Frostbite 2014

18 Apr - 20 Apr

T-shirt design by Jim Tibbs

It looks like this is becoming our traditional first "camping" trip of the season. Not that we are the only ones forgoing the dubious comforts of a tent for the solid walls of a trailer or RV. It was particularly pleasant to have a place to get out of the weather this weekend as it rained on and off most of Saturday. Tina and Larry and the usual volunteers rigged up a newly-purchased tent over the registration/buffet tables, erected a tarp to cover the barbecue grill, and built a tarp-covered log framework over the flatbed trailer designed for the musicians. Luckily Sunday, Easter morning, dawned dry and gradually cleared to provide soarable conditions later in the day.

18 April, Fri - Since it had been rainy on Thursday we didn't put the glider on or even the ladder rack until the morning. The trailer was still in the garage but it was pretty much ready to go - just some food to put in the refrigerator and we were set to hook up and pull away. Probably because we hadn't moved the trailer out of the garage, we had to drive the car onto one of 2x6s to raise the hitch enough to get the trailer jack wheel off. In the rush to be off by 0900 I forgot to load the collapsible water container, so we would have to rely on the water in the tank for the whole weekend. We made a gas stop at Covington and stopped at the Alder Lake CG to use their rest room. That put us down at Dog by 1115 or so. After setting up and saying hello to everyone we drove to the top in Chris and Christine's big pickup. While the wind in the LZ had been west (I think), the north launch was being used on the summit. Since there was room, I set up and launched as soon as possible. I tried going east since there was some east-cross in the wind. No luck, so I went back around to the west side and slowly worked down to the LZ for about fifteen minutes - better than most. C.J. got her flight with a good launch and landing on her Falcon. Later I went up again and tried twice to launch in no-wind conditions without success. I tried to drive JJ's Subaru down but couldn't get the key to turn. We hung out around the LZ and our Aliner the rest of the day, had soup, salad and bread for dinner at the picnic tables that Dave and Diane Auman had brought (along with a ton of firewood, an ATV, the flatbed trailer, and his Chalet). When we finally went to bed, we used the down comforter and two fleece blankets - it was chilly but not below freezing.

19 April, Sat - We didn't even go up to launch but other people did and some even flew (How else could Jasmine Himes have gotten ten flights over the course of the weekend...and win the (kingposted-glider) spotlanding contest?). While it was windy mostly from the east in the LZ, at launch people were launching in calm conditions. Steve Alford flew and landed just before a strong gust front struck and C.J. helped him hold his glider down and pack it up in the wind and rain. We had a hot lunch but were ready for the potluck dinner with burgers and sausage. There were lots of desserts so C.J.'s chocolate peanut butter cake did not get eaten up (until Sunday when we put it out again, much to my dismay). The weather was undecided with showers and dry spells. The bonfire helped keep people from wandering back to their own campers but after a while I had had enough of the wet, wind and noise and spent the rest of the evening reading (Oops, there's another thing I forgot; now that I have a 12-volt outlet and my old inverter installed I need to remember the charging cord for the Nook). On the flatbed Scott had placed his drumset and must have invited fellow drummers to give them a workout. There were a few folks with acoustic guitars but we missed having Paul and Val Gallagher around.

20 April, Sun - After a lazy morning, we drove up with Chris and Christine again and I got a short flight. The hang gliders were being really considerate about leaving a place for paragliders to launch behind the north ramp. C.J. must have waited a little while because when she called me after she landed she had flown for 40 min and had gotten to 3800 ft from the 2150' launch.

C.J. taking off from the Dog Mtn north launch

photo by Christine Nidd

 One of the reasons I didn't wait around was that on the ride up C.J. noticed that she was missing her left hearing aid. When I got on the ground after my (nine-minute) flight and packed up, I went right over to the back of the car where C.J. had pulled off her sweatshirt, shook it out and found the hearing aid on the ground. I noticed that people were starting to soar so I snagged a ride to the top and after two failures to get my forward-launch over my head, I tried a reverse inflation and got off. Justin was circling and climbing right out in front of the north launch and I hit lift even before I had reached his position. It was a slow climb but I got up over launch in the drift from the north. I worked the north face and the clearcut, then the west face with Dave Little in his rigid. Finally I got over 3000' and I went off to explore first trying to go to Elk but turning back at the far shore when I saw that Dave had not found any lift there, then to the north a bit farther than the old north field. On my return to Dog I was below launch and could not get back up so I went out and landed. Neither of my landings were on the bullseye so I wasn't in the running for the PG spotlanding trophy. I think Bryan Bright from Eatonville won it. [There were only five PGers present:  me, Bryan, Brent Taylor from Yelm, Dave and Diana. Kathy and Kim stopped by Fri evening to say they had gotten to 6k at Bremer and flown to a point east of the Morton airport.]. C.J. thought conditions looked good enough for a second flight so I drove her up and she got another short flight. By now it was after 1700 and volunteers were dismantling the shelters and packing up. I lowered the roof on the trailer while C.J. broke her glider down, and then we pulled out for home shortly after 1800, arriving about 2015.