Baldy Butte Fly-in

22-24 September 2017

G and C.J. near Baldy north take-off

Tough decision whether to go to The Can-Am at Black Mtn or the Fly-in at Baldy. But
the Baldy site needed more support to stay open, and our friends were going there, too. C.J and I thought we’d leave Friday – and we did, but not before getting a flight at Tiger. 

22 Sep, Fri - Unfortunately, the bright blue sky with burgeoning cumulus clouds had morphed into high overcast by the time we were ready to launch. I had an abort on the upper takeoff and then had a mushy launch (someone said, “not like George, at all” which made me feel a bit better). I went around the north side of the Dome and scratched for a while, then flew back south to the Yaher Wall where there was very little lift. Soon I was setting up with another pilot who took the left while I went right. (:15). C.J. also had a short flight and we were packed up and on our way home by 1700. Since we only had to put the last items in the trailer and car, we were out the driveway by 1800. It was dark when we pulled into Lmuma Rec Area after 1930 and we were surprised to find that there was an open campsite. After setting up we had a late dinner then crossed the barbed wire to the camping area for the Fly-in. This year the organizers (mostly Rick and Karen Ely, helped by Randy Lettau) were allowing attendees to drive down into the camping area, but no trailers per Mr. Eaton’s request. Someone had a small campfire going (despite the statewide fire ban) and we hung out for a while before returning to the Aliner. We were careful to not turn on a light inside until we had the door closed, however, once the lights were on we were swarmed by tiny flying bugs. We wondered if they were coming in through gaps in the weatherstripping, but we soon found out that they were small enough to get through the window screens. Bummer! We swatted a few thousand with towels, etc. and we tried removing the vent screen and turning the fan on high to suck them out. That worked but more just came in so we finally gave up and shut the lights off and went to bed. It was pretty chilly, and the bugs quieted down as soon as the lights were off.

23 Sep, Sat – We didn’t get up early but when we did we had to sweep up the bug carcasses before we could make breakfast. Later we drove over to the fly-in site and parked in the shade. Registration was once again at the entrance near “the rock” and there were already 40-50 pilots signed up who had arrived early to fly on Friday. After registering we ran into Randy Sprague who was taking a bunch of RPC guys up (Griz, Wayne, Joe Stermitz, and ?). He offered us a ride so we didn’t have to wait for one of the shuttles. There were a lot of people standing around up near the towers waiting for it to get a little stronger. I watched for a while then decided that I’d rather go early than wait in line for what might be strong conditions. The sky had become partly overcast but I pulled up on a steep slope after C.J. and flew left in lift (!). I should have stayed there (photo above) but I continued west and sank below the ridgetop. I reversed course and returned to the bowl below launch and worked light lift but not enough to get up to the pilot flying a BGD who had stayed in the lift near launch. Eventually I decided to head out along the north spine to look for lift: Not much, and then serious sink. My GPS was saying that it was a 5:1 glide to the LZ but the best I was getting was 3:1. I was thinking that I would be landing in the sagebrush and hoping that I wouldn’t end up in a gully, when I ran into some decent lift which seemed to be centered over a couple of apparently dead cows. I was able to gain some altitude and widen my circles. Now the LZ was within an easy glide and when the lift quit, I headed in to land (:20). C.J. was already packing up. We grabbed some lunch stuff from the trailer and then hooked up with Randy to go back up. I wasn’t too keen to fly in midday conditions so I volunteered to drive. Randy took us down to Big Pines CG to see if Wayne had landed there, but he was still in the air to the south. We picked up a load at the HQ and I drove Randy’s big Dodge Ram up to launch. By then people were mostly launching to the SW, but some were still getting off to the north. Peter launched to the north in his hang glider, the only hang at the fly-in, and got up and stayed high. C.J. decided that she didn’t want to fly for various reasons, a headache being the main one, so we drove down. Back at the LZ we hung out with Patricia and Penny until it got late enough to start setting up for dinner. We brought the “bluebarb” crisp over and added it to the potluck items. Rick had a full-size gas grill which he used to cook up a bunch of chicken and bratwursts; someone else (maybe Karen) brought a big pot of pulled pork. There were two kegs of Iron Horse ale; the one I had was really good, Mocha Death (even better than their Irish Death). There weren’t too many homemade desserts and C.J.’s got all eaten up, even before the cheesecake slices were gone. Sitting around the (illegal) fire we got to hear about all the great flights – some out toward the west, others flew triangles; everyone seemed to get nearly to cloudbase at 7-8000 ft. Sometime after 2000 we drove back to the trailer and endured another episode of the bug infestation from Hell. It wasn’t as cold as it had been the previous night.

24 Sep, Sun – After sweeping up the bugs and having breakfast outside at the picnic table we packed up the trailer and moved it up near the rock (a BLM official was telling other campers that there was going to be maintenance work done on the CG and there would be a lot of dust. We took a shuttle ride up with Rick Ely. This time the preferred launch was the more typical south-facing one. After waiting a while for conditions to improve (no one was staying up) I took off after Christel. There was lift right at launch, then more spotty lift over the ridge crest to the west. It wasn’t friendly enough for me to continue working it, so I just headed north across the river to the ridge that people had followed up on Saturday. It wasn’t working on Sunday and I headed toward the LZ while I was still high enough to make it easily (apparently it did not appear that way to some observers). The LZ was soarable so I circled my way back up a few hundred feet and drifted across the highway remembering that there had been lift near the dead cows the previous day. Not so much this time so I did not get up as high as Christel, nor as far away from the LZ as she was. I returned to the LZ to land to the SE which appeared to be into the wind, but as I approached the ground the wind must have switched so I ended up skidding across the ground on the seat of my harness – no damage (:16). I wasn’t watching Christel while I was packing up but when I looked up I saw a few people going over to help her where she had landed on the other side of the road in a rocky area. Tom drove his truck over to help her get back to the camp area. After C.J. got packed up after her short flight we hung out for a while before deciding to see if there would be another shuttle. Craig’s wife, Shirleyann (?), offered to drive us up with Patricia, and Peter who needed to retrieve his truck. On the way up, Peter met his truck being driven down. Not long after 1500, just as we were arriving at the top of the butte, Randy Lettau ran into a dustdevil when he was taking off from the south launch. I did not see the accident but other witnesses said his wing took a big collapse on the left side (others said the right side) and he was spun to the left and then dropped about ten feet to land on the rocky ground on his left side. (Randy thought that he had landed on his feet first). There was a ding in his helmet over his forehead, and he reported hearing/feeling cracking in his neck area. The only pain he was feeling was high on his neck, he was able to move all extremities and there seemed to be no bone or joint damage according to Matt, a local pilot and EMT on the scene. Karen Ely, an ER nurse, also checked Randy over. Soon afterward, Mark Larson, an ER doctor and pilot from Olympia, arrived and agreed with Matt’s assessment. He removed Randy’s helmet and we got the harness disconnected (Randy Sprague cut just the tip of one strap so we could unthread it from the buckle.) Meanwhile, medical aid had been requested and two Kitsap County fire/aid units responded within an hour. The commander of the unit took into account the injury and the roughness of the road and called for a helicopter evacuation. Randy had a c-collar applied and was carefully rolled onto a backboard; a head-bed kept his neck from moving. C.J. and I drove back down with Rick and Matt before the helicopter arrived (in fact, we were back at the LZ before it got there). After watching the helicopter land on the ridge in a big cloud of dust, load Randy on board and take off again, we drove down to Big Pines CG to meet up with Chris, waiting there for Patricia who had hiked down from launch with Sabrina. We hung out with the RPC gang and even got to try Wayne’s Ninebot, an electric unicycle, definitely a challenge to ride. Griz had an even larger one which I understood to be considerably more expensive than Wayne’s $600 one. After giving Sabrina a ride to the LZ, we drove into E-burg and got gas at Circle-K (2.929) on the way to the Yellow Church Café. Chris and Patricia helped drive Randy’s Jeep to Rick’s home and then joined us at about 1930. We had a good dinner of pork street tacos, Caesar salad and Thai shrimp stirfry in a green curry sauce (and a local ale). During dinner we received word that x-rays indicated that Randy had sustained a fracture of C-2 and was being flown to Harborview in Seattle for treatment. [Later Randy reported that the fracture was “very stable” and would require only a neck brace for three months.]  We He also had some bruising on his heel so it appears that he did hit feet first.] We headed home about 2030 and traffic was minimal. We made a pit stop at Snoqualmie Pass just after we noticed that there was a little mouse running around just below our windshield in the windshield wiper area. We couldn’t remove it even after we opened the hood. He was still there when we arrived home around 2200 and parked out in front of the hedge. We hadn't got awesome flights but there's more to a fly-in than the flying. It was a good time to visit with people we don't see all that often.

