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).

Another Dog Mtn Weekend

13-14 June 2009

Double-click to see C.J.'s virtual scrapbook pages

After a good 1hr 20 min paraglider flight on Friday at Tiger, C.J. and I opted for joining the hang gliding crew at the Dog Pound (Dave Gerdes' tree nursery property on the back side of Dog Mtn in Cispus).

On the way to Dog we detoured to Apache RV in Tacoma to scope out the Aliner Sport which had finally arrived. It really looks perfect for us - about as big as our "condo tent" but with dinette, stove and screened windows (not to mention the furnace!). It would have been great for the spring trip through the SW. The financial market is going to have to do something dramatic (in a positive way), though, if we are going to find the cash to buy one, even used.

By the time we reached Dog, it was 1630. We stopped at the North Field LZ and found out from Tina and Larry that people were going back up to fly so we drove on up. After watching a new pilot fly and land out on the way to the LZ, C.J. launched and soared about at launch level for a few minutes before heading for the new-to-her LZ. I drove down and found C.J. almost all packed up so I went out to help Tom carry his glider and gear from where he landed to the LZ through the tall grass and bushes. Then we found our way to the Dog Pound where the rest of the pilots were relaxing around the fire pit on hay bales and folding chairs. Tina prepared a huge meal with some small help from some others, notably Tom Pierce's wife who had baked a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. We didn't have much to throw in except for homemade mustard, rye bread and potato salad. Next time we'll have to plan for a potluck dish. We were the only ones to set up a tent - the Jorgensens have their big motorhome, David has his trailer and so does George and his wife. Everyone else slept in their vehicles. We're thinking about going back next weekend with a borrowed trailer from Bob Hannah to test out the small RV concept.

It was overcast with a low cloudbase in the morning. Most folks went into town for breakfast but we heated up some hot drinks and had cereal and chocolate chip muffins before leaving for the Goat Creek Trail. Larry and Tina were really enthusiastic about the hike and thought it was good timing because there was still snow melt feeding the waterfall.

Even though it was Sunday and only 5 miles from the Taidnapam CG, we met only four other hikers on the deep forest trail. The water fall was as good as advertised, only about a mile in from the road head, and the trail went around behind the falls.

After taking several photos, we continued on for another mile to a fork in the trail that led to the right up Tumwater Creek, and left along Goat Creek. By the time we were ready to turn back the sun had broken through, and the forest on the walk back had a different feel to it.

Back at the car we drove down to a logging landing that looked out across the lake to Dog and had lunch while watching a glider soaring near launch. Conditions looked good enough so we drove up and found ourselves all alone on top with five gliders in the air. By the time C.J. was set up, Larry and David had showed up and Larry provided a second wireman and his experience in launching in the 15 mph gusts. As soon as C.J. took off, I drove down, then waited for her to land in the gusty North Field. After a perfect landing, she packed up and we returned to Dave's to break camp and head home. We just squeaked into the Covington Costco gas station one minute before closing, and were home around 1930.

Val's Concert and Olympic National Park

6-8 June 2009

It had been a bit more than a year since we had last attended a concert by Paul G's fiancee, Val, so we were happy to hear she was singing at the Kingston farmer's market on Saturday. To add value to the ferry ride, we planned to camp in the Olympics and find a good hike.

Saturday - We had gotten packed up the night before so it didn't take too long to get out in the morning (OTOH, it required two - or was it three? - trips back to the house for forgotten items before we had gotten as far as the library). We were lucky enough to roll right onto the Edmonds-Kingston ferry and were parking at the farmers market by 1000. We ran into Paul right away and helped him carry chairs and stuff to Val's venue, a shade structure with lots of electrical power cords from the marina office. The farmers market was small and we quickly exhausted its interest. The rest of the town wasn't much larger but it did have a Mora ice cream shop with excellent flavors. Val sang and played beautifully as ever, and I guess the other listeners agreed because her CDs were flying off her stand and her tip bucket was filling up with cash. Later we toured Paul and Val's beautiful house east of Paulsbo and had a great dinner with Jim and Deb Gallant (and their boys, Evan and Max). We spent the night at Paul and Val's.

