Frostbite - Dog Mountain 2013

 April 26-28, 2013

 Frostbite is a fly-in and fund raiser for Dog Mountain, a flying site owned by Port Blakely timber company. We usually try to make it down there because if the flying isn't super, the party usually is.

4/26 Fri – We did not go down to Dog today because C.J. felt that her foot wouldn’t take two days of walking around on a rough surface. A strange thing happened around dinnertime when I got a message from Geo Tracker on my cell phone saying that the Sorento’s battery was low. Later I went out and found that the parking lights had been on since? Even though the ignition was off. I had to use the Trooper to jumpstart the Sorento; then I ran it for a few minutes hopefully to recharge the battery.

Sorento and Aliner at Dogpatch

4/27, Sat – Packing had been easy because we were going for only one night and needed just breakfast and a couple of simple lunches. We brought along Max’s wheeled walker and C.J. will wear the aircast boot when she is outside the car or trailer. The car started on the first try so I guess the battery had recovered from its drained state of the previous day. We got out of North Bend before 0900 after stopping at the library to pick up a Sunday paper from a stack outside the entrance. The Sorento pulled the trailer easily even on the steep grade to Tiger summit on Rte. 18. When we got to Dogpatch, the parking area was pretty full and some motor homes, tents and trailers were parked outside the usual hang glider area near the LZ. We found a spot in an island between two entrance roads not too far from the gathering spot (and the single, overworked outhouse). After setting up and hanging out for a while I got a ride to the top with Terry Crippen. The wind was splitting the ridge, coming in from the NW. Launching was possible, and there was even room to the right of the launch ramp, but there were reports of rough air, and the sun had become obscured by the clouds. The temperature had dropped from the highs caused by the earlier sunny weather and after standing near the edge of launch and talking with Dave Auman (?) for quite a while, I was chilled. I ended up taking Debbie and Greg’s pickup down for him to the gate (where I sat for a while since he did not have his new Dog key in the truck) and back to the LZ. By then it was after 1230 so C.J. and I had lunch. About 1500 it began raining, typical light NW rain and we hung out in the trailer reading until 1800 when we went over for the potluck dinner and music. Fortunately the rain had tapered off to just occasional showers so eating wasn’t too uncomfortable. Val, Paul Gallagher’s wife, did a nice set of her songs on the flatbed truck stage with accompaniment by Mike Dailey on drums and Dave Chadwick doing his thing. After that Jade Swepston did a couple of songs accompanied by her keyboard. The subsequent offering were not as polished and we drifted back to the trailer to warm up and get some sleep.

4/28, Sun – It rained most of the night on and off but it didn’t get very cold. We got up around 0800 and made oatmeal for breakfast. We were a little out of practice for living in the trailer not having used it since last fall some time. Also, having it be rainy made it harder because stuff like shoes could not be left outside. There were occasional bits of clearing followed by more squalls that came down the lake. By 1100 the weather had cleared enough that folks were beginning to pack up gliders to go to the top. Three or four paragliders were the first to fly. However, I couldn’t get enthusiastic to lay out my wing in the wet (probably muddy) launch and land in the wet LZ, besides I could see another squall coming down the lake. By then we had already packed up the trailer, hooked it to the car and moved to where we could drive out without being blocked in. Around 1145 we left and drove through some pretty heavy rain on the way to Morton, then showers on the way home. We took a rest stop at Alder Lake Rocky Point CG and then drove to Covington where the GPS helped us find Walmart. I bought some portable toilet deodorant and a couple of canisters of propane, and C.J. got some seeds. We got gas at Costco [Overall mileage (after the reset from a low battery) was 21.1 mpg on the odometer and 20.7, calculated, when we got gas on the way back at Covington.] and did our grocery shopping for the week. We were home by probably 1430 and I managed to back the Aliner into the driveway with no more than usual difficulty. I probably should have gotten the stuff out of the refrigerator (and porta-potti) then because by evening it was raining again. One problem I discovered at Covington was that the top had not been firmly attached to our collapsible water carrier and it had leaked in the back of the Sorento. Fortunately, most of the spill had been confined to the new cargo mat so the carpet got only splashes of water. Only the folding chairs and a folded tarp got wet (and the tarp protected my paraglider from a serious soaking).