Eclipse Road Trip

19-26 August

The once-in-a-lifetime total eclipse of the sun visible from Oregon to South Carolina was scheduled for my birthday. Fortunately, months ago our friends Chris and Patricia invited us to join them at Patricia’s family’s homestead in Midvale, ID, right on the path of totality. This was a very good thing because other locations on the path of totality were going to be crowded with eclipse chasers and charging high prices for lodging, camping, even parking.

Crescent-shaped shadows

19 Aug, Sat – We got an early start and joined up with Chris and Patricia at Indian John Rest Area on I-90 east of Cle Elum. We traveled more or less together (although, we took the 15-minute-slower route through the Yakima Canyon. We met up for lunch at the first rest area in Oregon, got gas at the casino east of Pendleton and exited I-84 at the Weiser Exit. We met up again at the Midvale Ridge rest area and followed them to the only family farm on Hopper Road. Dave Hopper, Patricia’s father got our trailer situated in the shade of a mobile home and we soon joined the extended family for dinner. In addition to Dave and Liz (Patricia’s stepmom), there were her sister, Lynn, and family: husband Barry, and kids Erika and Bevan, plus at least one uncle and maybe others. I don’t remember exactly when our paragliding friend, Andre Akakine, arrived with his five-year-old daughter, Katie, from the Bay Area.

20 Aug, Sun – After breakfast with the family – Dave’s sourdough pancakes - most of us spent time preparing various viewing devices for the eclipse the next day and setting up for the family potluck in the evening. I think someone said we had 37 people (a little short of the 50 that Dave had originally expected). There was lots of food including pulled pork and sliced beef, salads, rolls, bread, dips, tomatoes, and more. The dessert centerpiece was Lynn’s offering of four lemon meringue pies. 

21 Aug, Mon – Eclipse Day. After breakfast (Dave and Liz served biscuits and gravy and a baked egg dish with fresh fruit) we all got our viewing projects set up. I got my spotting scope out and Bevan kind of took it over using his phone to record photos of the progress of the eclipse. Andre put together a big box with a monocular at one end to focus the sun on the far end. There were several pinhole shoebox and larger size cameras, but the best gizmo was one Lynn put together with cardboard, a pair of binoculars, a tripod, and a screen. It produced a nice large image that was easy for a group of people to all see at once. Of course, everyone had eclipse glasses for individual viewing. The moon started taking a bite out of the sun around 1010; totality lasted for around two minutes; and the whole thing was over by 1148 (?). I used my 10x binoculars during totality. It got quite dark and cool and the light near the horizon
was like that of a sunset. It was a really fantastic experience. We had more potluck for lunch with fewer people. Afterward we all hung around as people packed up and started to head for home. After everyone but Dave, Liz, Chris and Patricia and we had left, Dave took us up the hills behind the homestead in his truck and pointed out the historic sites and places Patricia had gone to when she was staying in Midvale during the summers. Back at the trailer, we had a light supper before going to bed.

22 Aug, Tue – We got a later start than we thought we would so we didn’t get to McCall until after 1130. Then we drove out along Warren Wagon Road to the north end of Payette Lake and beyond the North Beach part of Ponderosa State Park into the State Endowment Lands where dispersed camping was permitted. We stashed the trailer in a big snowmobile parking lot with an outhouse, then drove back to McCall. We had no trouble finding the McCall RV Resort where Davis

Bronze at the McCall Library

and Belinda stay when they are not in Boise. Belinda made a nice lunch of cold cuts for us. Later we walked into town so everyone could get an ice cream at the shop in the alley. I skipped that and walked over to Albertsons where there is a Starbucks upstairs, and got my free birthday Frappuccino. After hanging out at the waterfront park for a while we walked back (Davis rode his bike, of course) to the RV resort and sat around visiting. Later I spotted a pickup with two hang gliders drive into the resort. We all wandered over to find out who it was and it turned out that it was Steve Baran, of Inkler Fly-in fame; he had flown No Business Mountain with Doug Ratkovich (Debbie) earlier in the day after doing the eclipse watch at Smiths (?) Ferry the previous day. Around 1930 we drove into town to have dinner. The McCall Brewpub was not open so we went to the Salmon River Brewery. We had a 15-minute wait but then we got a good table on the deck. C.J. and I shared a Thai Beef Salad and a Black and Bleu Elkburger (which wasn’t very bleu). We stopped for gas at Maverik  so we wouldn’t have to do it with the trailer in the morning. It was way after sundown when we drove back to the snowmobile lot and set up our trailer; at an elevation of just over 5000 feet, it was nice and cool. On the way back along Warren Wagon Road we saw a fox (we think) flash across the road with its bushy tail drifting behind it.23 Aug, Wed – We got up after 0720, had breakfast and hit the road around 0830. We took a bathroom break in Cascade where Davis and Belinda had watched the eclipse. Then we continued steeply downhill along the whitewater of the Payette River to Banks where we turned east toward Lowman on the Wildlife Canyon Scenic Byway. At Lowman we stopped at the USFS ranger station then continued on with a couple of short stops, one at the 7000ft summit and another near Stanley Lake where we walked out on a nature trail. At Stanley we turned north on 95 following the Salmon River. We stopped at an overlook above the abandoned dam used to run the turbines to produce power for mines up the Yankee Fork. At Salmon we stopped for gas at a Sinclair station then turned SE into the Lemhi Valley. It was about 30 miles to the Lee Creek turnoff that took us up on a bench above the valley and to Chris’s parent’s homestead. We had dinner with Don and Judy, brother Tim and two young nieces, Eva and Zoe Wong. Chris pointed out where he thought we could fly in the morning if the winds were light enough.

24 Aug, Thu – Up at 0630 so we could head over to the local flying site while the winds were light. But the leaves were already shaking on the trees we could see through the skylights. After some discussion we decided to have breakfast and then do something else like look for fossils or crystals. After fruit, scrambled eggs w/cheese, and Tim’s cheese bread the conditions seemed to have gotten light so we took two cars to the LZ on the other side of the valley. We used Chris’s 4WD to get to the top over a couple of steep spots and some rutted track – probably not easy for the Sorento. The sky was just beginning to get smoky from the NW as we got ready to launch. I went first from the 7500ft take off and found lift just in front of the launch. There were some small, sharp-edged thermals and I pretty much flew through them into the accompanying sink. I flew to the left and went over the rocky ridge then out toward the LZ which was also on a ridge. The wind streamer that we had left in place showed variable directions and speeds, but I lined up with the length of the ridge pointing toward the highway in the main valley. Landing was easy but I was able to kite right afterwards with my back to the north. C.J. was next off and she had about two minutes longer than my 08:42, saying that she didn’t like the looks of the building clouds. Apparently, neither did Chris because he spiraled down; Patricia saw that and landed, too. Chris’s father showed up and was able to use his truck to get Chris back up to launch to retrieve his vehicle. We went back to the ranch with Patricia and hung out until lunchtime when Chris and John got back. Later, Chris suggested several things to do: go looking for crystals, hunt fossils, or drive the mountain roads to the other side of the range and loop back. Naturally we opted for the drive. Chris started up Lee Creek Road which climbed up behind the Amonson Ranch (huge!) and up FS 010 past the turnoff that would lead up a rough 4WD road to the dam on Mill Lake that needs repairing. We stopped occasionally to walk to places that Chris remembered visiting as a boy and young man while repairing fences or “pushing” cattle, or just riding his motorcycle or ATV. We found some currant bushes which were done bearing but we also found a few raspberries. At one place on the divide before descending into the Hayden Creek drainage we spotted three pronghorn, about the only critters we saw. Near the bottom of Hayden Canyon, past the Bear Valley Road we turned up into

Chris with niece Eva, mother Judy, and C.J.

