Lodge Lake Snowshoe Hike

Christmas Day 
December 2014

A bit of blue sky near Lodge Lake

Finally Snoqualmie Pass is getting some snow - not enough to open the ski areas but plenty to provide a winter hiking opportunity. Since we did not get started on the trail until 1215, we were surprised to find the trail untracked after a short distance. (We passed a family group returning from a brief foray into the forest.) Once through the woods we got into the deeper snow of the ski slopes and put on our snowshoes. The trail was reasonably easy to follow; someone had been through there a day or two ago and the packed-down snow had not been totally drifted over. Near Beaver Lake we guessed wrong and followed a snowmobile track up along the east side of the stream until we had to cross it to reach the real trail (part of the Pacific Crest Trail) on the other side. We used a drift and some bushes to get across the stream and then crossed a small inlet on ice before reaching the trail. Once we were in the forest, full of tall firs covered in a thick coating of newly fallen snow, the depth of snow on the ground decreased quickly to just a few inches and we were able to stash our snowshoes behind a convenient tree. Much of the rest of the 3/4 mile downhill to the lake was

Winter shadows and Guye Peak

on the gravel trailbed and across several unfrozen streams. We passed our 1430 turnaround time before we found the cutoff to the lake, but not by much. We made up for it by not stopping for lunch, or any sit-down breaks. With the low cloudbase there was not much to see except the frozen lake. The lodge built by the Mountaineers in the 1900s had long since burned down. On the way back we saw that someone had come in behind us on snowshoes and had stopped when the trail became more rocks than snow. We didn't replace our snow shoes until we had climbed to the 3500 ft high point on the ridge above Beaver Lake and had started down. Instead of retracing our route through the woods to the trailhead, we left the trail above the parking lot and went right down through the now-thinning crowd of sledders and other snow-players. It was 1615 before we reached the car and the sun had already set. Four hours to complete a three-mile snowshoe hike seemed a bit much but we got plenty of exercise and a good dose of winter scenery.

Holiday Letter 2014

 Happy Holidays, everyone! Last year it was Christmas at the L.A. airport, New Year's in the small town plaza of Roldanillo in Colombia, and spring equinox in South Africa. 2014 had to be one of our best travel years ever! We left on Dec. 25 and spent a week or so flying paragliders with friends from the Seattle area in Roldanillo. Four of us took the night bus across two mountain ranges for a few days flying near Bucaramanga and Chicamocha Canyon National Park before packing our wings and playing tourist for a couple of days in the capital, Bogota. Colombia was a truly remarkable destination and we enjoyed our whole three weeks there.

It seemed like we spent most of February preparing for our March trip to South Africa, making sure we had all the immunizations and meds we needed. Emirates Airlines had us overnighting in Dubai, and then on to Cape Town for a two-week flying adventure that took us to scenic soaring sites on the coasts of the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans, inland for some desert cross-country flying, and some urban soaring at Lions Head, right in Cape Town. Our guides made a point of stopping at all sorts of interesting scenic and cultural points along the way, including the penguin colonies at Betty's Cove. We'd intended to spend our last week at Victoria Falls and Kruger National Park, but a national holiday had all flights back to Cape Town booked solid. So we instead signed up for a mini-safari of three days at Aquila game farm, just a few hours' drive from Cape Town. It was surprisingly fun, and interesting, but we're still hoping to one day get to the falls and do a real safari. We could have spent a week touring Cape Town; we squeezed as much as we could into our one day in the city, and borrowed a car to go climb the bluffs at the Cape of Good Hope.

It took us most of the spring to catch up on all of the house and yard work we had put off during our global gallivanting. In April we finally got some flights in the NW, our first since October. We scored some fabulous early summer wildflower hikes in eastern Washington at Steamboat Rock and Moses Coulee, and picked the perfect couple of days for spectacularly scenic kayaking on Baker Lake. In late June we made our 12^th annual trek down to Oregon for the paragliding Rat Race, then came back to eastern Washington to be volunteer launch directors for the 30-somethingth Chelan Classic. We stuck around in Chelan for the 4^th of July fireworks and the beginning of the National Paragliding Championships before coming home to continue harvesting our huge crop of blueberries (our freezer is bulging with berries!), and to stain the deck, a regular yearly chore it seems.

In August George got to play his Washington State “disabled veterans” card and claim a free campsite at Ft. Flagler State Park on the Olympic Peninsula. We paddled at Flagler (saw otters!!), hiked on Hurricane Ridge (past a big ol' goat lazing right alongside the trail), then on to Rialto Beach for a fog-shrouded walk in the heart of Twilight (the vampire novel) country. Ginny and Wally joined us the next week; we visited with Uncle Harry and did a quick tour of the Tacoma Glass Museum on a rainy afternoon, then paddled the Enatai Slough on Lake Washington in sunshine. We had barely waved goodbye to them when we left for the Oregon coast to visit with C.J.’s since-kindergarten girlfriend Paula and her family.

Our Labor Day adventure destination was the Sand Turn fly-in on the edge of the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming. On the way we stopped to visit and paddle Payette Lake with long-time hang gliding friends Davis and Belinda. After the fly-in we paddled the Big Horn River through its deep and narrow canyon in the surprisingly un-populated Big Horn Canyon National Park. Then on to Yellowstone, where we saw a grizzly way out in a meadow, and enjoyed a frosty, scenic paddle on Lewis Lake. That was a lot of driving and fun-hoggin' packed into one short week!

October is our favorite hiking season, and we found some blazing fall-colors trails, one up a steep route to some lakes behind one of our favorite mountain flying sites, that we'd been looking down on from the air just a few days earlier. Then it was off to Florida for the USHPA board meeting and a busy visit with C.J.’s brother Rob, who appreciated the extra pairs of hands to help with house and yard maintenance.

