FFFF 2016

August 8-12

C.J. flying at Whaleback, Mt. Shasta

Barbara Summerhawk invited us back to southern Oregon for her “Fun, Friends, Floating, Feasting and Flying” gathering which celebrates her birthday.

8 August, Monday – We left pretty close to 0800, got gas (2.239) in Wilsonville, OR, and again in Roseburg (2.199), and arrived at the yurt around 1630. That gave us time to move our carload of stuff into the yurt and help Barbara get ready for the first feast, a fish fry for nine. Barb made a spinach salad and salmon cooked with fruit, Debbie contributed some bruchetta (even though she was off flying the glassoff at Woodrat, Tim and Christine Ammon brought some samosas with coconut chutney, and wine. Geoff was there with a friend, Colleen, from the Bay Area and so was David Blizzard. C.J. had the dessert covered with a big pan of plum cobbler with whipped cream. After dinner Christina and Dave tried to get us to sing along with their guitar and ukulele (?) – too many different generations to agree on singable songs. When it got dark enough Barbara uncovered her telescope and we had good views of the waxing crescent moon, Mars and Saturn. By 2200 it was quite cool and our sleeping bags were not too warm in the yurt.

9 Aug, Tues – Up at 0710 to cook breakfast on the deck. We noticed that we had forgotten several things we usually had with us like the big water carrier, the black plastic ladle for stirring and serving oatmeal, and dish towels (not to mention toilet paper). At 0930 we and Barb and Deb gathered at the Applegate Store with David, Marybeth and Donnetta. Marybeth rode with us to the Hog Creek boat launch on the Rogue River. There we inflated our Sevylor yellow torpedo and put it in the swift-flowing river along with the big rental raft and Donnetta’s Sevylor which Deb was borrowing. There were plenty of stretches of white water and I thought that they were pretty challenging (actually rated as Class 2-2+). We hung up on a rock in the middle of Ennis Riffle and I had to get out to lift it over the obstruction. On another one we barely missed a deep hole and got turned around; fortunately, we made it the rest of the way through without getting rolled over, but that wasn’t the only “riffle” where we took on water. We reached our takeout location at Galice about 1400 and had to wait a bit for the guide from Ferron’s Fun Floats to get there and load our raft and two others until 1430. That gave us time to deflate our two kayaks. Ferron drove us all back to Hog Creek where we discussed where we would go for

David, Barbara, Marybeth, Donetta

the feast of the day. No one was keen to go back to the Galice Store where we had eaten last year. The local places in Applegate (Peace of Pizza, and a trailer parked next to the Applegate Store) weren’t open on Monday-Tuesday, or so we thought. The locals thought the Taprock, an upscale restaurant, would be a good venue if we could get seats on the deck overlooking the Rogue in Grants Pass. But there was a 15-20 min wait, too long for the instant gratification crowd, so we headed to Murphy and the Buckboard Grill. The fish tacos were a big draw for Barbara and the Happy Hour starting at 1600 had $1 tacos (fish for $2). I got a lunch special of a double burger with fries, and C.J. had three of the small “street tacos”.  We wouldn’t need any dinner. We left around 1645 and Debbie and Donnetta left from the Applegate Store to fly the evening glassoff. Marybeth checked with Dan and he thought it was too north and strong to be fun. So we went back to the yurt to dry out our gear and visit with Barbara. Later C.J. went up to the cabin to watch the Olympics coverage with Barb and Deb.

Floaters at Hog Creek Boat Launch

10 Aug, Wed – Up after 0800, oatmeal with fresh fruit. Around 1030 we drove over to Longsword to meet Debby and Barb and Dave Blizzard. We all drove to the top in our Sorento. Conditions were unsettled  with light wind from the north, east and south, but eventually around 1245 there were some good cycles up the west launch. Barb had gone right up as soon as she launched. When I followed, it was all sink until I was halfway to Mid-Launch. Then I hit pretty strong lift and climbed to 4200 or so. Lift was not smooth so I took a line heading for Longsword and hit lift along the way near the base of Squires Pk. I tried going north to lower Rabe’s Ridge but there was no lift along the way. Barb had already landed in the alfalfa field west of Longsword at 12 min into my flight. I found scattered lift and enough to circle in just south of LS. After I lost that, I worked my way down, a little too far down because I landed a ways east of the tasting room at LS and had to kite my wing to a place that wasn’t rife with star thistle (0:22). C.J. and Dave got to do a bunch of turns together and Deb got to 5500 or so, near Rabe’s in turbulent air. After we all packed up Debbie gave us a ride to retrieve our vehicle from the top. We ate the PB and jelly sandwiches then started back down. We took the long way around on Sterling Creek Rd and Little Applegate passing through the ghost town of Buncom. Once we got back to the yurt C.J. grabbed her computer and went over to Geoff and Teri’s to download the articles that needed editing. I joined her there and read through the three articles she had edited. By then it was close to 1800 so we prepared a quick dinner of pasta with fresh veggies and parmesan cheese so that we wouldn’t be too late for the poetry reading and Winged Migration video at Red Lily winery. Barbara did a good job as the emcee and the movie, on a large screen, was good, particularly after the sun went down and the contrast was better. Deb had posted on the RVHPA website that we were interested in going down to Whaleback (site near Mt Shasta) and Dan and Marybeth said that they would join us. Apparently there have been several folks down there and the flying has been everything from exceptional to terrifying. We planned to pack up Thursday morning and get going by noon. Dan said that you should be on the launch by 1700 for the glassoff and it’s 1.5 – 2 hrs travel time down there.