Basin Creek just to see if it still looked like Chris remembered. It was hard to see the surrounding mountains with all the smoke that had come in during the afternoon. We got back to the main highway around 1830 and then it wasn’t far back to the ranch. Tom and Robin, Eva and Zoe’s parents (Robin is Chris’s sister), had returned from their first vacation without the kids. They had gone to Fairmont Hot Springs near Butte for two nights. Tom had barbecued up a bunch of pork chops and we ate those along with some baked potatoes and asparagus. C.J. cooked up some of her fresh beans, too. And she brought out the blackberry kuchen for dessert with whipped cream; the kids had probably never seen whipped cream in an aerosol can before. As we were eating outside with Patricia (avoiding the TV that was on in the cookhouse), there was a lot of thunder and a little shower, just barely enough to send us back inside. It was a good impetus to get me packing up the stuff that was outside.

25 Aug, Fri – We got up around 0800 and fixed our own breakfast then started seriously packing up. We were out of the ranch shortly before 1000, but stopped at the Sacajawea Monument and Interpretive center soon after in Salmon. The interpretive building was quite small but the grounds around it with tepees, sweat lodges, brush, willow and woven mat lodges was pretty large. We missed out on the class on cordage held in the red barn which we didn’t see until later. We left around 1130 and headed up US 93, the Salmon River Scenic Byway (and Lewis and Clark route), eventually crossing Lost Trail Summit; a 7000ft pass, and entering Montana (ski area name?). We lost a lot of elevation following the Bitterroot River down to the plains. The biggest town we went through was Darby (Sorry I didn’t stop for a photo of the Welcome To Montana’s Bitterroot Country and Darby sign, Darby, but I got one using Google). We passed through Lolo and were surprised that Route 12 was not closed right there because of the fires (maybe it was closed farther up before you got to Lolo Pass). We could see fires burning even on the nearby hillsides. Missoula was kind of slow, traffic-wise and smoky, but we got to Costco eventually and filled up with the cheapest gas we had seen all trip (2.419) and bought a berry sundae to share. [If we had been a little more patient we would had run into a Freddy’s Frozen Custard place at the intersection of 93 and I-90.] It was about an hour to Quartz Flat USFS campground east of Superior. We had considered going on to Sloway CG, another 16 miles, but since there were good sites available, we stopped early, not long after 1600. The campground is on a bench maybe 150 steep feet above the Clark Fork River. We found a trail that appeared to start in our site and followed it east a ways and then down a gentler grade to the river. Back at camp we relaxed with a drink and some chips and hummus before catching up with our journals. Since we have run out of ice for our cooler, we needed to eat up some of our veggies. So we had cooked spinach and fried sausage. It cooled off nicely for sleeping but a couple of vanloads of people across the road stayed up late talking loudly, and that kept C.J. from getting to sleep early.

26 Aug, Sat – We got up around 0800 and were on the road by 0930, another sunny day with quite a bit of smoke in the air. We stopped for gas at Costco in Coeur d’Alene (2.479) after passing over Lookout Pass, driving through Mullan (same population as Wallace (?) but hardly any historic features), and crossing the lower Fourth of July Pass. The wind seemed to be light east as we drove through Spokane and I considered calling Steve Baran to see if he was down at Steptoe Butte, but flying there would have entailed midday conditions in Eastern Washington, at a new site - too many negative variables. We stopped at the rest area west of the one near Sprague Lake and then drove into E-burg to get a scoop of Winegar’s ice cream. CWU must not be in session yet because we were able to park in Jerrol’s Bookstore lot. There was a lot of smoke as we approached the Cascades. It appeared that there was a fire up toward Salmon La Sac. But there was no smoke in North Bend when we got home shortly after 1600. There was still a good crop of berries on the blueberry bush in the north garden and C.J. couldn’t pick all the green beans that were ripe. I got a bowlful of blackberries, too. We unpacked and spent some time cleaning up. I even scoured out the porta-potti, a job that had been put off for too long if the stain in the lower section was any indication. I left it to soak overnight with some cleaner, laundry detergent and bleach. We were gone only a week but we covered a lot of territory and met lots of new and fascinating people. It was a unique experience to watch the total solar eclipse with Patricia’s family and then get to meet Chris’s family…and we even got a flight from a new site!

Inkler’s Point Fly-in

14-17 July 2017

We had heard about the new site near Chewelah in Eastern Washington over two years ago. And C.J. had even written an article about it for the magazine. But we hadn’t managed to get over there and see it for ourselves. When Steve Baran of Center of Lift announced a fly-in to be held there, we put it on our calendar.

14 July, Fri – We originally wanted to get started on Thursday but the part I needed to get the trailer tail lights working wasn’t supposed to arrive before the 13^th (As it happened, the T-One wiring harness by Tekonsha showed up on the 12^th and I got it installed the same day replacing the Curt wiring harness which had malfunctioned). We got going around 0830 and took I-90 all the way to Spokane where we got off near the airport to go to a Walmart to get a collapsible water container to replace the one I had left in the garage. We ended up with four one-gallon bottles of water instead of a 5-gal jug of questionable quality (and a bag of delicious red cherries). Then we drove through Spokane on US 395 and stopped at Costco for gas (not the usual Costco we have stopped at on previous trips in Spokane Valley). The traffic was pretty slow on a Friday afternoon but we got to the LZ and camp area sometime after 1600. No one was there and we were out of cell phone reception for ATT. Still, Steve must have seen us arrive from the upper launch and drove down to welcome us. Conditions for flying for the mostly hang glider crowd was “not soarable” but Don Croft flew his paraglider and managed a soaring flight and another PG also flew but did not soar. [Later Don did a little scooter towing] Since the newly bulldozed road to upper launch was serious 4WD, we couldn’t go up to check out conditions so we just hung out meeting and visiting with the local pilots and those from Canada (Simon Mitchell and others) and Montana (Paul Roys, Mike Zuchetto, and others). No one else showed up from western Washington. We set up our Alps Mountaineering shade structure to add to the market umbrella Steve had erected at the tables he was using for registration ($25 each plus 2 t-shirts @ $10 ea). Overnight it cooled down and we had a spectacular thunder and lightning show with just a little rain. I got up in time to put the solar panel in the car before the controller got wet.

15 July, Sat – About eight of us went in to Valley, a small town just a mile or two to the south, at the end of the Inkler ridge. We found Mama’s Café which turned out to be quite nice. After breakfast Steve took us on a tour to the upper launch at Inkler’s and then down through the Wuesthof’s compound and out their paved driveway to CR 231. Later, Steve decided that we should give Parker Mountain, just a few miles away, a try. We drove over to the LZ (1670’); I left our vehicle there and we rode up with Steve and others. We had to pass through a gate (birth-7, same as the combo at the LZ) but the road was 2WD. [From the LZ on Cottonwood Road, head east on 2888 for one mile, just before a rocky cliff on the right take a right fork and drive through the forest breaking out in a clearing below launch (possible bailout below road), after re-entering the woods, turn left uphill just before another clearing. Launch is a large clearing at about 2950’ big enough for setup and launching two gliders at once]. The sky showed dark clouds with virga in the distance but coming toward us and we did get showered on. Almost everyone set up but only Steve flew and he had a sledder. We drove down with Tony Policani and headed back to camp and the LZ (1670’). Later we rode up to Inkler’s upper launch (2360’) with Steve, and C.J. managed to launch before the wind picked up. I packed up (difficult on the moon dust-covered surface). A bunch of hang gliders (6?) launched and soared in the strong winds. I was ready to head down, but just before sunset the wind moderated and launch conditions improved. I had a scenic sunset flight pushing farther to the north each time until I was soaring over the lower launch and even got to the NW end of the ridge overlooking Rte. 231. After returning to the upper launch I tried going south as far as I could, almost to Valley, then back to the LZ where C.J. was holding our wind streamer for me as I came in over the hang gliders (about 22 min). The high 90 deg temperatures dropped as the sun set again.