Our last hike for the season was in the snow at Chinook Pass in November just before C.J. went in for some minor foot surgery to unclench the toes on the same foot as her bunion repair two years ago. Ginny and Wally drove up from the Bay Area to join us for Thanksgiving; our turkey dinner with all the fixin's was a truly traditional family feast.

We’ve kept up our square dancing on most Tuesdays, and we've started advanced lessons, not that we ever expect to go back to challenge-level dancing. We are season subscribers to the Issaquah Village Theater—In the Heights, The Tutor, and Mary Poppins are three of the plays/musicals we've enjoyed so far this season. And that’s about the extent of our social and cultural activity outside of hang gliding and paragliding.

Coming up soon is our big trip to New Zealand for the whole month of February—summer down under. We’re using our WorldMark timeshares for a week at Rotorua (North Island) and two at Wanaka (South Island). We’re hoping to meet up with flying friends, a flying friend's mum, and one of C.J.'s high school friends while we are touring around.

C.J. continues to pick up new skills in Photoshop as she makes digital scrapbook layouts. Those are her photo ornaments at the top of the page. George writes about our hikes, flights and trips in his travel journal at http://sturtevantg.blogspot.com. C.J.'s scrapbook pages are on her blog, http://sturtevantcj.blogspot.com.

We’re staying reasonably healthy and hope that you are, too. Best wishes for a happy holiday season and a peaceful and prosperous 2015!

Sourdough Gap Hike

10 November 2014

C.J. crossing Sourdough Gap

 C.J. and I started off looking at the hike to Crystal Lake from Hwy 410 at 3500 ft climbing 2600 ft to the lake in three miles. Somehow that didn't sound like enough of a fun-to-effort ratio so we looked at starting much higher - like over 5000 ft at Chinook Pass - with a gain of 1100 ft in about four miles. The views were reported to be excellent. What we didn't count on was the snow that fell the night of the 9th...

G in snow at trailhead

We got an early-for-us start at 0730 and reached the trailhead parking lot around 0930. Beyond the turnoff to Crystal Mountain we started seeing a dusting of snow on the roadside. By the time we were climbing to Cayuse Pass, the snow was deep enough that it had been plowed off the road. 410 over Chinook Pass was icy but it had been sanded (unlike the parking lot (5400 ft) which was glare ice). One car in the lot indicated that there was someone who had gotten an earlier start. Snow depth was 4-5 inches and I was guessing that it would be deeper the higher we went, so we strapped our relatively light snowshoes to our packs [Relatively light compared to the ash and gut Green Mountain bearpaws we had sold only a few years ago].

Shadows at Sheep Lake

The trail paralleled the road along a steep slope for a mile and a half then climbed through forest to the partly frozen Sheep Lake (5800 ft) at 2.1 miles.I was pretty surprised that it had been so easy to get to the lake considering the trail was covered with snow and there were only two tracks ahead of us. But the snow had not gotten much deeper and we had not needed our snowshoes. The next section of the trail climbed 700 ft or so in 1.4 miles to Sourdough Gap at 6425 ft. We had a glimpse of the top of Rainier from near the Gap and good views of Naches and Yakima Peaks as well as the broad, U-shaped valley of the American River. But it was clear that we would have to traverse the steep slope on the backside of Sourdough Gap if we wanted

Rainier from lunch spot above Crystal Lake

a good view of Rainier. Much of the snow had slid or blown off the slope, but the trail was deep in wind-blown snow. We followed the tracks for a while, postholing with every other step. Finally we put on our snowshoes and then it went a bit easier for the quarter mile or so to

Gray Jay, this one was not a camp robber

the next ridge. Beyond that we found a great view to the west which included most of Mt. Rainier. We stomped a platform in the snow and had lunch in the sunshine and calm wind. We finished up just as the dark shadow from a crag to the south reached us.

The tracks of the people in front of us did not follow the steep trail down to Crystal Lake as we had expected. Instead they (and two other people) took the Pacific Crest Trail to Crystal Mtn ski area. We used our snowshoes to

C.J. at Sheep Lake

return to Sourdough Gap, then removed them. Once on the sunny side, the snow had softened up but as the day waned and the sun sank behind some clouds it started to cool off again. We left the Gap at 1350 and reached the car almost two hours later (It had taken three hours to climb to the col). The parking lot was even slipperier than before and I took a fall before figuring it out. C.J. had been doing really well both up and down, but her feet were still causing serious pain especially later in the day. This will be her last hike before another round of foot surgery to release the tension on the tendons in two other toes.

I drove carefully down Chinook Pass as the sun set. There won't be many more days before the pass is closed for the winter. We stopped for hot chocolate at Wapiti Woolies in Greenwater and ran into Harold Locke. We got home some time after 1730. Good thing we had some leftovers for dinner because neither of us felt like cooking.

Out and About in Early November

1, 6, 7, and 8 November 2014


1 Nov, Sat - Aaron had completed the modifications on C.J.'s hang glider harness so we went to Dog Mountain to test fly it. I still did not have my paraglider so I drove for all of us when we went up with Aaron and Brian in Rob's big SUV. C.J. got a not-very-long flight and then I drove her back up again. On the way down I stopped to cut up a fallen tree with my folding saw. C.J. was ready to go up for a third flight (it was around 1645) but on the way out of the LZ, we noticed that the wind streamers

Chris removing skin from pumpkin

were blowing from the E. We decided to skip a problematic flight and join the Jorgensens for dinner at their nearby property. Eric and Paige were there along with Jazzy and Justin. Excellent meatloaf and beets!

