I love the outdoors and exploring new areas. The northwest has always been on my list of places to visit. This is the first of
hopefully several trips to check it out. We cram a lot into these trips.
I think of at as living life while I still can enjoy it and will return
to these places after retirement.
We flew into Sacramento on Saturday and picked-up the Enterprise. It's always good
to be back on board. The motorhome had been sitting at the airport for 3
months to the day. Sitting for 3 months was not so good on the coach
batteries. Possibly from the solar panels charging them everyday and
then discharging from little items drawing power at night. The truck
battery was just as dead. Our only hope was that the generator would
start. It did after much cranking. There's an emergency starting
procedure using the coach batteries that worked eventually to get the
vehicle going.
Our first destination was supposed to be Hanks fly-in north of Redding
but having to deal with getting a new battery we would not make the
evening flying session. The next challenge was finding Hank's place. All we had
were the coordinates. That is normally enough but in this case there was
a lack of streets listed on any of our map programs or gps. I was able
to negotiate the back roads to within 300 yards of the point but only
found a locked gate with no sign of people (it was 1:00am). We finally
found our way to the next road which lead us to the flying field.
That morning we were able to fly. A nearby volcano
Mount Shasta
provided a beautiful backdrop for pictures as did the surrounding area. Hank's house is poised above the flying field and is completely
"off the grid" using solar power. What a view he has as you can see in
the pictures.
  
  
 
Top: 1) Hank's House 2) Hank's Flying Field
3) Me and Mt. Shasta
Middle: 1) Yours Truly 2) The Field 3) Scenery Surrounding
Bottom: 1) Jeff, Hank and ?? 2) Hank's Backyard |
Jeff has wanted to paraglide at a nearby site called Hat Creek. That
afternoon we headed over there but stopped to check out
Burney Falls first. The hike down to the bottom of the falls was an
easy one. The temperature change was dramatic. It seemed to be at least
30 degrees cooler from the mist evaporating at the base of the falls.
Hat Creek turned out to be a little intimidating for me. My only other
mountain launch was a larger rounded area at
Marshall in San
Bernardino. This was a steeper drop off and the wind was a little too
strong I felt. So I chose not to fly because we planned on stopping at
several other sites along the way to Seattle. Turns out I should have
just done it. We didn't ended up doing any other paragliding.
Jeff got in two flights top landing, instead of the LZ. Good thing
'cause we checked out the LZ first and it was a very rough ride in the
motorhome. I didn't want to have to do that again. It was still fun for
me just watching the hang gliders. There were not any other paragliders,
probably because of the conditions. That didn't stop Jeff. He had a good
time and I took pictures and enjoyed the view from 4500 feet.
  
  
Top: 1) Hat Creek Launch. 2) Hang glider
Launching. 3) Jeff doing "big ears" to come down.
Bottom: 1) Jeff with other air traffic 2) Jeff 3) ...and more
Jeff |
We headed out Sunday night for
Crater Lake Oregon. A place on my list to stop at but didn't really know
much about it. A brief description: around 7,700 years ago the volcano
Mount Mazama
violently exploded collapsing in on itself forming this 5 mile wide
crater. Later lava flows sealed the bottom forming a bowl like crater.
There are no rivers flowing into it, only rain and melting snow fill it.
It's the deepest lake in the U.S. and the water level varies by only 3
feet at any given time.
We arrived late Monday afternoon at the first overlook along the rim and did a small hike
along the crater rim. It was so fascinating pondering how this area was
formed over millions of years. The Grand Canyon is the only other place
that has filled me with a since of awe like this place did.
 
1) Our First View of Crater Lake 2) An
unneeded shot of me
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On around to the west side is a scenic overlook called the Watchman. I
read about a
hiking trail that lead to the top of Watchman's Peak but it said it was
an hour hike. We
didn't really what to spend that much time here but after reading some
other information
we realized that it was an hour round trip. Jeff wanted to do it. I
wasn't sure knowing
that we would be at slightly over 8,000 feet and I wasn't that confident
in my athletic abilities in thinner air. Turns out there was no issue.
 