16 July, Sun – We prepared our own breakfast (although Steve and Susan went a few miles up the road to the Chewelah Casino and found a Sunday brunch which he said provided enough food for three meals). Later Steve took us up to see the lower launch (2160) which has less parking and set-up room than the upper launch. Then continued up to upper launch where conditions did not look good. We returned to the LZ passing the Wuesthof’s (Shawn and Stephania) house. Later Lance Stafford showed up with his PG and we rode up to the TO with him. Conditions looked light enough for paragliders (all the hangs were waiting for it to get “better”) so I laid out and took off. I was more confident about the site this time and was able to get above the takeoff to 2700’ and boat around for 17 min before landing in strange conditions. It felt like I was on a conveyor belt as I flew and flew staying less than 10 ft above the ground before landing. Lance had a very short flight while I was in the air. C.J. did not launch until conditions improved later, but she had a short (5 min) flight. Her landing was also strange with her getting dumped from a few feet up and the wing blowing over her head as though she was landing downwind. Later we noted some dust devils, so weird things were happening. I finally got around to putting the tiedown on the trailer as it got gusty. We had been thinking that maybe we would stay the night and then head back via US 20 over Sherman Pass the next day, but Steve asked us if we’d like to spend the night at his house. A shower sounded good so we agreed. Meanwhile, Tony had some food left over and proposed a trial run on a group barbecue for the next Inkler Fly-in. Conrad Agte and John ___ were still around although Susan had taken off earlier. I was still thinking that conditions might improve for another evening flight but the gusts or dust devils continued and by 1700 we were thinking that the flying was over. On consideration, it didn’t make sense to drive 33 miles back toward Spokane making our trip on Monday even longer, so we decided to take a rain check on Steve’s offer and start west as soon as we could get packed up. It was probably after 1800 when we headed north through Chewelah and along the Colville River valley to Colville and then Kettle Falls where we crossed the Columbia River and entered the Colville National Forest. In ten miles or so we found a Forest Service Campground at Canyon Creek. There was no water or trash but there was a trail that went along the creek which made for a pleasant walk. Plus, there were huckleberries for the picking. We had already had dinner so we settled for a bit of dessert before bedtime in the cool forest air.

17 Jul, Monday – We got a reasonably early start and stopped just up the road a short distance at an old CCC camp where a stream had been dammed to form a small lake for recreation. More recently the silted-in lake had been undammed and the streambed made to look natural again. We stopped at Sherman Pass CG and info, and at an information overlook about the White Mountain fire. We stopped again in Republic for information at the Ranger Station. Then we drove down to Tonasket and south on 97 to Omak where we got gas (2.749). We left 97 at Okanogan and drove over Loup Loup Pass on US 20 which appeared to have had some pretty bad washouts that were being repaired. Hank’s Grocery in Twisp provided us with a good buy on red cherries and ice cream cones (4). That meant we didn’t have to worry about finding parking for the car and trailer in Winthrop. We stopped at the overlook at Washington Pass and walked the loop trail which has wonderful views of Liberty Bell and Early Winters Spires. Our next stop wasn’t until we reached Burlington where we got gas at Costco (2.549) and bought some oranges and a replacement headlamp for C.J. Traffic was surprisingly light passing through Everett and Bellevue and we were home around 1900.

18 Jul, Tues – We attended Tai Chi class at the Senior Center as usual. I picked a ton of berries; we’re running out of space in the freezer already. C.J. had forgotten that there was a NWPC meeting in the evening but we got ready to go with time to spare to pick up Wheely at Meadowbrook where he had landed. We dropped him off at the LZ and then got to Pogachas around 1900. Paul and Martin Palmaz were there doing a USHPA info Q and A session on the insurance issue. In addition, Ian talked about choosing a harness and showed some video about deploying a reserve when there is a lot of g-force (simulator near the LZ in Annecy). After the meeting I talked with Kim Smith about the fatal accident at Dog (he wasn’t there) and found out that Jerry Devlin had had a serious-injury crash while landing midday at Bremer.

19 Jul, Wed – The trailer brakes were not working (not unusual) and showed that they were not connected according to the Tekonsha brake controller on the trip to Inkler’s. I pulled off the right hub and everything looked okay, but the left-side brake magnet was totally unconnected. I checked with eTrailer.com and didn’t find magnets available but the whole brake assembly didn’t seem to be any more expensive than I remember the magnets to be. So, I ordered a pair. Later I managed to remove the four fasteners that hold the brake assembly to the axle using various wrenches including 11/16” sockets, crowfoot, and adjustable wrenches (I don’t have any 18mm wrenches which is probably the size I need).

20 Jul, Thu – Tai Chi. A little rain in the late morning. I finally got around to responding to a couple of nominations for USHPA awards. There haven’t been very many this year.

Montana-Idaho-Oregon Road Trip

End of August 2016

Summer was winding down but it was just getting to record-breaking high temperatures in Seattle. Fortunately, Ginny and Wally were on a road trip to visit friends in Montana and after they finished there, they invited us to join them for a couple of days near Glacier. They had rented a cabin through Airbnb and we decided to bring the trailer so we didn’t crowd the small house. Good choice.

20 August, Sat – We didn’t make a particularly early start, 0915, even though we were somewhat concerned that there might be a problem finding a campsite on the weekend late in the afternoon. Driving across the rolling fields of eastern Washington, we reminisced about summer trips before air conditioning when we had to stop along the river and wet our t-shirts to keep cool. We stopped only once at a rest area before reaching Idaho and had to make a second stop to get our kayak checked (“Has it been in the water in the last 30 days? No? Have a nice trip, sir.”)[Another short stop to check our kayak just into Montana.] We got gas at Costco in Coeur d’Alene (2.259), crossed the lake and the first pass. When we got to Wallace we marveled that Matt Henzi was able to fly all the way there from Chelan on his paraglider – almost to Montana. From the border at Lookout Pass it’s only about 37 miles to Sloway Campground (USFS) and there were plenty of empty sites out of 27 possible; many have pull-thrus but we chose one that has a view and it was no problem to back into the wide parking pad. We walked down to the river which C.J. declared was swimming temperature, then up to the entrance to drop our envelope in the iron ranger. It was pretty warm after the air-conditioned car but there was a breeze as we sat down for a snack of fresh cucumber and deviled eggs, washed down with a bottle of the cider we won at the Chelan Nationals raffle. Later C.J. made a simple stir fry which we ate with some fresh bread. Dessert was “blue-barb crisp”. The first days of any trip are the best for fresh food. We were in the next time zone east of ours so it started getting cool and dim by 2100 and we moved into the trailer to write in our journals – well, actually we were both using computers because C.J. left her stack of books home; at least she hadn’t found them yet. According to the GPS it will only 2hr 15min to Whitefish so we should be there by noon. [Other options for camping include Quartz Creek Rest Area and Campground 20 miles to the east, and another place just a few miles off I-90 back to the west. There is also Cascade CG along the St. Regis River canyon although it appeared full when we saw it on Sunday.]

