Trailer Trial at the Dog Pound

19-20-21 June

Bob Hannah generously volunteered his MityLite pop-up trailer for a test run with the Outback. C.J. and I got to fly, visit with the Dog crew, see how the trailer worked out in the rain, and get a good long hike.

I drove in to get the trailer on Friday and right away found a problem - the brake controller did not show a connection to the trailer brakes. All the other wiring seemed to be working so I hauled the MityLite out of Bob's yard and took it to the north Bend Safeway parking lot. I spent a half hour or so practicing making the trailer go where I wanted it when backing up. I won't say I was very successful, but Bob pointed out that the shorter the trailer, the more difficult the control when backing. At home I parked, unhitched and muscled the trailer around 180 degrees to avoid the backing-up hassle. Weather didn't look all that great so we did not leave for Dog on Friday.

It didn't look that much better Saturday but we drove to Dog anyway. We went directly to Dave Gerdes' farm/ranch/nursery, aka "the dog pound", and parked the trailer. Then we drove up to launch where no one recognized us with our Outback and C.J.'s glider on its big-board rack. Larry was going to do a tandem and there were a bunch of family and friends of the tandem-ee, plus Jasmine and her fiance, Justin, and Reba, daughter of Steve and Kim Moyes. Other than that there were few pilots so I was able to set up and launch in the very light conditions. And promptly sank out to the North Field LZ. Luckily, Andrey arrived shortly after I landed and I got a ride back to launch with him. By then people were ridge soaring the north side of Dog and I quickly set up again and launched off the much-easier north launch. Ah hah! The north side was at least scratchable and I managed to stay at or above launch level for almost an hour before heading out to the north field LZ. I hadn't noticed before that there was a bridge over the creek between the LZ and Dog Mountain - have to explore that area sometime. Justin had driven the Outback down so all we had to do was pack up and hop in the car to go back to camp. Later we joined Jorgensens (and their extended family of boy friends and fiances) for dinner. It was drizzling when we went to bed but the trailer made it a non-concern.

Sunday we ate breakfast in the Mity Lite, using the stove just to heat some water for drinks. Then we scooted out to the boat launch to use the facilities, and headed up to the goat Creek trailhead again. This time we had a sizeable party with Larry, Reba, Jasmine and Justin, Sierra and Zach (?) and the dogs.
We made good time to the waterfall and the fork in the trail, then we slowed down as the trail climbed along Tumwater Creek. It was probably another 2-2 1/2 miles to Vanson Lake (ca. 4000 msl). C.J. almost didn't reach the lake, slipping on the rocks on the last stream crossing and falling on her back in the icy water. Fortunately she had some dry clothes so after a quick change we bushwhacked around the near side of the lake (through the snow!) to meet the rest of the group.



There was too much snow to consider going on farther so we had a bite to eat and headed back down. It went faster but by the time we neared the trailhead, my left knee was aching and we were in and out of rain (some, up near the lake, was mixed with sleet). Flying did not look like a good possibility so everyone began packing up and we were gone by 4 pm or so.











The trailer worked out well with the only big negative being the decrease in gas mileage - a 25-33% drop. I'd still like to get the trailer brakes working (and a test on Thursday showed that it was in my wiring somewhere - not in the Prodigy, and not in the trailer).