1) At the bottom of the trail. You can see
the ranger station at the top. I think it was only a 400
vertical hike.
2) Snow banks around the path.
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There had been a fairly heavy snow fall recently so the path, at least
part of the way up, was trenched between several feet of snow. It was a
little strange being that it was warm enough for me to only be wearing
shorts and a tank-top but yet making snowballs.
On the way up we encounter a deer that didn't seem frighten of us until
we got close. That made us think about other wildlife that could be
around, like bears. For the rest of the hike we carried what we called our
"bear rocks", sharp pointed rocks that we could hopefully do just enough
damage to escape a bears clutches, I know, what are the odds of a bear
attack? Pretty low but it was on our minds. I'm sure if we lived in
this area we would actually know what to do like carrying pepper spray.
 
1) Deer Crossing 2) We did stop a couple of
times to catch our breath being at 8000 feet.
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From the ranger's tower at the top was a gorgeous view into the crater.
This old ranger station is still used when there are fires in the area.
 
1) Jeff at the top. 2) View from the ranger
station.
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We left the park at sunset towards Portland. The next morning we found Crescent Lake State Airport. With a beautiful backdrop we took the
opportunity for some flying and pictures.
 
 
1) Crescent Lake 2) The Crescent Lake Airport
3) Some Mountain In The Background 4) Jeff Doing A Footdrag Down The Runway
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Tuesday afternoon we stopped at Eugene Oregon for some chow and found
the best path to rollerblade we have ever encountered. It was hot but I
was willing to do anyway. I don't do so well with physical activity when
it's hot and high humidity.
  
1) On the Path 2) I don't look that excited
about the heat 3) Sweating I am.
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We met up with a local pilot Martin later that evening in Portland. The locals have
gotten permission to fly from a large farm not near Sauvie Island,
northwest of Portland. This place provided a huge flying field. Jeff and
I flew for a few minutes then landed. Jeff wanted to try out Martin's
PAP motor. Martin and I got some pictures then we all went up.
Unfortunately the air was providing a 3-4 on the bump scale rating, not
dangerous but not really fun either. I won't do foot drags in that
unless there is a really smooth surface like sod to play in which there
wasn't. Later Martin joined us and Jeff got a few pictures. At about 600
feet I was parked. I had to let my trim out to penetrate. It doesn't
make for the funnest air to fly in but at least we got to fly here.
 
 
1) Martin 2) Jeff pulling his wing up
3) The launch area with the Enterprise at Jeff's toes 4) Me with
Portland in the background
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Wednesday morning we headed to the Oregon coast to meet up with another
local, Steve, for some beach flying. The coast is known for it's fog and
being a lot cooler. We were told that it usually clears up along with
stronger winds. Well neither happened. Jeff pretty much never passes up
a chance to fly so he took Steve's Kobra motor for a spin. I was not
that motivated. It was foggy, misty and only like 60 degrees.
  
1) Jeff kicking up some sand on landing 2)
The foggy coast 3) Big Rock
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It's a hard sand beach so we could drive the motorhome out on to it.
There was a berm along the beach we wanted to soar. Steve had to go but
we stayed to see if the winds would pickup. It never did so Jeff drove us
out on the beach only for us to find a soft spot so we could get stuck
in! The motorhome being an 8 ton
vehicle with rear wheel drive doesn't do so well if you hit soft sand.
With our hearts racing a little Jeff managed to rock us out. How
appropriate the name Enterprise would have been floating in the water
with the paramotors on board. As it was the tide was on it's way
out and so were we. We abandoned the hope of flying the berm.
We headed back to Portland. At the helm a lack of sleep was
catching up to me. I found a nice shopping area in Hillsboro. Target
looked good for some shopping needs and a convenient Starbucks across
the street. There was also work to do around the motorhome. Jeff's motor
wouldn't start after his last flight and both our paramotor covers
needed some sewing and grommets added.
 