21 Aug, Sun – Woke up at 0730 and, since we weren’t in any particular rush we cooked up some oatmeal. We were on the road at 0900 heading back along I-90 to St. Regis. We drove along the scenic river canyon to Paradise and then north to __ and east to Flathead Lake. From there it wasn’t too far to Kalispell and gas at Costco (2.299), hot chocolate at Walmart, and a free mocha frappucchino at Starbucks for my birthday. A few more miles put us in Whitefish where we turned east on 2^nd then up Haskill Basin Road to the cabin. Ginny and Wally were out exploring Glacier as far as MacDonald Lodge, the Apgar visitor center and then up the Camas Road to the park entrance and back along the river. Once they got back we hung out in the shade visiting while Wally gave his swollen foot a rest [He had been hit by a truck while walking through a grocery store parking lot a few days before]. C.J. and I  took a walk along what looked like a ski or snowshoe trail which crossed the stream on “Cedar Span” and stopped at “Bubbles Beach”, a pretty short walk. Dinner was a very good salmon filet roasted in the oven plus two kinds of potatoes and green beans. Later we had peach-raspberry pie with ice cream in lieu of a birthday cake.

22 Aug, Mon – Up at 0800, oatmeal in the cabin microwave. We decided to give kayaking on 

MacDonald Lake a try since Ginny had found out that there were Hobies with foot-driven propellers for rent at MacDonald Lodge. We took both cars since we had the kayak on ours and had to stop just inside the entrance to the park to have our kayak inspected (actually for non-motorized boats all you need to do is fill out a self-certification form). We had noted that the wind was strong and gusty as we drove from Whitefish to West Glacier and the Ranger agreed that it looked too windy for kayaking on MacDonald. We met Ginny and Wally out at the Lodge (found one of the few remaining parking spots) and found out that only motorboats and rowboats ($18.50/hr) were rented there. No kayaks, and definitely no Hobies. [Later we found out that there were no Hobies anywhere in the park.] Since the signs indicated that there were no parking spaces available at Logan Pass, we decided to take the shuttle up there. We had a half-hour wait and then the bus that arrived had standing room only and Ginny decided that it wouldn’t work for Wally to have to stand all the way. So we all piled in Wally’s truck and did the scenic drive up the Going-to-the-Sun-Road. We stopped for the scenery at The Loop and then continued up through some one-lane construction to Logan Pass. Fortunately, there were some empty parking spots but it was cold and windy. The crowd was mostly packed into the small visitor Center. C.J. felt cold, tired and hungry so didn’t want to do the short (1.5mi) hike to the overlook and then have to wait for a shuttle. We piled back in the truck and headed down, eating lunch on the way. We made a short stop along MacDonald Creek to finish lunch in the relative warmth. After Wally dropped us at our car C.J. and I drove back to Avalanche Creek Campground just to see what it looked like – lots of tent campers and a few smaller RVs, but most sites had pull-thrus. Many of the tags on the sites indicated that the campers were leaving on the 23^rd so we figured we could find a site to camp in on Tuesday if we got there early. Just to be sure, we drove through Apgar CG, as well, and found the same situation except for more RVs. C.J. tried to mail her birthday gift to Barbara at West Glacier but we were 15 minutes too late. However, we got to Columbia Falls just before the 1700 closing of that post office. When we got back to the cabin I loaded as much of our stuff as possible so there would be less to do in the morning. Ginny heated up the stew she had made previously and we had a good dinner. We ate the rest of the pie and ice cream for dessert.

23 Aug, Tue – Up at 0600, ate some cold cereal and fruit before joining Ginny in the cabin for hot drinks and blue-barb crisp. Wally and Ginny thought they might go back over Logan Pass to see what the east side of the park looked like (since they couldn’t go back to visit their Montana friends

Sunrift Gorge

in Hamilton). We finished packing up and said goodbye around 0800. We got to Avalanche Creek CG (that's as far as large rigs, those over 21 ft, are allowed on the Going-to-the-Sun Road) around 1000. There were several empty sites and we chose one with a pull-thru and paid the fee (10). After discussing whether to take the Kia or use the park shuttle system we decided to go with our vehicle so we could go on our own schedule. We drove up to Logan stopping for a few minutes just a half-mile below the Pass at a short boardwalk loop that gave a great view back down into the valley. As we approached Logan we spotted several bighorn sheep above the Highline Trail. We had to drive around the parking lot several times until we lucked into a spot that had just been vacated. It was around noon so we grabbed our packs, poles and lunch and headed out to the Highline Trail to check out the sheep. Unfortunately the HL was still closed due to that carcass we heard about on Monday. We walked a ways down the road and found a place from which we could see the critters, although from a long ways away. The 10x binoculars were really helpful. After that we returned to Logan and headed up the Hidden Lake Trail (along with half the tourist population of Montana, it seemed). Until we reached a point most of the way up, the trail consisted of boardwalks. The last bit of the 1.5 mi walk was on regular packed-dirt trail. As we approached a stand of evergreens we saw three or four mountain goats. They were pretty close and we took some pictures. Above that we started hearing stories about a bear encounter farther along; a ranger passed us carrying a big steel mallet and we wondered if he was going up there to pound in a sign closing the trail [Our first attempt at a hike back in 1985? ended when the trail was ”closed for bear danger”.] The view from the Hidden Lake Overlook was great with the lake and Bearhat Mountain in the near distance and Gunsight Mountain with its glacier in the far distance. As we were eating lunch a little ways down the trail toward the lake, a ranger came along and started herding people back toward the Logan Pass visitors center. There was no real rush and we didn’t have to hurry to finish lunch. On the way

Jackson Glacier, GNP

back we saw six goats and three of them, a radio-collared adult, another adult and a young goat, paced us along the trail sometimes coming quite close. We took lots of pictures. Back at the VC a notice told people that it was likely that they would be turned back at about 0.75mi on the Hidden Lake Trail. Glad we got an earlier start! We drove down the east side stopping at Lunch Creek, I think, where we saw several bighorn sheep; two of them squared off and did the headbanging thing. We could hear the CLACK! We passed the parked-up Siyeh Bend (switchback) and some other full pullouts. Finally, we stopped at the Jackson Glacier Overlook for a great view of the glacier across St Mary Lake. The next stop was for “one of the most iconic views in the park” – Wild Goose Island with the high peaks of the range in the distance. Our turnaround point was at Rising Sun. We saw the Two Dog Flats Grill and checked out the souvenirs at the General Store (no ice cream). This would have been where we would have boarded the tour boat on St Mary Lake if Ginny and Wally had wanted to do it. On the way back we stopped at the Golden Staircase pullout where there were no signs or interpretive material about the building of the Road. We found a place to park at Sunrift Gorge and went upstream to see the narrow gorge and then downstream to see Baring Falls (about 0.3 mi each way). We stopped at Lunch Creek again because the bighorn sheep were still browsing close to the road. More critter pictures. Back over Logan Pass and down to Avalanche camp sometime after 1700. Ginny and Wally had stopped by and left a postcard and a chocolate bear claw for us on their way to maybe take the tour boat. We had some deviled eggs and chips for snacks and then C.J. heated up the leftover stew Ginny had sent with us. We downloaded our pictures to our computers. C.J.’s new computer has a nice long battery life, and mine is still pretty good, too.