11 Aug, Thu – Barbara left around 1100 planning to drive Debbie up for a flight before she headed back to Arcata; then she was going to the Applegate Partnership office to do some environmental stuff. We hung out in the shade avoiding the hot sun as the temperature climbed back into the nineties and above, normal for the Medford area. Around 1315 we left for Jacksonville to meet Dan and Marybeth. We were early so we stopped at Ray’s Supermarket for a dish of ice cream. At the Wells’, MB showed us the new retaining wall and flat area, then when Nathan arrived we loaded up and headed south.  It did take two hours plus to get to the LZ where we met Ron Andresen who has a big pickup that could carry all six of us. We were on launch around 1700 and it was a bit strong and crossed from the SW.

Mt. Shasta from Whaleback Launch, Nathan and Ron

C.J. in the Whaleback LZ, Mt. Shasta in the distance

Nathan got off, then Dan, and Ron. That left us and MB on launch so we had a chance to wait until the wind/cycles had moderated a bit. C.J. had a nice clean launch and got to climb right away, eventually getting to 9400 from the 7500’ takeoff. I set up facing more to the SW (but not too far to the south, heeding Ron’s warning to avoid the rocks that he said were stained red from his accident) and waited through some very south cycles and then a time when there was no wind. Finally, I pulled up in a decent cycle and flew off toward the LZ which looked a long way away even though it was 3000’ below. C.J. told me later that I appeared to be in a convergence as I was going up as I flew away from launch. I made a few 360s in fairly smooth lift and reached 7800’. Dan had gotten high off to the right and Ron was scratching low to the left and landed early. Nathan was up and down and eventually landed short of the LZ and had a 5-10 min. walk. I flew over the LZ with close to 2000’ and continued all the way out to Hwy 97 before turning back. The LZ was pretty active but I managed to land where I was aiming – the only shade nearby, a good place to pack up. Nathan showed up walking out of the brush and Dan landed just on the edge of the LZ. C.J. radioed wondering if there was something she didn’t know about the conditions since everyone was landing. She finally got down low enough to make a good approach and landing. Dan had some cold beer to share and Nathan had brought some cheesecake – a veritable party! On the way home we stopped at Natalee Thai Restaurant in Yreka; C.J. and I shared a yellow curry with mango and salmon (a little spicy for her). We were back at Jacksonville by 2200 and back to the yurt before 2300. Barbara was out in the yard watching the Perseid meteor shower and we joined her for a while – lots of bright streaks!

12 Aug, Fri – Barbara was going to the coast with Teri leaving at 1000; that left time to have her over for a French toast breakfast at the yurt – a good way to use up the home-baked bread that was getting a bit stale. We were out of the yurt and on down the road shortly after 1000. We stopped for $20 of ARCO gas (2.359) in Grants Pass and C.J. got some pictures of a few of the iconic GP bears. We had planned to stop at Roseburg but we hadn’t used enough gas so we stopped instead at Eugene (2.199). An accident involving two big trucks closed I-5 south of Salem at exit 242 and had us delayed for probably an hour. That put us late into Portland on a Friday afternoon. We tried to avoid the backup on I-5 approaching the Interstate Bridge by taking I-205. We may have saved 30 minutes (63 min instead of 94 min) but it was still very slow. We had had a late-ish lunch so didn’t feel like stopping at 1800 in Chehalis/Centralia. We found a Jack (in the box) in Olympia on Martin Way but the service was so slow we left before ordering. Fortunately traffic was not a problem near JBLM and we pushed on to Puyallup where we got gas at Costco (2.359) and then dropped down into the city to eat at Five Guys next to Fred Meyers - good burger, fries and shake. We got home shortly after 2100 for an eleven-hour trip, even worse than the return from the last Rat Race on a Sunday. Still, we both felt it was worth it considering all the experiences we had – flying at Whaleback and Woodrat, floating the Rogue, feasting at the Buckboard, the fish fry and the Thai place, and visiting with the pilots and other friends.