6 Nov, Thu - My neck has been achy forever, and maybe worse after being dragged after landing at Rampart. C.J. suggested that I get a therapeutic massage from Patricia and we scheduled it for late Thursday so we could get together for dinner afterward. Patricia did a great job on my upper body; it was more relaxing than I had expected. Dinner with panko-crusted rockfish was also very good. C.J. brought an open-crusted pie (gallette?) which used the Kahlua apple pie recipe for the filling - excellent.

7 Nov, Fri - Always looking for something to write about for HG&PG magazine, C.J. thought that a

Danny and Paul with photo album

look back at the early days of hang gliding might be interesting to the readers. Fortunately, there are a few pilots locally who were in on the very inception of hang gliding. After a bit of scheduling hassles, Danny Uchytil, Paul Dees and Aaron Swepston agreed to meet at our house for dinner and discussion. They brought their wives and, in the case of Aaron and Kerie, their son Jaegur, and Brian, their neighbor and a pilot. Ten people for dinner was a bit of a crowd but we managed by bringing in the bistro table from its winter storage in the workshop, and finding additional forks, spoons and knives from C.J.'s heirloom silver. Danny had lots of stories to tell and Paul had an excellent photo album which began with the National Geographic article on the beginning of hang gliding.

8 Nov, Sat - Despite the weather looking sunny and warm for the

Ernie sawing the end off a pumpkin

first day in a while, we joined  Chris and Patricia at Beth and Ernie's home for a pumpkin processing party. By the time we got there around 1600, Ernie had already used a Sawz-all to cut up a second big pumpkin into slabs and was steaming them for an hour. The previous steamed pumpkin had been run through a Cuisinart food processor or a food grinder and converted into pumpkin slurry. We then bagged it into two-cup portions and stuck it in the freezer. We did a couple more pumpkins before breaking for Ernie's homemade pizza with C.J.'s fruit-based salad, and Beth's "yumm* bowl", a mix of wild rice, beans, black olives, shredded cheese and ? with yumm sauce. Just before dinner Chris and Ernie started making two pumpkin pies so they could compare the two recipes and methods. They were still hot (in

Chris getting recipe from his mobile

fact, Chris's was still baking) when we finished dinner. Beth put Ernie's pie in the freezer and in 45 min it was cool enough to be served with the whipped cream we had brought. Just before we left we were able to try Chris's pie. Both were definitely very good; Ernie's had a very custard-y filling while Chris's was more traditional. Ernie's crust was a bit thick while Chris's which had an egg and some vinegar in it was more flaky. Both used a crust protector to keep the rim from burning. The two fillings had different spices but I couldn't have chosen one over the other. We didn't get back home until after 2300.

* http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/2639609-The-Original-Yumm-Bowl

Women's Fly-in/Halloween Party at Chelan

 25-26 October 2014

Wenatchee River, fall colors along Tumwater Cyn. Pipeline Trail

This year we were lucky to have the USHPA board meeting earlier in the month so C.J. and I were able to make the local club's fly-in. Unluckily the weather forecast was pretty awful for the weekend. We went anyway and the weather was much better than expected.

24 October - It wasn't such a terrible day after all. I was able to clean the gutters on the north side and see Dr. Johnson about my knee. Even if we had been free to go, there wasn't much point to it because our gliders were still in Idaho for their annual (postponed for the past three years!) inspection. As it turned out, they were not delivered on Friday so we wouldn't have our wings for the fly-in.

Little Miss Muffet and the spider

25 October, Sat - for an overnight, there wasn't too much to get ready so we hooked up the trailer in the morning and pulled out around 0920. Gas was priced as low as we've seen in years at Cle Elum - $2.759 (cash) at Warrior. We got to Beebe Bridge CG around 1210 and found only a half-dozen other RVs in the place - no need to be concerned about finding a place to camp. [We noted also that Orondo and Daroga CGs are already closed for the season as well as most of the USFS CGs along US 2 over Stevens Pass, except for Money Creek.] After setting up in a site right on the river bank, we went over to the soccer field LZ. Chris A and Patricia were there keeping track of spot landings and signing people in ($30pp - which included rides in the big shuttle van that NWPC had rented in Wenatchee for $150). A dozen people were flying, hang and para, including a family of four new pilots, Gary and Sylvie Waugh and their two teen daughters, Samantha and Rebecca. It was all sledders and there were occasional cloud/fog patches on the mountain. We hung out in the LZ until nearly 1700 when we went back to camp to rest and get ready for the party at the airport pilots lounge. Our costumes of Little Miss Muffet and The Spider didn't take much effort (unlike some of the more complex costumes which looked like they would take hours to get on, especially with all the makeup). There were only 25 pilots and guests signed up at the LZ but a few more showed up at the party. Food was provided primarily by the chili cookoff contestants. There were also pans of cornbread, C.J.'s breadsticks, chips and Fritos,  and desserts. Plus a cooler of beer, water and some pop. Iain and LeAnn and their helpers had done a great decorating job, and they kept the music playing for dancing. By 2145 we were helping clean up and heading back to camp. We had brought our sleeping bags so we didn't have to make the bed with sheets and blankets. It wasn't very cold at all but the forecast wind had started midway through the party. [When we got back to the trailer, we had to search for the blown-away gray-water container. It was located just over the river bank, caught in a fallen tree.]