24 August, Wed – Long driving day. We got up in the dark again so we could leave around 0800 for what the GPS said would be an eight-and-a-half-hour drive to McCall, ID. We left the park and detoured around Kalispell going to the east side of Flathead Lake through Big Fork. Just outside of Missoula we stopped at a McDonalds so C.J. could download the USHPA calendar that Nick wanted her to proof. After we both looked at it C.J. tried unsuccessfully to upload it to the server or send it by email attachment. Since we had already stopped once, we had to skip a chance for some frozen custard at Freddie’s Steakburgers in Missoula. We took Rte 12 over Lolo Pass stopping briefly at the summit before descending along the low-water Lochsa River – no rafters to be seen this time. We took a break at Kooskia where we turned off for the climb to Grangeville, ID, where we got gas (2.499). Then we climbed to White Bird Summit and descended the long grade into the Salmon River Valley. We passed through Riggins and it was already after 1630 on Mountain Time (since we were going back into that time zone at Riggins). There was a 20-minute construction delay as we climbed out of New Meadow so we got to McCall and the Ponderosa State Park after 1815. Fortunately the registration people were still working and there were lots of campsites to choose from. We selected a pull-thru near where we had camped two years ago. It was expensive though at something like $71 for two nights for out-of-state- with no ID Parks Pass. We relaxed in the relative cool at 5000 ft and ate some of our dwindling supply of deviled eggs, then C.J. made a stir fry with whatever veggies were still in good shape plus the burger patty she had brought along. Later we learned not to open the door with the lights on – little flying bugs by the hundreds came in to flutter around the lights.

25 August, Thu – C.J. had contacted Belinda on Wed and set up a meeting time of around 1130, so there was time to do a paddle on Payette Lake before then. We had overnight-soaked French toast with mixed jams and then set off to the park boat launch. There was no one else there so we were able to unload the boat and gear up before bringing the car up to the parking lot. We headed off to the north hoping to get to the end of the peninsula we had driven to the top of two years ago. It was only about two miles (as the crow flies) and there was no wind, unlike what we had encountered on Wed when we arrived. It took a bit longer than an hour to go and return. On the way, as we were passing the rock formation known as Hen and Chicks, a speeding powerboat must have hit a chunk of floating wood because there was a loud BANG and something flew into the air behind the boat which then came to a stop. We hung around a short time to see if they were going to sink and need some help, but they motored slowly away toward the nearest shore. We continued on until just short of the two islands at the end of the peninsula, then turned back. We were out of the water and on our way by 1130. Belinda was already preparing lunch by the time we arrived at the McCall RV Resort and their Spartan toy hauler. The tomato-basil salad with goat cheese was very good as were the fillo-wrapped filling fried on her Komin cast-iron skillet. After lunch Belinda took us on a walk down the Payette River past a new development of McMansions. When we returned we visited a while and then drove into town with Belinda (Davis rode his bike) to Ice Cream Alley  where the servings were “mountain-size” and delicious. We dropped Belinda off and returned to camp for showers. Along the way we passed Worldmark McCall south of Wooley St, one avenue east of Davis Ave. We had agreed to do dinner with Davis and Belinda so at 1900 we picked up Belinda at the RV park (well, it was closer to 1930 because we had to go back for the blue-barb marmalade for Belinda). We ate at Southside Grill and Cantina located at the north end of the airport, and noted for its crashed airplane embedded in the roof. The food and drinks were adequate but I probably wouldn’t return (if they are even there – we were the only dinner guests). But it was fun to spend some more time with Davis and Belinda.

Chief Joseph bronze in Joseph, OR

26 Aug, Fri – I wanted to get going at 0800 because the GPS had shown that while the straight-line distance Wallowa Lake State Park was only sixty miles, the route by road was 176 miles and would take four hours. However, we didn’t get up until 0715 so we didn’t get out of the campground until just after 0900. We were lucky to have only a few minutes to wait at the construction on Rte. 55 and we were soon on Rte. 95 going south through Tamarack (big lumber mill), Council and Cambridge where we turned NW and wound down to the Snake River at Brownlee Dam. We crossed at the bridge just below the dam and drove along the west side of the Snake until Oxbow Dam where we started uphill going over a couple of summits of 5000 and 6000 ft. We stopped at the Hells Canyon Overlook about three miles off the paved Forest Service road; it was a good view but you could not see the bottom of the canyon where the Snake flowed. Our gas was getting low as we approached Joseph; the low-gas light came on just outside town. So we pulled into the one Chevron station in town and filled up (2.809). By then it was around 1300 (PDT) so we drove directly to Wallowa State Park hoping that there would still be sites available on a Friday. There were a number of sites to choose from but they were all in C Loop where the restroom was being demolished so it would be a long walk to the next nearest restroom [But at least my disabled vet pass got us two nights camping for no charge]. After getting set up, we had lunch at the picnic table and C.J. spotted a paraglider soaring Mt. Howard. That gave us a bit of an impetus to get going over to the Wallowa Lake Tramway. The operator fortunately had a phone we could use to call Todd Wiegan since our ATT-based phones had no coverage (except for emergency calls). Todd gave us the info about the site and told us that today was the best chance for a flight since it was supposed to be windy and the wrong direction on Saturday. C.J. got hold of the soaring pilot (Peter) on the radio (151.625) and got an update on conditions. We also ran into another pilot who was doing “laps” (he was on his fourth) who told us

Wallowa Lake from the tram

about the launch, too. It was getting pretty late by the time we had driven down to the LZ at the delta where the Wallowa R empties into the lake and returned to park in the shade across from the Tramway station. We filled out the paperwork for the lift operator and had our USHPA cards and IDs copied, paid the $28 ea for the lift and loaded onto the gondola for the long ride to the top at 7800 ft. (or maybe a bit higher because the trail went down from the upper lift station. About halfway down the lefthand trail we stopped because we thought we might have taken the wrong trail. C.J. went a bit farther down the trail while I bushwhacked east until I ran into the middle trail. I followed that back until I thought I was below where we had left our packs and then bushwhacked uphill. I was lucky to come out close to where C.J. was waiting for me. She hadn’t found anything but the trail continuing down with no sight of the big orange windsock on launch. I called Todd (the phone worked up on Mt. Howard!) and he said we were on the right trail and just had to go farther until we hit a junction and then take the Valley Overlook Trail which continued down even more. We eventually spotted the windsock and were soon at the smooth, grassy launch, a great improvement over the old one on a scree slope that we had launched from 15 years ago. C.J. took a number of tries to get off as conditions were changeable with some big gusts and some crossing from the left (west), plus the new-site jitters. I managed to get my wing overhead on my first try and got into the air at 1646. It took me a while to get settled and comfortable enough to make use of the widespread lift. I got to 8500 from the 7800 launch; meanwhile C.J. had climbed to 9500 and run into turbulent air, maybe a shear layer. I flew out above the bump out front to the left and worked some lift, but mostly I was going toward the big moraine on the east side of Wallowa Lake. I flew along it a ways until I got down near the top of it then turned back. There was more lift and I got back up several hundred feet. Then I flew west across the state park to the boat launch, and returned to the delta where I did a bunch of s-turns in the buoyant air and a final that took me farther than I expected, just missing a streambed and having to run it out. (0:34). C.J. landed a few minutes later and we packed up in the sand. The sun had already set behind the mountains to our west before we landed. I walked the quarter-mile back to get the car and met C.J. in the parking lot. We tried to get hold of Todd to see if he wanted to go out to dinner with us but, of course, our phones did not work and neither did the radio. Oh well, C.J. fixed a great dinner of stir-fried vegies with some pasta and ham. Later we finished up recording our last couple of days in our journals.