Sunday - We got a reasonably early start and crossed the newly refurbished Hood Canal Floating Bridge. The Olympic National Park visitors center in Port Angeles provided some information - socked in at Hurricane Ridge, minus tide on the coast - which got us heading for Lake Ozette and the Cape Alava loop trail. On the way we stopped at Olympic Raft and Kayak just across the Elwah River to ask about classes in paddling in surf (private lessons about $50 per hour for the two of us - probably 2-3 hours at Freshwater Bay). Then we stopped at Crescent Lake to walk in to Marymere Falls and then up the Benson Creek trail a mile or so to a lunch spot. Next on the spontaneous agenda was a visit to the Makah Tribal Museum in Neah Bay. It was well done and displayed artifacts from the houses in a village located on Cape Alava that had been buried by a landslide hundreds of years ago. As the museum was closing (1700) we considered buying the annual tribal car permit ($10) so we could explore Cape Flattery and Shi Shi ("shy shy") Beach but decided instead to head for the Ozette campground back in the national park. There were only three or four campsites occupied out of the fifteen available and we chose one right on the lakeshore but sheltered by tall grass. The warm sun felt good as we prepared dinner and set up camp. After dinner I took advantage of the Washington State "free fishing weekend" and spent a little time casting a spinner out into the lake. Didn't get even a nibble.

Monday - C.J. popped out of the tent around 0615 and shortly afterwards we were both getting ready to hike. By 0700 we were actually on the Sand Point Trail which passed through dense woods mostly on cedar boardwalks to the coast. (Took only an hour to reach the beach) Once there, we headed north on firm sand which became cobbles with some downed trees as we got farther north. Since the previous night had been a full moon we chose our time so that we'd get the most benefit from the spring tide (-1.3 at 0820 more or less) and not have to climb over any headlands, or get our feet wet. There were numerous bald eagles, many perched on sea stacks. We could hear sea lions but not see them on the rocks and islands farther out. However we did see a sea lion (?) carcass on the beach as we neared Cape Alava. We were watching some crows pick up something in their beaks, fly up and drop it on the rocks, and, as a result, we missed the marker for the trail back to Ozette. That was OK because we wanted to walk the half mile up to the site of the Makah village that had been buried in a mudslide hundreds of years ago, anyway. There was a tribal ranger station, unattended, and a replica longhouse with some bones and dentalia necklaces, along with a plaque commemorating the former inhabitants. It had taken us about three hours to walk the three miles of beach. We headed back toward where the trailhead should be and found lots of campsites above the beach on a grassy, treed bench. There was even an outhouse! The Cape Alave trail had more ups and downs than the Sand Point trail and it took us about an hour-and-a-half to walk the 3.2 miles back to Ozette. Back at our campsite we had lunch on the lakeshore then packed up the tent and other gear and headed east. This time we took the alternative to traveling along Crescent Lake on 101 and followed SR 112 through Joyce and on to Port Angeles, with one detour to see what Freshwater Bay looked like. Along the winding two-lane road we got surprised by a bald eagle taking off and flying right in front of our windshield. I'll bet he was surprised, too! A planned stop for Costco gas in Sequim was foiled by a closed warehouse, and we had to eke out our supply to reach the Silverdale Costco. [The Outback went 25 miles after the gas light came on and we still took only 14.8 gallons.] After a quick ice cream break, we headed home across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and got there around 1930 - a long day but full of good stuff!

Chelan and Banks Lake

30 - 31 May

C.J.'s birthday fell on a weekend other than Memorial Day so there probably would not be any great crowds on the roads. (And, as it turned out, even Chelan was underpopulated for a late spring weekend. The only place we found wall-to-wall people was in Leavenworth.)

Click on C.J.'s scrapbook image to see it full-screen.