Crossing the iron bridge

26 October, Sun - Down in the Columbia River gorge, the sun never reached us before we left at 0930 or so, but we could see sunlight on the Butte and blue sky. Until we started closing up the trailer, there had been only very light wind; shortly after the wind speed picked up and we started seeing small whitecaps. Over at the LZ there were only a couple of cars but Chris and Patricia soon arrived from the cleanup at the airport. They had a breakfast engagement with Cheryl at 1000 and were already late and we figured that it was going to be too windy to fly (even if we had our wings) so we headed for Leavenworth and a WTA-recommended hike in Tumwater Canyon. We stopped to buy a half-gallon of cider at the Cider Works, and again at the Cash-N-Carry in Wenatchee (for white wine vinegar and baking cocoa). We could see that there was a dusting of new snow high on the mountainsides, but the sunshine and bright yellow foliage warmed the scenery. Leavenworth did not look crowded with fall color tourists as we drove through. Two miles up US 2 we parked just outside the parking lot for the Tumwater Canyon Pipeline Trail. About 1210 we left the car and in a short distance came to the curiously-shaped iron bridge - the decking consisted of 3/8 in. thick pieces of half-cylinders welded together. Naturally this collected water in low spots. If someone had not put in a series of stepping stones, there would have been no way to cross the bridge without getting your feet wet. The wide, almost flat trail followed the path of an old pipeline (penstock) which had carried water for a powerhouse from the dam about three miles upstream. The purpose for all this was to power the electric locomotives used prior to 1956 for passage through the Stevens Pass tunnel. The trail was only 1.2 miles in length and ended where the trail became a thin track perched above the rushing Wenatchee River bypassing a long-ago collapsed tunnel. We backtracked a few hundred feet and found a ledge above the river to provide a scenic lunch spot. We were back to the car by 1350 and decided to continue west over Stevens Pass. Colors and sunshine continued almost to the Pass but then we ran into clouds, gloom, rain and mixed rain and snow. Coming down the west side, we drove through some heavy rain and evidence of high winds. As we reached the lowlands and were driving through Duval, traffic lights weren't working and businesses were dark (apparently the area had been w/o power since 0800 due to a strong wind storm). North Bend, fortunately, was unharmed by the wind and it wasn't raining when we unpacked and moved the trailer into the garage.

Florida - USHPA BOD meeting and a visit with Rob

13 - 22 October 2014

Hilton poolside bar, Melbourne, FL

Jamie Shelden, tired of traveling long distances from her Melbourne Beach, FL, home for board meetings (the last fall BOD had been in Seattle/Renton), convinced everyone to hold the next one on the beach in Melbourne. That worked okay for C.J. and me because we could combine it with a visit to C.J.'s brother, Rob, an hour or two north of Melbourne. We lucked out with excellent weather at the meeting and at Rob's where we got some home repair projects at least started.

13 Oct, Mon, Col. Day - Our flight wasn't until 2315 so we had most of the day to finish packing and do stuff around home. We parked at Sandstone Inn again and got shuttled over to SeaTac in plenty of time. When we checked in, C.J. had "TSA Pre-check" on her boarding pass and I did not. So, she got to go right through a very short line while my line had a very long, maze-like path before reaching the scanners. I didn't check the time but C.J. estimated an extra 45 min for me. Apparently she had followed a link in the Delta site to register for the pre-check. I had learned my lesson and, once in Florida, I registered for pre-check as well.

14 Oct, Tues - This was a real red-eye flight and we slept as much as we could on the way to our 3-hr layover in Cincinnat. We bought bagels at Bruegger's for breakfast/lunch. Our flight was delayed an additional three hours when the First Officer got ill and they had to call in one from his home in Columbus.Our Brazilian plane was the same type that we flew from Kathmandu to Pokhara, three seats across. It was a short flight and we had some good views as we approached Jacksonville. We had checked the bags we usually use as carry-ons so C.J. went to get them while I waited (and waited) at the Alamo rental car counter. Eventually we got the keys to a Hyundai Elantra and headed down I-95 to Palm Coast. The GPS wasn't working very well and I found out later that it had data only for the NW states and when I tried to download all 49 states, I got a message that there was too much data to fit in the GPS and that I would need a new SD card. As a stopgap, I downloaded the SE states and that got the GPS working normally. Rob took us out to the Fisherman's Net down in Flagler Beach and C.J. and I shared an excellent soup, salad and Chilean sea bass.

15 Oct, Wed - Rob and I drove the short distance to Publix and got some milk and pecan coffeecake ring along with some other stuff. We also stopped in at Pack Rat to see what we needed to do to ship the old, carved trunk that C.J. wanted. Rob's friend there told us that it was going to be expensive and none of her boxes would fit so we'd have to build a shipping box, maybe out of a Sears discarded refrigerator box. After breakfast we got to work on some house projects like taking down the old TV antenna and Dish. Rob had had some ant infestations and had done a lot of rebuilding to replace wood that had been chewed up by the ants. He wanted to look at another place where ants had been seen along the eaves on the south side of the house. After ripping off some ant-eaten fascia board we found a small corner of the roof sheathing had  been damaged by ants, too. He sprayed the area with antkiller and we left it to dry out. Later we went out to a recently opened Italian restaurant, Napoli Pizza, near Pack Rat and had portabello ravioli and lasagna - too much to eat and enough left over for another meal. They had Bass Ale in bottles and it was as good as I remember the draft version being.

16 Oct, Thu - We headed for Melbourne in time to get to the afternoon Directors (and Committee heads) training session. We noted prices in the low $3.20s for gas around Titusville but didn't need any as the Elantra was getting good gas mileage (in the high 40s). We stopped to see if we could check into our room at Days Inn on West Haven but it wasn't ready yet. For lunch we stopped in Melbourne (rather than wait until we were across the causeway in Melbourne Beach) at Firehouse Subs and shared one with a bunch of good meat and veggies. I got a "medium" soft drink - but it should have been labeled "huge". We took our meal with us and ate on the way - it was about eight miles to the Hilton Oceanfront. Instead of ground floor meeting rooms, we were on the top floor (7) with a view of the ocean and beach, or the bay/lagoon/Indian River to the west. Most of the meeting was in the form of a conference call with the Association lawyer, Tim Herr, and the lawyer for the Canadian association HPAC. They discussed the liabilities we face re: site safety, tandem flights, and training. One problem that I had not been aware of was that very few states accept our waiver for minors. Even the parents can not sign away their right to sue. After the meeting we had an "icebreaker" at Sand on the Beach, a beach bar and eating place several miles to the south. Nick bought drinks for us and Dennis Pagen, and there were some snacks available. Since there was not quite enough to make a real meal, when we got back to Days Inn and checked in, we microwaved the left over ravioli and lasagna for a late dinner.