C.J. on Hurricane Creek Trail

27 Aug, Sat – We slept in until the sun was up – which wasn’t all that late because we’re in the next time zone and on the far eastern side of it. After breakfast we drove to Joseph where the USFS office was closed on the weekend, but there was a small Farmers Market which we visited. Right next to it was the visitors center and the guy who was manning the desk had information about the hike we had chosen: Hurricane Creek to Slick Rock Creek. He even let us make photos of the relevant pages from the guidebook. Meanwhile, we also picked up messages from Todd about what he was doing and how the weather looked. He thought there was only a small window when conditions would be good and the next four days didn’t look so hot either. Driving out of Joseph to the west, we found Hurricane Cr. Road and followed it to the end at the trailhead; surprisingly, it was mostly paved and there was still room in the small parking lot (~5000 ft) (we had expected a huge crowd as it was a beautiful Saturday at the end of summer) (1105). The trail ascended moderately along Hurricane Creek reaching the Eagle Cap Wilderness boundary at 0.75 mi at an obvious avalanche swathe. At 1.5 mi we crossed a meadow with several dry streams, one or all of them could have been Deadman Creek. Mt. Sacajawea, the highest peak in the wilderness was visible in the clearings. At around three miles we hit a pair of long switchbacks which carried us above the creek gorge and to the cascades of Slick Rock. There were several people up on the upper levels enjoying the water but we pushed on to find a place to have lunch with a little shade and some views of the mountains. We found it about a half mile up the trail (5800 ft) (around 1320). After lunch we returned to Slick Rock and filled my empty water bottle. Then we used the new USB Steripen to purify it; the pen needed a few minutes of charging using a power bank, but then worked fine, especially considering that it had sat in my pack without being charged for several months. [On the way in we had passed several hikers and a ranger who had all been working as volunteers farther into the wilderness. They pay $300 each and their food, tents, chairs, stoves and tools are packed in by horse and mule. They go in on Sunday, work Mon and Tue, have a day off on Wed, work Thu and Fri and then hike out on Sat. We were overtaken on the way out by their pack train.] We reached the trailhead right around 1600 and returned to the State Park for showers. On the way we contacted Todd and arranged to meet for dinner at Embers Brewhouse at 1930. On the way back to camp we stopped at our “traditional” ice cream shop across from the tram for something to tide us over until dinner. Back at camp we downloaded our photos from camera to computer. Around 1915 we drove along the lake (and moraine) to town and found Embers. Todd wasn’t there yet so we chose an outside table near one of the firepits. A text let us know that he’d be there shortly, and a few minutes later he joined us along with his significant other, Whitney, whom we had not met before. There were more than a dozen microbrews on tap and you could go up to the bar and get a sample of any of them before you made your choice. C.J. chose a pineapple cider and I had a Pelican Crème Ale. We split a sausage calzone and for an additional $4 we got two big salads. It was fun catching up with Todd and getting to know Whitney. We had one of the local tourist magazines with us and Todd was featured in an article about paragliding at Mt. Howard. The author mentioned that Todd had flown across Hells Canyon of the Snake into Idaho for the longest flight from Mt. Howard. We found out what the article had left out that he had landed at Mackay Bar on the Main Salmon River far from any roads, and hitched a ride out on a raft. It took two days to get down to the takeout point near Riggins. Apparently the Wallowa Tram people really like Todd for all the business he brings in – not just the tandems but also the visibility of people flying and landing on the beach near where the Wallowa River empties into the lake. Anyway, they include Todd under their own insurance so he did not have to go through the RRG and USHPA for his insurance. I didn’t know that the season is pretty short; it doesn’t begin until the lake drops down enough for the beach to be exposed and that was only about two weeks ago. We stayed at our table talking until the staff was closing the place up around us at 2130.

28 Aug, Sun – Up at 0645 as it got light (and we had had a restless night). We had cold cereal and got packed up pretty quickly. Then we went down to the marina to see the dragonboats and some of the nine teams who were competing in races. We didn’t stay for the races themselves but it was fun to see the colorful boats with their dragonhead prows and dragontail sterns. We pulled out of Wallowa State Park shortly after 0900 and drove through Joseph and Enterprise stopping a few times to look south to Hurricane Canyon and Mt. Sacajawea (on the east) and the Hurricane Divide (on the west). We stopped again at the Joseph Canyon Overlook. Then we descended into the deep canyon of the Grande Ronde and climbed up the other side to the high plateau again. We descended once more near Asotin to the Snake River. At Clarkston we stopped for gas at Costco even though the GPS gave us an incorrect address on the first try. We took SR 12 down the Snake and then up over another high divide into the Palouse. We stopped for lunch at Palouse Falls State Park which was pretty busy with daytrippers [There’s not much of a campground there, and only for tenters]. From Washtucna we took SR26 west along the Saddle Mountains to hit I-90 near Vantage. At Ellensburg we found a place to park just west of the CWU campus and got an ice cream at the Winegar’s located in Jerold’s Bookstore. We were really low on gas as we approached North Bend so we stopped at the Warrior Station near Ken’s Trucktown at Exit 34 (2.549). We were in the driveway at home about 1740.

2016 Paragliding National Championship at Chelan

8-17 July 2016

Launching on Green Monster is often a challenge

(all photos from CXCC 2015, by D. Masuda)

Matty Senior had asked C.J. and me while we were on his trip in Thailand to help out for a few days at the PG Nationals he was running in July. We said that we’d be there. As the date approached, the weather was looking iffy but we figured that with the trailer to sleep and cook in, we could survive a few days in Chelan. It turned out that there weren’t as many volunteers as had been expected so we stayed for the whole meet. One strange thing was that the weather was unusually cool for Chelan in July, and we had two days with some rain.

8 July, Fri – We left early enough to get to Beebe Bridge Campground before noon (checkout time was 1300) so we could snag a campsite. We weren’t terribly surprised to see the “Camp Area Full” sign; we had seen that before and there had been sites available. This time all sites really were full. We pulled into one of the sites Matty had reserved the day before. But before we had even started setting up C.J. found someone who was leaving anyway and who wouldn’t mind getting out of our way so we could park in the pull-thru. Later Chris Ammonson moved his tent over to share the site with us. After setting up we paid ($20/night for the State Disabled Veteran passholders, $30 otherwise) for 4 nights and went up to HQ to see if we were needed for anything. Since there was nothing for us to do we went to the Chelan Chamber of Commerce Visitors Center and picked up some pamphlets on local hikes. One was way up near Twisp but it was in the area between Lake Chelan and the Methow where we had never been before. So even though it was kind of late, we drove up to Twisp and then northeast along the Twisp River approx. 24 miles to the Twisp Pass Trail. The trail was good and the hike pleasant although there were no wide views until we had gone more than two miles, crossed the N Fork of the Twisp River and climbed up onto a rocky area, about 2½ or 3 miles from the trailhead parking lot. There was a steady gain of elevation from 3600 to about 4700 ft. We saw patches of snow on the mountainside to our south and snowy peaks west of Twisp Pass (another couple of miles farther). It was well after dinnertime by the time we reached the car and we decided to catch a burger in Twisp at a saloon and café. The food was surprisingly good, which was fortunate because there did not appear to be many other choices even on a Friday night. Despite stopping for an hour for food (and 99-cent cherries at the local grocery) it was still light by the time we reached Beebe. Chris and Patricia were not there yet and we did not hear them arrive around midnight.

CJ(B) and C.J.

9 July, Sat – Practice day with no task and no retrieve. We had breakfast in camp with Chris and Patricia then drove up to help out on launch. Back down in town we hung out and had lunch at the Beebe Springs Natural Area. There were some interesting large iron sculptures of Native Americans. Then we went to the Visitors Center to help set up for the pilots meeting at 1900. We had the VC reserved starting at 1800 but pilots were filling up the place an hour earlier since flying had not been great. The organizers provided chips and salsa and at least one keg of local beer (Stormy Mountain Brewery). After the meeting we helped take all the chairs down and then went back to camp for dinner – well, maybe not exactly dinner. But C.J. had brought her famous blueberry pie and needed to get enough people together to eat it at one sitting. Susan, CJB, Derek, Laura and Jerry (from Mexico), Josh and Michelle, Francisco Henriquez, Brian Franklin, Alderik, and maybe a few others brought stuff to eat and drink to our picnic table and we ended up having enough.

10 July, Sun – First comp day. But it was windy and there was a strong possibility of rain so the task was canceled. Susan proposed a potluck party at her place 25 miles away in Orono. We rode over with Chris and brought something(?), bread and maybe a fruit salad, but there was plenty of other things to eat. CJB had made a lasagna, Frank had brought his barbecue grill and people had brought meat. Federico Wood from Venezuela and Frank from Argentina did a nice job cooking the meat. Tom Ceunen was there with his semi-official daily Nats video. Federico had a trailer for the movie he and his team are making about a year-long adventure in Africa and ? Bruce Goldsmith and his son, Tyr, were there (I think, although I hadn’t yet met him).

