Lakeview 2008

19 July - 24 July

19 July, Saturday – After Barbara left for the road cleanup work party at 0830 we continued to pack up our gear. We got on the road by 1000 and used the GPS to find Kevin Lee’s house where we picked up a couple of PTT buttons to repair C.J.’s PTT. Backtracking a short distance along Hwy 66, we took Dead Indian Memorial Hwy up a long series of switchbacks and over a pass into pine forest and past Lake of the Woods to Rte 140. In Klamath we stopped for gas and a bit later stopped at a rest area for lunch. We pulled into Lakeview around 1530 and spent some time at the Chamber of Commerce downloading email. It was 1700 or so when we were driving along the forest road in towards Lassen Creek CG that we got a big puncture in the right rear tire. I changed the tire and then we tried to call Les Schwab to see if they had a replacement or would have to order it but we couldn’t get any cell coverage even in front of Sweet-n-Low. It was later than we had planned when we pulled in to the campground which was full of rockhounds, there for their annual gathering. Fortunately, Ginny offered to prepare a dinner of stew for all of us. Our quilt and down comforter were barely adequate for the chilly night.

20 July, Sunday – Wally and I went down to Canby to help Debbie and Roger move a heirloom piano from the U-Haul truck to the shop area of the strawbale house. We stopped in Alturas on the way back to pick up some groceries and an 8-liter water container. In the evening we went up to Sweet-n-Low with some sandwiches made by Ginny and found very light conditions. After an hour or so I set up just to kite a little and see how it felt. But as soon as I was ready, the wind picked up to 15 plus and I bundled it back up. Wally, however, set up and launched heading out at 5 mph while climbing. He slid south and then came back, turned N and flew to FS 30 about 0.5 mi from Hwy 395. C.J. and I drove down in his truck to retrieve him. Roger and Dirk, who never set up their hang gliders, drove down later also. We saw a fantastic, bright red sun set behind the western horizon before heading back to camp. It was a bit warm with some cloud cover during the night.

7/21, Monday – C.J. and I went in to Lakeview so I could either get the tire repaired or a new one. I’d like to put sturdier tires on to decrease the puncture probability down here in obsidian country. Les Schwab took a look at my tire, called it unrepairable and gave me a couple of options – replace the rear tires (low tread depth on both) for about $300 or put truck tires on all four wheels (different size and different number of plies – can’t mix and match) for over $800. Pretty easy choice since the front tires aren’t really worn down that much. C.J. hung out at the Chamber and Caro talked to her about the low turnout of paraglider pilots at the “Umpteenth Annual Festival of Flight”. Lakeview people seem to think the reason is that the Rat Race started on the second day of the festival weekend. C.J. showed Caro her t-shirt quilt and Caro gave her (and me) this year’s t-shirt. Just as we were leaving, Ginny and Wally showed up. Conditions didn’t look good for flying – it had actually rained a bit! We had lunch and headed back to camp while Wally waited for Ginny to finish an online workshop. He radioed us from Blackcap that it didn’t look like a soarable day and returned to camp with a stop to check Sweet-n-Low which didn’t look flyable. We had an early dinner of Wally’s Mexican spaghetti.

22 July, Tuesday – I really wanted a chance to fly the Sport 4 that Wally had brought with him so we went up to Sugar around 1000 and conditions were pretty good with the cycles just beginning to get stronger. I got ready quickly and launched first and was able to soar above launch and to the left. Then I headed over to the right and worked the north point even around to the north side. C.J. launched then two more guys showed up and Wally took time to brief them on the site before he launched. We weren’t getting high and there was a lot of up and down but we were staying in the air which is not always the case for Sugar in the morning. I finally broke through the inversion (?) and got to 8000 ft and asked Wally about trying to cross the gap. He thought we needed 9000 or more. I sank down some, and Wally was much lower and had to go out to the quarry to get back up again. I got to 8200 but couldn’t get any higher without drifting too far behind the ridge. However, the next time I got near 8000, I decided to see how far I could go and headed north over toward Sweet-n-Low. I hit some lift on the way but mostly I was crabbing until I passed S&L and turned NE, then I was racing along downwind at 35 mph. It wasn’t enough and I ended up landing just short of the Lassen Creek canyon in a good field. Wally flew over my head on his Mustang and made it to Four Corners and landed on the road just beyond. C.J. had decided that the wind was too strong and she had gone out to land at the bail-out LZ. After packing her wing, she got out her “Pilot Needs Ride” sign and the first car stopped for her and took her all the way to Four Corners where Ginny picked them both up then came for me. We just hung out around camp the rest of the day and ate an early supper (1700) so we could go back to S&L for the glassoff. Unfortunately the wind direction was too north even though the velocity was not bad, so we went back to camp and started packing for tomorrow’s departure.

23 July 2008, Wednesday – We packed up camp and were out by 0945. C.J. and I went to the Lakeview CofC and collected email and checked the weather. Then we drove the scenic USFS road 28 through the mountains to Silver Lake. There was a particularly nice campground on Campbell Lake (near Deadhorse Lake) but it was in the midst of an infestation of bark beetles so it was going to be closed for logging starting on 28 July. In Bend we stopped to shop at the Outlet Mall and C.J. got some new walking shoes and a discounted t-shirt. We grabbed some early dinner at Costco and then drove out to Pine where we were the first to arrive (about 1730). However, soon others began arriving, lots of others. We were among the first to launch although Steve Wright warned us that it might still be thermally. C.J. got up quickly and was able to go far out in front of launch, toward Frankie’s Flying Farm and Steve and Nona’s place, come back to launch and go back to Pine HG launch and then fly out to land at Steve’s where we spent the night. I took much longer getting up and didn’t get as high as C.J. who reached 7400 ft. I made the same triangle as C.J. – but may not have tagged the spots – have to look at our track logs to see (later: I actually got out a little farther than C.J.). Steve showed us around his three cabins (all legally under 200 sq ft) built a campfire for us and then left us to sleep in his guest cabin while he went back to his home in the city.

24 July, Thursday – After breakfast at the “Stenona Station”, we followed the Garmin Street Pilot detour around the “strip” in Bend and intersected US 97 on the way to Redmond. The GPS was confused in Redmond because there is a recently completed bypass that is not in its memory. We stopped for lunch at Brooks State Park beyond Goldendale, got gas in Union Gap (Costco) and drove through the Yakima Canyon to check out the new campground that has displaced our southern LZ at Baldy. We got home about 1530 and picked up mail, unpacked and did some cleanup. Glad to be home where there is a real shower.