Sundaes at the Ice Cream Depot

17 Oct, Fri - Breakfast at Days Inn included a big slow-cooked crock of real oatmeal. There were even raisins and apples for garnish. Plus all the usual cereals and sweet rolls. We headed over to the Hilton early enough that we could catch part of the Chapter Support meeting and get set up for my Awards committee. Ryan did not attend (conflict of interest, he said), both Jug and Rob were absent from the BOD, so C.J., Beth, and Voighter were the only long-time members present. In addition Larry Dennis, Paul Murdoch  and Bruce Weaver (KHK) were there. Nick was also in the room working on some stuff on his computer. He came up with a few good ideas about the NAA Safety Award. Full results are available on the USHPA website. When lunch time came around we weren't hungry (Hilton had supplied us with some delicious cinnamon rolls and danish.) so we went for a walk along the beach - beautiful weather, sunny but not too hot. In the afternoon we attended the Membership and Communication committee meeting  and later the Site Development and Retention comm mtg (Paul Murdoch). By this time we were a little hungry so we went down to the tiki bar next to the pool and found it was happy hour and got a wrap and a burger with our drinks - both very good - and visited with some of the other directors. Later, after all the meetings were wrapped up, we got together with Mark and tried to figure out where a good ice cream place might be. We finally picked one back across the bay not too far from where both of us were staying. The Ice Cream Depot was an old-timey kind of ice cream place with huge sundaes and banana splits. We should have split one, indeed.

18 Oct, Sat - Same breakfast, but this time there was a crowd of people. Fortunately the staff was really good and they had provided more tables and chairs and they kept the buffet supplied. Most of the General Session consisted of committee reports, Exec comm. reports (budget, finance, membership, etc.) and the election. At midday we joined many of the BOD at the tiki bar again and had another good lunch - but this time we shared a meal. We were surprised that Rich was going to stay on another year as president. The next fall meeting was scheduled for the Francisco Grande Resort in Arizona per Jamie's suggestion. By 1700 we were ready to head back to Robs. We thought we might get something to eat along the way but we had been eating so well that it wasn't necessary. We drove along Route 1 instead of taking the I-95. That was a little slower but we got to see more scenery and small towns. We filled up the tank near Titusville for even less than the price had been two days ago (low $3.20s).

Rob painting the replacement board

19 Oct, Sun - Not sure about what order we did stuff in during the next three days so this is not a "history". Rob and I took the Elantra with its rear seats folded down to Home Depot in Palm Coast to get some 1x4 cedar to replace the fascia board. Rob painted it and the same day we nailed it back up. Rob made a nice stir fry with sausages (kielbasa), cabbage and red potatoes. He had bought some Becks Sapphire (something) beer and used it to make a Black and Tan with some Guiness he had around. We may also have gone up into the attic and thrown out a bunch of old, empty boxes. We brought down two sets of golf clubs in preparation for putting them up for sale on Craigslist. Rob also found a single-shot 12 ga. shotgun that he thought had been lost (but apparently it wasn't the 10 ga. goose gun he was expecting).

20 Oct, Mon - Rob went over to buy a lottery ticket or something at Pack Rat and came back with a big, double-layered cardboard box. If we cut it down, it would hold the trunk, especially if we removed the feet and padded the ends. So we did that and fit it into the back seat of Rob's Toyota Avalon. We took it over to Pack Rat where Rob's friend weighed it (90 lb) and measured the taped-up package and calculated a cost of around $168 which was less than we had expected. Later we pulled out the old microwave from above the range. The door needs replacement but GE doesn't stock the part anymore. Rob has a fix in mind for it. Dinner was again at Napoli Pizza but this time I had a Stromboli which looked like a long roll stuffed with sausage, onion, pepper - kind of like the calzone that Rob had.

21 Oct, Tues - C.J. got the photos taken for the golf clubs. She checked each club on the Internet for

its average price and then published an ad for each set on Craigslist. We probably did some other stuff but early in the afternoon we headed over to Flagler Beach. The water at Melbourne had been pretty warm so we thought we might go play in the waves. But the air was chilly so after a long lunch at Fuego del Mar, on the second floor open-air bar (good chimichanga entree to share), we went for a walk on the beach to the south. Lots of big jellyfish had washed up on the shore. Back at Rob's we didn't need any dinner.

22 Oct, Wed - Rob had bought a length of 1/4 in. threaded rod to replace the soft metal rod that was used as an axle on my cheapo suitcase from Vietnam. We cut it to length and used nylock nuts to attach the wheels. It looked good. We even stuffed a piece of wood under the axle to provide more support. C.J. and I got packed up and left around 1100. It had been a good visit. Just south of Jacksonville center we stopped to get gas (by now there were prices under $3/gal) so that the tank was full when we returned the car. No problems with rental return or signing in or baggage drop. And this time I had filled out the necessary forms and had received my boarding pass already stamped with the TSA pre-check sign so I could breeze right through with C.J. When signing in we were asked if we'd like to put in a bid in case the airline needed volunteers to give up their seats. We bid $400 each but no volunteers were needed on the flight to Atlanta. The same thing happened in Atlanta for the Seattle flight but this time they offered $400 up front for eight volunteers. We signed up, but again they did not need any volunteers. Bummer - we were already counting what we were going to do with the extra Delta credit. We had a late lunch/early dinner at Fresh2Order in Atlanta. By 2000 we were in Seattle and we caught a shuttle right away to the Sandstone and were soon on our way home. Sadly the new threaded-rod axle for the suitcase didn't work any better than the old axle and was bent again. Still, we're surprised that the cheap construction has lasted as long as it has.