1) On the road again 2) Grommet Work
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We ended up staying there all day and never made it out of the parking lot. Our sleep patterns are so
bizarre on these trips. We frequently get little sleep for days in a row
and then crash hard and get 8 hours. . We crashed hard for 3 hours then
got up and drove for about an hour to a McD's(for our breakfast
convenience) & crashed again for 2
hours.
We planned on meeting Martin and another local Gabe at the Sandy airport to fly
at sunrise. With my alarm set at 4:45 we barely got up and headed for
Sandy. The weather again was not looking good. Fairly heavy fog and mist
was hovering over the area. It was an easy decision...back to sleep
until somebody arrived.
Because of the weather nobody came to fly. I wasn't
interested in flying in the wet cold air but Jeff went ahead and had a
short flight. Later we did meetup with Martin and Steve for some awesome
Thai food before heading out.
  
1) Jeff about to launch. 2) Jeff's view of
the airport. 3) Lunch with the locals-Top: Me & Martin Bottom:
Jeff & Steve
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Our next stop on our way to Seattle was
Mt. Saint Helens. There
is so
much fascinating geography to learn about in this area. Beautiful
landscapes but no place to fly the ppg's. We did happen across a free
flight site that would have been incredibly beautiful to fly but the
local pilots were not very encouraging. It was not an ideal site and I
definitely wouldn't have flown there. Jeff was tempted but choose not to
after hearing about some of the accidents there.
It's an amazing story about how after the eruption in 1980 they have
grown back so many of the trees that were blown to shreds. But as you
can see in the close-up there are not any trees near the volcano. It was
decided to let mother nature deal with this area so it has been
preserved from human help. 57 people were killed, one of which refused
to leave his home in spite all the warnings to leave.
It was too late in the day to go all the way into the park so we just
enjoyed the view from afar.
  
 
 
1) The paragliding launch. 2) This bridge
was eerie to drive over. 3) The biggest leaf ever.
4) Jeff and the valley of lava flow. 5) Me enjoying the view.
6) Entering the park. 7) The mouth via zoom
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The next day we made it to Seattle and met up with fellow paramotor pilot James Childs who
works at the
Everett Boeing factory. Here they make the 747, 767, 777 and the new
787 Dreamliner. We did the tour which was really cool. Being in the
world's largest building made the planes seem not so big. At the time we
were there, the first Dreamliners out of production were out of the building
awaiting test flights. Not sure of that status as of this writing. If
you have a fascination with planes due stop in at one of the Boeing
facilities for a tour, quite cool.
  
1) Where we toured 2) 747 final assembly 3)
The Dream Liner 787 waiting for flight testing |
The Dream Lifter below is a modified 747 able to hold the larger
fuselage and other parts that are made in other parts of the world and
are flown in for assembly. The tale swings open were they bring out the
parts. We came out of tour just as it arrived.
 
1) The Dream Lifter with tale open 2)
James, Jeff & Me. |
Later that day James took us to fly at a favorite of the local flyers
near Snohomish, north of Seattle. That was a fun flight along Snohomish
River. Some ugly skies were getting close so I came back and landed. The
others followed. Nobody was really worried about the weather, it seemed
to far away but just shortly after landing the rain, wind and thunder
started.
  
 
1) The flight park near Snohomish, WA 2)
Flying over the Snohomish River 3) Jeff and I flying-Photo by
James Childs
4) Jeff and I again-Photo by James Childs 5) James, Me and Jeff
with the storm approaching in the background.
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Our last stop of the trip was to visit the
Space Needle in
Seattle. Standing over 500ft it gives a gorgeous view of Seattle and
Puget Sound.
   
 
1) Jeff at base of Needle 2) The Space
Needle 3) View from the top 4) Jeff
5) Half-million $ yacht for sale 6) Jeff wishing he were the
captain
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What a trip this was. It took me 4 months to get around to writing about
it and many hours of formatting pictures etc...likely the reason for
putting it off too. |