G with a neck cooler

11 July, Mon – The first task was a doozy! Since the wind was forecast to be from the west all day, the task committee sent the competitors pretty much straight west with turnpoints at WTHPIX and DRYFAL, and goal at the Davenport airport. Heather convinced us to drive out there so there would be someone to welcome the pilots into goal. So, after we finished helping get everyone launched, we drove the 2+ hours to Davenport. At Wilbur we stopped to wait in the shade while we checked XCFind, a livetracking program for the Spot and DeLorme satellite trackers. That showed us that some, at least, were likely to make it to goal. So we drove through Creston and found the airport in Davenport. We were the only ones there besides a few locals working on their planes in a nearby hangar. We hadn’t seen anyone in the sky or on XCFind but suddenly we got a radio call from a pilot who was approaching and did not see anyone at the goal. Josh Cohn was first in (He hadn’t turned his DeLorme on so we didn’t know he was close.), followed by Francisco Montares (winner of this year’s Rat Race) and Robert Vandenbegine(?) from The Netherlands. It was pretty gusty and Francisco got dragged a bit, even getting his reserve parachute pulled out of its container. The pilots were excited to have made the task but wanted their “goal beer” so I ran into the nearby Safeway and got beer and Gatorade. By the time I had returned, two more had landed and Matty had arrived with the official beer. He still paid for the drinks I had bought (and previously, he had paid for the campsite fees as well). We jammed three guys and their wings into the back of the Sorento and headed back sometime after 1830 – goal closed at 1900. We passed at least three guys (including Mike Steed and Cody Mittanck) within 30 miles or so of goal. And last we had heard, Chris was still in the air. (Yay!) Back at camp we cooked up some spaghetti for dinner and saved some for when Chris returned late.

12 Jul, Tue – The task was canceled after the launch window was opened but within an hour. People were already packing up as the first raindrops fell. Later it stopped raining and a number of people free-flew. We bought a rotisserie chicken at WalMart and shared it with Chris for dinner.

13 Jul, Wed – Task 3 sent the pilots in a new direction across Lake Chelan to Fourth of July Mountain, then to the Airport and up the Columbia and beyond to Omak.

14 July, Thu – Task 4 was Butte to Withrow, then exit from a 10 km cylinder around Withrow, back to Withrow, then Farmer, then north to Leahy and east to H17BRK. Lots of pilots got stuck on the rim. Brian F., for example, spent two hours soaring in front of and above and below the pyramid houses before giving up and landing in the soccer field.

15 July, Fri – The BIG day: Once again the wind was pretty strong from the west so the task committee called a long task to the small town of Fairfield almost at the Idaho border - about 228km with the turnpoint at Odessa (6km cyl). Almost exactly half of the pilots made the goal, an amazing accomplishment for a task that is the longest ever called at a PG comp. Among others, Chris made it so we didn’t wait dinner for him. I think we just grabbed a sandwich at Safeway.

16 July, Sat – Originally, Saturday was not looking like a good flying day but it cleared up and a “barbecue task” was called keeping pilots and drivers relatively close to Chelan. Early on Mike Steed caught a downdraft on the edge of a cloud, had his wing collapse irretrievably and had to throw his reserve. He was right over the Butte so we all got a good view of his bright red reserve as it dropped him down to the north of the towers. The task was a 2km exit from the Butte, Bump-in-the-road, south to Douglas (east of Farmer), north to the Airport and then to goal at the soccer field. After getting everyone launched C.J. and I hung out at the soccer field and ate lunch. We didn’t have long to wait before the first pilots began to arrive. All was going well until Brad Gunnuscio took a collapse close to the ground and hit pretty hard. He got up but complained of ankle pain and then back pain. Someone must have called 911 because soon we had four emergency vehicles. [Brad had no med insurance so refused an ambulance ride to the hospital, but after Zak, our safety director, checked him over, his friend offered to pay for the diagnostics and he went to the hospital. He must have been okay because he was at the awards ceremony and dinner later.] Lots of pilots made it to goal again. We went back to camp for showers and then around 1730 went out to the airport where the party was to be held (next to the SkyDive Chelan hangar) to help set up. There wasn’t much to do apart from setting up a few chairs. C.J. laid out the awards on a table in front of a big banner. There were lots of bottles and cans and two kegs of Stormy Mountain porter and IPA. The cold water ran out early though. Matty did a good job announcing winners and handing out the trophies. Afterward there was a raffle for some really good prizes – Bruce Goldsmith had donated a paraglider (!) [Susan won], Matty and Graham had given a trip to Thailand including airfare [Owen’s girlfriend Maggie got that], two DeLorme SEs, lots of wine (we got three bottles and two big ciders, and a T-shirt). While I’m writing about prizes, I should mention that Matty treated the volunteers really well. He provided a lunch every day and gave most of us a nice, small Ozone backpack. At the pilots meeting on the Butte each morning he had prizes for the winning pilots but also gifts for the volunteers. We got probably the most valuable gift – two punch cards for the Tiger Shuttle [Thank you, Michael, for donating those!].  The Overall winner was Josh Cohn with Jared Anderson from Woodrat next and Brad G third. Jared became the US National Champion (since Josh had not competed in the other comp that determined national standing – the Rat Race), Tyr Goldsmith was the Sport Class winner and his father, Bruce, took third place. Igor Tolsky (CAN) was second. [I guess those new BGD gliders are pretty good.] Bianca is the Women’s National Champion, first US pilot out of the ten women who competed. [Kari Ellis from AUS was first, Nicole McLearn from CAN was third.] While there were dark clouds all around, the weather held for the dinner (catered by Chelan Catering Kitchen, and very good) and the awards ceremony. But during the night it rained pretty hard…

17 Jul, Sun – …and was still raining in the morning so we got up relatively late. Chris took us out to breakfast with Patricia at Riverwalk Inn. It was really good and not just because it was a nice break from oatmeal and fruit again. By the time we got back to camp it was clearing off and there were sunbreaks. We packed up and drove down to Lone Pine Fruit and Espresso (and ice cream, which we had indulged in on two afternoons). We bought a box of peaches and Chris and Patricia got a box of apricots, then we shared them so we each had half a box of each. We stopped to get gas near Wenatchee while Chris and Patricia were getting more fruit (real Bing cherries) at their favorite fruit stand just south of the roundabout. Since the weather looked too unstable in the mountains for hiking we stopped at Peshastin Pinnacles State Park for a scramble up the north side of the crags and down a ridge. Next time we’ll have to try the more well-beaten switchbacks on the south side. There were hardly any other climbers or hikers there – strange for a Sunday. We found out where everyone was later when we hit I-90 – they were all on the road. It took an extra hour at least to get home in the slow traffic. We got home just at 1800 and picked some blueberries for Chris and Patricia before waving goodbye.

Matty and Graham did a great job organizing and running the 2016 Paragliding Nationals. Teague Block of Lake Rider Sports provided the headquarters at 510 Woodin Ave, along with his local connections. Roger Brock was the volunteer coordinator. Tom Keefer kept the vehicles (mostly vans purchased via craigslist by Matty) staffed with volunteer drivers, and Susan Brockway’s many jobs included matching up vans-and-drivers with landed pilots using XCFind. [This year each retrieve van had a DeLorme InReach in addition to a radio and cellphone. General communications also were carried out using WhatsApp which required connection to mobile data or Wi-Fi.] She also oversaw the lunches for the volunteers and did the checklist for launching pilots. Zak was the launch and safety director and we worked with him fluffing wings. There were no serious accidents – hopefully Brad is not badly hurt – but there were three or four parachute deployments. The Nationals team is already considering whether to do another one next year or the year after.