Another Fall Flight at Rampart

9 October 2014

Rick Lai's photo of Rampart launches

The forecast was for changing weather - back to normal fall doom and gloom after Friday so C.J. and
I joined more than a dozen parafolk at the Rampart launch. Just as we got there in Owen's Toyota earlybird Iain was about to launch for his first Rampart flight. He had come up with Wheely, Mer and Brian F. and launched a bit early for a soaring flight. I think Milroy went next after a long wait and managed to stay up for a long time but below launch. Matty and Heather let me go in front of them and I used a forward inflation again to get off cleanly. Then I groveled for a while until I ran into a good thermal to the right of launch. It got me high enough (but not as high as C.J. who had used the same thermal to get to at least 6300') to go to the lower cliffs and get up. Then I went to the south end of the ridge so I could look down at where we had hiked two days ago - Lillian and Laura Lakes. As usual my aversion to getting high above the ground kept me from climbing up to join the pilots flying above the high ridge, but I did go all the way north past Gold Lake to the end of

Rampart Ridge looking south

"The Ramp". Ahead of me was the large gap before reaching Alta Mtn so I turned around - and immediately ran into a wall of air. My forward speed dropped to single digits (in kph) and I realized how far I was from the lake and a good place to land. Fortunately, it must have been just a compression zone because once I got past the corner, I got back up to speed. After flying for about an hour I passed the PG launch and saw several people still lined up waiting to take off - it was a slow day for getting off launch. I headed west across the lake and found lift almost all the way across so that I was not getting below 4200 ft and was wondering how I was going to get down. Since

Matt and Heather

we had parked at the Gold Creek bridge, I was planning to land at Wheely's recommended spot - a large brown field north of the island reputed to be soft as a mattress. I reached a point over the parking lot of Hyak and turned back flying over the ridge with an American flag in the trees. The lake had "filled in", meaning that the wind was stronger than when we had gone up and was rippling the previously glassy-smooth surface. I finally found enough sink to get down and landed in pretty light conditions, but this time I was ready to grab my rear risers (not as easy to do as I remember) to kill my wing. I packed up and put a wind streamer on a nearby stick. I was on my way to the car just as another glider landed. It wasn't until later that I found out it was Brian. It was a shorter distance (than from the Gobi) but harder going with the heavy pack back to the bridge. People were still landing on the road, turning at the last moment to land into the north breeze. I hopped in the car and drove to the HG landing area where C.J. had just finished packing up. We gave Andrei a ride back to the bridge and then headed home glad to have caught another good fall color day soaring at Rampart Ridge.

Fall Hiking at Rampart

8 October 2014

Lillian Lake

 The fall colors were so good last Sunday when we flew from the Rampart launch that C.J. and I thought it would be good to do a hike. It couldn't be too long or difficult because my knee was not fully healed from the whack it took when I was dragged across a rock pile on the Keechelus lakebed. Looking at the WTA (Washington Trail Assoc) website, I found "Lake Lillian Backdoor", only three miles and 1200 ft. gain to a beautiful lake just below the classic Rampart Lakes.

It would have been easy to get an early start because we didn't have very far to drive to reach the trailhead. However, we did not start up the boot track until after 11:00. There were two vehicles parked in the clearing at the end of the Rocky Run valley (FS 136) but we never saw any other people at all. The trail was unofficial but reasonably well-maintained. Still, it was more like a climber's approach path than a hiking trail because it went straight up with no significant switchbacks. We had views of Laura Falls and through-the-trees view of Laura Lake before we climbed over the last ridge to reach the junction with the Mt. Margaret Trail (no signs) and the shore of Lillian Lake. It was a great scenic lunch spot (12:15). After lunch we started to make our way around the SW end of the lake but the rock scramble was a bit short on large, convenient holds so we gave that up and headed down. Surprisingly the descent was not as bad as we had expected and we were back at the car in less than an hour.

Rather than head directly home I wanted to see if the

C.J. looking down at Laura Lake

AWD Sorento could make it up the rough road to the launch. In four-wheel-lock and first gear, we made it up but we scraped the bottom a couple of times and it was slow going. Also, I'd want new tires before trying it again (these are the original tires and have over 50,000 miles). On launch the wind was light and the cycles were right in. Nobody was there (although the Eureka tent was still pitched behind the PG launch). Driving down wasn't any better but I actually got to use the automatic braking option which kept us going about five mph. Just when we got back on FS 136 we met two cars coming toward us. We had to back up to the turnoff for the road to launch. When we met, the women in the first car asked, "Is this the way to the highway?" Not quite. Hopefully they got turned around and followed us back to the mainline and Gold Creek Road.

