes until 1500, so, after getting my first place tie prize of two nights at the Best Western (Tom took the dinner for two at Campbells) and C.J. picking up a $25 gift certificate for the Hungry Belly Deli, we started early for home. A lack of traffic congestion put us in North Bend by 1730. It looked like flying conditions might have been good on the west side of the mountains as well as in Chelan.