After working late installing the wiring for a brake controller in the Outback, I was a bit slow to get going Saturday morning. But we got loaded up and off by 0900; that put us in Chelan too late to consider paragliding - the middle-of-the-day thermals were not what we were looking for. After a brief cruise-through to check out Beebe Bridge campground (lots of empty sites at noon), we drove up the new McNeil Canyon Road and on through Mansfield, Sims, and Leahy to the Barker Canyon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife boat launch. A number of motorhomes were camped in the parking lot but there was plenty of room to unload and gear up. The wind was light as we headed straight across to the peninsula and continued light until we were eating lunch on a large island. Since we really wanted to reach the narrow passages and islands of the far east side of the peninsula, we continued downwind for another two miles. The steep-walled, flooded canyon kept us out of the wind for a while as we rounded the islands but soon enough we were back in the wind and paddling pretty much straight into it. Good thing we had stopped to put on our spray skirts because we took a fair amount of splash over the bow as we paddled on, while making about half of our downwind speed - and working twice as hard for it. Our route took us between the group of islands and Steamboat Rock and straight back to Barker Canyon. A couple of sunburned fishermen helped lift the kayak back onto the Trooper and we drove back to Beebe (still lots of room) where we had convinced ourselves to camp in comfort (even though we'd have to pay the high-season rates). However, a call to Darren had us motoring on to Tom and Lori's where we partied a while with the hang glider pilots who had called off the task for the day due to high winds. Later, with detailed directions, we found our way to Tina and Larry's property up Cagle Gulch Road and camped there for the night in the cooler air 2000 ft above Lake Chelan.

The next morning we were baked out of our tent by the sun and thus were ready to leave early. A check with the pilots at Tom and Lori's produced a weather report for strong winds again later in the day. We got a ride up the hill in the back of Jimmy Culler's truck and I launched from Ants around 1115. Lift was abundant but very sharp-edged and my glider kept getting small collapses - it was not pleasant flying. I reached 1000 ft over launch above the towers and decided that was enough. Lone Pine was one possibility for an LZ, so were "the fingers", but as I looked carefully at the Lakeside Park beach,I could see very few sunbathers so I landed with plenty of room to spare there. After packing up in the shade (an advantage that the fingers would not have had) I carried my pack (ugh) up to Tom and Lori's, grabbed the truck and headed off to get C.J. at the soccer field. On the way back we stopped in Leavenworth for some "street sausage" (good) and Bavarian soda (bad). The water was high and fast in Tumwater Canyon and there were a lot of water falls tumbling from high above the road. We stopped for a break at the Iron Goat trailhead and info center before continuing on to Marysville and Everett to look at the Chalet LTW pop-up trailer and the Aliner Classic (the Sport was not in stock yet). One more stop for refreshment at DQ and we were home by 1830.

May 9-25

You can tell there hasn't been much excitement if a paragraph or two describes three weeks.

We've been down to Dog Mountain twice since the annual Frostbite Fly-in. C.J. has been feeling that she hasn't flown her Falcon much this year. I lucked out and found the launch unusually roomy and was able to take off from beside the ramp either on the left or right. And it was soarable but not booming both times. We even stayed for the night on the 16th and C.J. got another flight on Sunday. Then we headed off to explore - first to the Tacoma Power Taidnapam campground just down the road from Dogpatch and then east through Packwood (where we had tried to take the USFS Skate Creek Road the previous Saturday only to find it still "closed for the winter"). Cayuse Pass had just opened two days ago and we wanted to see what the snowpack looked like, and get in a hike somewhere. The Stevens Canyon entrance to Mt. Rainier NP was still closed (as was nearby Ohanapecosh campground) but you could drive in as far as the Grove of the Patriarchs trail. After rearranging our gear for hiking we took off on the snowy trail and clambered over a mass of blowdown to reach the grove of old-growth fir, hemlock and cedar. The boardwalks, placed to keep the foot traffic from compacting the soil around the trees, were obscured and partly smashed by the smaller fallen trees and we did not try to make the full circuit.

The road over Cayuse Pass was bare and dry but there were still walls of snow along the roadside. SR 410 was barricaded but it had obviously been plowed as far as could be seen. [By next Friday it would be open as well over Chinook Pass.]