Fall Flying at Rampart

5 October 2014

C.J. (photo by Heather)

The Second Day Rule ("It's never good flying on the day after a site has been awesome") notwithstanding, we joined a dozen paragliders and perhaps half that many hang gliders at Rampart. Wind was practically non-existent where we parked at the bridge over Gold Creek and, on launch, it was light and cross from the right. Owen Shoemaker is a believer in going early; he did, and sank out, slowly but ending up on the "carrier deck" LZ hoping for a ride up with the hangs. Unfortunately they had already left; fortunately someone drove his pickup down so he could have another try. I am a believer in going early, too. So when there began to be cycles light but straight in, I geared up. Then I stood there for a very long time as the sun had been obscured by a patch of cirrus. When it finally cleared I forward-launched in a light cycle and almost immediately found lift. It was easy to work as I

I was flying low enough for my shadow to be on the cliff

was the only one in the sky. After getting above the launch ridge, I went up the valley to the base of the cliffs. There was plenty of lift but it was very light and I never climbed above 5100' (launch at 4600'). Returning to launch I found the good, stronger house thermal, but by now there were several wings in the area. I got back up and returned up the valley pushing as far as seemed reasonable and staying close to the valley wall. The colors of the bushes in the clearings were brilliant in the sun. I made at least one more trek back to launch and then up valley before deciding that I'd flown for an hour and that was long enough. From the old lower launch at maybe 4000' I headed across the lake not expecting to find the continuous lift. I was almost to the hill before Hyak and moving slowly into the wind when the air became turbulent. I headed back toward launch thinking about landing in the soft, mossy ground north of the island. There was less turbulence but my GPS was showing 55 kph speed over the ground. As I turned to face into the wind I noticed that my altitude which had been down to 3100 (lake bed LZ at 2500') was back over 3200'. I wasn't losing any altitude, instead I was gaining. So I flew south thinking that then I would be getting out of the venturi at the base of the pass and could land out in the broad flats of "the Gobi". Now I was able to lose altitude slowly and I could see a pilot below me who was holding up a flag of some sort to show me the wind direction. Unfortunately I did not know that it was a relatively heavy t-shirt and I would have done better to study the streamers at the carrier deck. As I came around to line up into the wind for my final I realized that I wasn't moving forward and applied the speed bar. That helped a little and I landed in a nice smooth area with no forward speed. Either I did not disable my wing quickly enough, or a stronger gust came through, because I was jerked off my feet and dragged through a rock pile before I came to a halt, and Beth, the pilot on the ground, was able to disable my wing. I was lucky that the rocks were rounded river rocks, but even so, I sustained a badly-bruised knee and a twisted neck along with a cut inside my mouth and minor scratches on my face. My full-face helmet took somewhat of a beating but I'm glad I had its increased protection. Beth helped me pack up in the windy conditions. Ernie landed just after I got packed and had much friendlier conditions -- he could kite for a moment before he put his wing down. Beth and I left our packs with Ernie and set off across the mostly-grassy lake bed to the north about a mile to where we could walk under the I-90 bridge over Gold Creek and reach our cars. Meanwhile, C.J. had contacted me after I got on the ground and said she was going to follow Wheely down to the dam. She arrived plenty high enough and found the conditions much mellower and had a perfect landing. Later when I caught up with her she told me that just after she landed two EMTs ran up to them and said they had been dispatched because of a report of two hang gliders crashing on the dam - must have been someone going by on I-90 who saw C.J. and Wheely landing. The EMTs gave all the PGs who landed there (five, all together) a ride to the rest area on I-90 where Iain was waiting to take them back to Gold Creek. I didn't know, at the time, how landing at the dam had been so I drove down there after recovering my pack from Ernie who had carried all three from the Gobi to the carrier deck parking lot. Just as I got to the dam service road, C.J. called me on the mobile and I was relieved to hear that she was safe at Gold Creek. I picked her up at the Hyak exit and we declined an invitation to join a bunch of the pilots at the NB Bar & Grill (a wise decision because it was hard enough for me to eat some scrambled eggs, much less a burger).

The Whole Dam Crew

Summit Lake Hike

2 October 2014

Summit Lake and Mt Rainier with Bearhead Mtn

C.J. and I saw this hike several months ago but we just now got around to committing to getting up early and doing the drive down to the north border of Mt. Rainier National Park for a day hike.

The Washington Trails Association's web page has a blog for each hike. The most recent posts on the Summit Lake page were more about how bad the road was than about the trail. We took the usual route down to Enumclaw then continued south to Buckley and Wilkeson and Carbonado. The paved Carbon River Road took us all the way to a turn-off on FS7810 just before entering the park. I was surprised to spot a ranger station a mile before the boundary; I'd been expecting one at the entrance station. We stopped anyway to see if there were any maps or notices. The ranger on duty was busy on the phone so we used the facilities and went on our way. FS7810 crossed the Carbon River on a long one-lane bridge and then the pavement ended. The first bit was pretty pot-holed; after that it was rough but nothing like the road up Rampart where you would need a 4WD. It was about six miles to the trailhead and we were the only ones there when we arrived shortly after 0900. The trail switchbacked up through pretty dense forest passing the oddly-named Twin Lake which was covered with a growth of long filaments of water grass. There were lots of mushrooms, and we saw several large cones (spruce?) which appeared to have been knocked down by the squirrels. We could hear people behind us but were surprised when they did not pass us considering our usual slow pace. A short distance after the lake we entered the Clearwater Wilderness. We only had to climb 1200 ft to reach Summit Lake, about 2.5 mi. But we stopped barely long enough to admire the view before heading up the herd path ("boot track") to the summit

C.J. on the summit

behind Summit Lake. Two hikers with a dog passed us as we stopped at an overlook to admire the view with the lake in the foreground and cloud-capped Mt. Rainier behind. A short distance farther we found a good place for a scenic lunch spot and took a break. From there it wasn't very far to the rocky summit where we had a 360-degree view. We could pick out Stuart and the Alpine Lakes high peaks and probably Glacier, but Mt. Baker was in the clouds and the Olympics were also clouded out. Looking almost straight down we could see the parking lot and the Sorento. According to the GPS, it was only 500 ft from lake to summit, and maybe 0.5 mi. of trail. Heading down we passed a single hiker heading up, and four folks at the lake. The trip down the trail went well and we were soon back at the car. Driving the rough road took only 20-30 min so there was plenty of time to drive through Carbonado and Buckley before heading for Enumclaw. We found a place to park not far from a sweet shop which had Snoqualmie ice cream and C.J. got some pumpkin pie ice cream while I went for the coffee almond fudge (??). We sat outside in the sunshine until the sun sank behind some buildings and it began to get chilly. A pleasant end to an excellent day.