Summer Weekend at Dog

30-31 July

After a half week of 80-plus degree days the forecast was for a cool stretch. We left around 1000 Saturday and got down to Tina and Larry’s airstrip ranch property around 1230 after stopping for gas at Covington (2.399). We set up in the shade of some of the remaining tall doug firs and hung out with Tina and Larry who were the only ones around – Jazzy and family were off doing something else and all the pilots must have already been at Dog. Larry had had a long flight Friday evening so they weren’t in a rush to get to launch. We went over around 1630 and noted that it was still pretty windy on launch. We got to watch some paragliders towing behind Todd’s winch boat. They got pretty high on the 6000 ft of towline. Wind was switching back and forth between the west launch and the north, but mostly was blowing from the NW. Andrew and a couple of other PG launched along with the hangies but Tina was waiting for the wind to settle on one direction. Finally C.J. tried the west launch and had a good takeoff. Tina went next. I decided that it wouldn’t be much fun in the strong wind so I drove the Jorgensen’s truck down. Since the wind was quite north, people were landing on the lakebed, and those who landed in the LZ had problems (I wasn’t there, but I heard that even Larry had a whack, and Carmela from CA broke a downtube but she was way out on the lakebed.) C.J. came in with a good approach on the lakebed but her basetube (she thought maybe it was her feet) got caught by the high weeds and she hit pretty hard. Fortunately, she let go and swung forward and suffered no more than a bruise from the front wire. James Pfiser and Travis ran out to her to make sure she was all right, and carried her wing back to the breakdown area. Since it was already pretty late, a bunch of us had dinner at the Bucksnort Pub in Morton. Surprisingly it wasn’t crowded on a Saturday night and the bacon-burger and fries were tasty. By the time we got back to camp and made up the bed it was close to 2330.

31 July, Sun – It was nice and cool overnight; the sheets and down comforter were just right. We got up around 0730 and had oatmeal and fruit (including some freshly picked blueberries from Tina’s bushes). Larry had been up even earlier but Tina was just getting going when C.J. brought some plum cobbler over for a breakfast goodie. Later C.J. and Tina did some gardening stuff. By around 1130 we were ready to go see what the conditions looked like for flying. There wasn’t anyone in the LZ but we met Rick Lai and Stas driving their trucks down so they could hike back up. Tim was the only one on launch where the wind was mostly north. I waited until it came around to the west then had a lucky inflation on my first try and, after kiting out a collapse, launched. The lift was widespread and smooth but didn’t go very high. It was easy to just fly back and forth and get up over launch. I made a few 360s but they didn’t get me any higher. Once it was clear that it was soarable, Tim threw his battens in and took off. At that time I had flown out toward the lake (always hoping for a magical, easy climb that would allow me to reach the elusive Elk Mountain across the lake), and Tim climbed up above me over the launch. It wasn’t too long after that that the windlines started to appear along with whitecaps. The air got a bit more “textured” and I flew out over the LZ and started to slowly lose altitude. I could see the wind tossing the trees branches and the marks of wind swirls in the tall grass around the LZ. I set up over the center of the LZ and looked at my GPS; it was showing 8-9kph with the heading anywhere from 216 to 166. That would mean I was sliding toward the south but I was thinking that I might be going backwards. I pushed on more speed bar and held it until just before I touched down. To get the wing down quickly I pulled on my left As and right Ds which seemed to work pretty well but wasn’t magically effective (0hr38min). Just as I landed a vehicle headed out of the LZ but when I waved they stopped and came back to give me a ride up to retrieve the Sorento. C.J. had decided to fly in the friendly conditions (much nicer than the previous night) and Rick had reached the takeoff so he could help her get launched safely. I was really grateful to get a ride up with James, Jenn, Dave and Diana. Conditions looked quite a bit stronger on launch when we arrived. Since Dave was there to mentor Jenn, I headed right down. Dave launched first for the PGs and all the hangs had already launched. Tim had landed after me and C.J. had a good landing in the strong wind after having flown for 1hr10mn. By the time we had gotten packed up Rick and Stas had landed; Dave was still flying when we left (but I guess Jenn and Diana did not fly). On the way back we passed Tina and stopped to say thank you and goodbye. Back at the Jorgensen’s we packed up quickly, said goodbye to Larry, who said to come down any time and camp, even if they weren’t home. In the short time we had been gone, he had made a bed frame out of plywood and 2x4s – they are going to have a bunch of guests for Sierra and Cody’s wedding in September so more sleeping places are needed (We volunteered our inflatable bed.). On the way back we stopped at the supermarket in Eatonville to buy a couple loaves of the cheese that was advertised, and then again in Covington for gas (2.359). Signs along SR 18 indicated long delays on the Tiger Mtn summit due to an accident. Traffic was moving fine all the way to the ISS-Hobart Rd, but we exited anyway and drove through Issaquah to I-90. It was after 1900 when we got home and we had left shortly after 1600 – long trip.