On Memorial Day we joined Peter and Naomi Gray and Bob Bunger at Baldy Butte where Peter was doing a HG tandem for the 12-year-old daughter of a family from Ellensburg. Bob and C.J. climbed to 7700 ft, and even I got over 6000 and tried going NW across the river to the next ridge. A call for assistance from Naomi who had landed out in a ravine below the road put me on the ground where Peter joined me to help a shaken but mostly-uninjured Naomi pack up and return to the LZ. After Bob and C.J. landed we returned to the launch to find the wind too strong for us, even if we wanted to fly again. On the way back to E-burg we stopped and hiked along a cliff above a meander of the Yakima River to observe the flocks of feeding and nesting swallows and swifts. We stayed to visit with the Grays and their chickens, and enjoyed a delicious pasta carbonara for dinner. The last hours of the holiday weekend meant some slow traffic on I-90 from Cle Elum to about Easton, some of it due to gaper block around a fender-bender.

I've been looking into getting a lightweight camping trailer, either an Aliner Sport or Chalet LTW. It's been kind of fun to subscribe to the email group and read the posts describing trips, mods and concerns. I installed a Type II trailer hitch on the Outback and hooked up the wiring. Bob is willing to let us try his MyTLite trailer to see if we like it as much as the concept, and provided me with a brake controller which I haven't installed yet.

Otherwise, the garden has been keeping C.J. busy, and when she's worn out from working there, there's still lots of physical and virtual scrapbooking to be done - you can look back at the blog posts for March and April to see her scrapbook pages online. I've had four substitute jobs this month which is just about as many as I've had any month previously this year. Unfortunately that's not going to provide even a down payment on a trailer. So if we want to do a road trip to Alaska late this summer, we'lll have to figure something else out.

Blue Lake - North Cascades Snowshoe Hike

27 April, Monday - When the sun came up it was shaded by clouds and the wind had picked up so it wasn't as warm as we had hoped it would be. Puffy coats and wind pants kept us warm enough to eat breakfast and we soon were packed up - no dew either night meant the tent was almost dry - except for part of the floor that was sitting in a puddle resulting from over-energetic lawn sprinklers. After a couple of quick stops for gas and for depositing the funds from the fly-in we headed north and up the Methow valley. As we began to climb beyond Mazama, we encountered more and more snow on the roadside until it was higher than the car. About a mile west of Washington Pass we stopped at the small pullout that had been plowed for the Blue Lake Trailhead. We swapped our flying gear for winter hiking/snowshoeing equipment and climbed the snowbank to get to the actual trailhead. We had a perfectly good map but the summer trail was totally obscured by the feet of snow so we followed some old ski tracks in the general direction of where we thought (and the GPS showed) the lake should be. The first half mile or so was heavily forested but not too steep, then we hit a wide avalanche chute. Trees were bent over and covered and there was a lot of wreckage strewn around. We stayed near the edge and started climbing pretty steeply up, then it got even steeper. Clearly the summer trail (2.2 mi) took a much less direct route than our 0.75 mile beeline (gaining 1200 ft). The new, smaller snowshoes allowed us to traverse the slope when it wasn't too steep or too firm. After crossing a stand of trees we climbed another avalanche chute, this time using the snowshoe crampons to "frontpoint" straight up. One more tree-covered ridge stood between us and the lake, so we climbed that as well to where we could look down at the snow and ice-covered, narrow tarn at about 6200 ft. I didn't mention that the views had been getting progressively better and better. We could look back behind us to the north to the mountains across the North Cascades Highway, and to the east we could see towering over us Liberty Bell and the Early Winters Spires. We picked a suitably scenic spot for lunch and rested for a while before tackling the descent. Neither of us were sure how to proceed - snowshoe down?, slide on the snowshoes? Take off the 'shoes and glissade? or "heel down". We tried all four and the best method for the day's conditions was to just walk straight down plunging the heel in on each step. We were able to get almost all the way to the car before starting to sink more than a few inches into the snow. The rest of the drive down the North Cascades Highway was suitably scenic with waterfalls, distant mountains and mountain lakes. We stopped for gas at Costco in Burlington and for some groceries and a sandwich at Safeway and were home around 2030 - a good night for a soak in the hot tub. Tomorrow we've got a lunch date with our tax preparer and her co-conspirator, Bill Beck at Easy Joe's in North Bend (a reincarnation of Robertiellos, then Gaston's).