Lenticular cloud cap on Mt. Rainier

Baldy Fly-in

26-28 September 2014

Rick Lai's shot of launch and LZ from above

C.J. and I were "iffy" about making it to this fly-in but Friday and Saturday looked good for some decent flying and it was billed as the Dave Norwood Memorial Fly-in, so we packed up and hit the road for the second weekend in a row.

26 Sep, Fri. - Left around noon. We stopped for gas in Cle Elum where the prices were still low at $3.299 per gallon for cash (North Bend, for comparison was still at something like $3.799) We went directly to the Lmuma Creek BLM campground and snagged a decent parking spot. There no other hang or para campers in the CG but a score or more had already gathered in the LZ/parking area and down in the cowpie-covered wooded area used for camping, the potluck and campfire. We got a ride up with Paul Kunzle and Bonnie (moved here from Hawaii). On the way we saw deer and a galloping herd of bighorn sheep. The north launch was working so I didn't wait around very long but launched for what was essentially a flydown to the main LZ. Later the wind picked up and Mike Brand, Cort and others had a half hour or so of soaring before the sun set.

Rick Lai's photo shows our wings on north launch

27 Sep, Sat - After breakfast we wandered over to the fly-in site and hung out as more and more folks arrived. It looked like the fly-in was going to be well-attended this year (financially necessary because the land owner, Mr. Eaton, had started to raise the price over the next five years from $3000 to $4500 per year). We caught a ride up to the top with Paul, again spotting some bighorns on the ridge. Conditions were pretty light from the north but I decided to fly right away thinking that it was going to get strong later. I got off pretty easily and there was some lift so I went right toward where we had spotted the sheep. Unfortunately, I got a close look at them because I ran into a pocket of big sink and descended so fast that I looked up to see if I still had my wing above me. After getting out of that sink, I was pretty low and there was no lift. There seemed to be plenty of wind at times as my forward speed was quite low. I didn't even aim for the fly-in LZ which was too far away to make on a glide. I eked it over the deep canyon where the old road ran and landed just short of the road junction and the fourth gate, where the power lines make a right-angle turn. I couldn't quite make the road and as I approached the ground I could see I was landing in a veritable boneyard. There were at least two bleached-white skeletons of cattle amongst the sagebrush. Just as I was gathering my wing a vehicle stopped to give me a ride back to the LZ. I spent the rest of the day hanging out and wondering where C.J. was since she had been laid out to launch right next to me. I later found out that she had caught a gust and been dragged a bit and decided not to fly. When she got a ride down it was after lunch time and while she was distracted from her snack of bread and cheese, a dog ate her bread, then came back and licked the cheese. We could see the silhouettes of many pilots up on Baldy waiting for the strong winds to die down. They did eventually but by then C.J. did not feel like going back up. Peter Gray, who had volunteered to be the organizer for the fly-in along with Naomi, had cut a dead tree down and left his chain saw. So I got it out and Iain and Randy got it started. Randy whacked the tree up into rounds. I split a few of them with my hand axe to add to the pile of apple wood for the campfire. The potluck dinner later was well-stocked due partly to the fact that over 80 people had signed up for the fly-in. It was dark by the time we ate and the warmth of the campfire was welcome.

Rampart Launch

28 Sept, Sun -  Conditions looked to be strong and maybe from the east after the first few flydowns, so we packed up and headed for Rampart where a fair number were going. As we approached the Hyak exit we could see a line of cars parked near the bridge on Gold Creek, presumably the paragliders who often land on the road. We continued on to the boat ramp area on Lake Keechelus where we met a dozen hang glider pilots. We wangled rides up with Travis (for C.J.) and with Tom and Lori (for me). At the HG launch the wind was not quite over-the-back but it was seriously crossed from the left. When we got to the PG ramp, there were a bunch of pilots trying to launch

Matty and Heather - Rampart

there in very cross conditions. I'd never been to Rampart when the wind was so crossed from the left. It took real skill to get off safely in those conditions but a few managed, and once off, climbed to over 6000'. I helped lay out wings until it looked like the wind direction was slowly clocking around; then C.J. and I got our wings out. It was a little difficult to find a place to lay out because six or eight of the hangs were setting up near the PG launch. I let C.J. go before me and she had a good forward launch. I tried a reverse but had to abort. Just before I tried again C.J. radioed with the news that one riser was seriously twisted and she couldn't use the brake on that side. She had

Matty and Heather - tandem at Rampart

climbed a thousand feet above launch and would now have to go land. Fortunately she could control the wing and flare with her rear risers, and landing conditions at the "carrier deck" were benign - a light breeze from the south (right up the lake). I got cleanly off launch using a forward inflation and then climbed above launch and flew to the base of the first rock face. I didn't find any more friendly climbs and ended up going back to soar around below the SW face of the hang launch (where a few pilots were now able to take off). I landed to the south in a not-too-muddy spot and packed up with C.J. and Meredyth, the only other PG to land with us. Earlier I had watched a couple of paras land on the sandy beach of Gold Cr downstream from the I-90 bridges. I guess they could walk back to the Gold Cr Rd under the freeway. After sharing some cookies, we headed over the pass and home.