Chelan Beach 'N

25-26 April 2009

The fly-in was scheduled a week earlier this year so as to avoid the conflict with the Oceanside Open in Oregon. C.J. and I got over there around noon after setting up camp at Beebe Bridge CG where the rates are half-price ($10) for seniors until the Thursday before Memorial Day (likewise after the Labor Day weekend). After checking in with Lori at Lakeside Park we went up and watched conditions from the Butte for a while. There was a lot of virga in the distance but it was otherwise sunny. I launched from "Lakeside" and sank down along the spine until I crossed to the west and got under a cloud. There was plenty of lift; I noted 800 up on my averager at one point. Working my way to the west, I got within a mile or so of the SR 97A summit before turning back. There was still plenty of room to climb below cloudbase (there were hang gliders well above me), but after almost an hour I was ready to land. C.J. was up there with me and was pulling big ears and bigger ears to get down; I did a few asymmetric spirals and then flew out over the lake at about 3000 ft. It was pretty easy to cross but I didn't waste any time when I finally put a breadcrumb on the far shore, and turned around and pointed my toes. There was still 700 ft of altitude left when I reached Lakeside Park and began to set up for my landing. I managed to finesse the light winds enough to hit the white ring, one away from the bullseye. We went back up again with Kevin White but decided not to fly a second round. [I probably should have flown to have been in contention for second place - Tom had first all wrapped up and Brian Scott was second, and Gene (?), a relatively new pilot, was in third place The party commenced around 1800 with lots of pizza and iced beer. However, it was pretty chilly by the time the sun went down and most folks headed indoors. In our case we went back to the campground and had an unusually long sleep.

Down in the Columbia River gorge the sun doesn't hit our side of the river until 0800 or so during this time of the year so we didn't start cooking breakfast until a bit later when it had warmed up some. But by 0915 we were heading back to Lakeside for another flying day. It was warmer and the sky looked to have fewer dark clouds. People were still launching from Lakeside when we got on top, but shortly afterward the cycles began on "Ants". After seeing one yellow PG getting high near where she had gotten up yesterday, C.J. launched from Ants and quickly whipped around the south side of the Butte, through the saddle and almost down to Lone Pine LZ before hooking a good one. She got to do the tour to the west almost to SR 97A and also across the lake before landing. I launched off "Between the Rocks" and worked ratty lift near "Green Monster" with Tom Johns and then tried crossing the saddle. I did manage to climb above the next knob to the west but then ran out of lift and ended up sidehill landing just south of the saddle. After a hurried pack-up, I started to walk up to launch to get the Trooper and got halfway there before Tom and Lori picked me up. After recovering my gear (left at the saddle) C.J met me on top for lunch. We had been seriously considering flying again but the wind had come around to "Monster" and launches were not looking smooth so we went back down to hang out at the park. Later we went back to camp and cooked supper and walked around the campground. C.J.'s sharp eyes spotted a wing in the air on the west side and we decided to go back up to town anyway to check things out. No one seemed to be around at the park so we drove up to launch. Ryan and Amin from Canada were kiting - they said we had "just missed it" but I got my wing out anyway and had an extended flydown to the park. On the way back to camp we stopped for ice cream at the bar/restaurant/ice creamery near Riverside Park across from Campbells - good ice cream, but no samples! It was later than the previous night when we got back to camp and it was warmer so we didn't have to crawl right inside our sleeping bags. Our plan for tomorrow is to drive north and take the recently- plowed North Cascades Highway to make a loop back to North Bend.
(All of C.J.'s photos are from the evening flight, 26 April)