April Oregon and Utah Adventure

Incomplete record:

4/20/13

Friday

Brent arrived at my place with his truck loaded with Theresa's boxes and other items.  After moving them over to the Tacoma, Brent left his truck in my driveway to ward off baddies from infiltrating my house. After wrapping the dehumidfier with plastic and departed in the rain storm that had consumed the northwest.  We made our way to Portland and met up with Theresa to unload her items. By the time we arrived, the boxes had evaporated all the rain that poured on before.  Soon enough, we were off to the Oceanside fly-in.  That evening we checked in the Shilo Inn there at Tilamook.  I had a bike lock, but I didn't have the correct combination, so we brought the bikes indoors, possibly against hotel policy.  

4/21/13

Saturday

In the morning we hit up breakfast, and departed up to the launch for the event.  Not sure where we were going to stay that evening, we checked out of our room.  The weather was rainy, and cloudy.  Not good flying conditions.  There was some talk of pilots heading south for better weather.  We ended up heading to Cape Kiwanda.  Very happy to have the 4x4 to get us through the sand.  We spent many hours climbing the dunes, followed by bits of sled runs down the slope on gliders.  Good scenery and ocean air, plus a lot of sun with only a few brief rain squalls.  After getting our fill of flying and packing our wings full of sand, we tried to empty them as much as possible, packed up, and left to get food back in Tilamook.  Got Mexican food, and decided to stick around an extra day, so we checked back in the same hotel.

4/22/13

Sunday

In hopes for better weather, we were disappointed with even worse conditions than Saturday, which was contrary to the forecast.  Without wasting too much time we ate and headed inland towards Utah!  We made good time out to Bend, Oregon where I had planned on topping off the gas tank.  The Costco there didn't have gas pumps, so I planned on getting some just before leaving town.  However, the edge of Bend is extremely abrupt, and there were no gas stations to be seen, nor any of the over abundant signs of "No gas for XXX miles".  This would have been useful information.  We headed over to a potential flying site by Pine Mountain.  We followed a steep dirt road on out to that site, but it was blown out, and coming from the wrong direction.  We departed.  There were a few deserted gas stations dotting the highway, and I kept on heading East.  Highway signs noted various towns various distances ahead, and we figured at least one would have a gas station.  Our assumptions were correct, however, none of them were open or even operational.  I did rough calculations in my head, and we were not going to make it to Burns, where the next available gas station was listed on Google Maps.  Thankfully we had a fierce tailwind, a semi truck in front of us, and mountain bikes in the bed of the truck.  With the lack of a shoulder on the highway, I started getting nervous about running out of gas since the road sloped away at a steep angle.  I felt the engine sputter a few times, and a sudden loss of horsepower.  Thankfully we were approaching a few intersections that would provide an area that I could pull over.  Brent had spotted the Riley Post office as a possible location to park and go on from there.  I dropped the gear into neutral and coasted toward the large building marked as the Post Office on the map.  It was actually a convenience store!  My breath escaped me when I focused in on a few gas pumps!  As I got closer, I noticed the wonderful welcoming neon glow of "OPEN" in their window!  YES!  I parked and then happily paid the lady working the register for enough gasoline to get us to Nampa.  The gasoline took us as far as Ontario where we filled the tank and ate dinner.  Several hours of driving later we went to the Super8 hotel in Burley where the new staff member treated us to a chocolate chip cookie and hot coco.

Monday

4/22/13

I woke up to the sound of tumbling garbage on asphalt.  The wind had picked up and the rotor behind the building created a vortex and the trash swirled around making noise.  Drove out to meet family in SLC.  (can't remember who first or where we stayed)

4/23/13

Got up and out semi-early to hit up the POM north side.  A few pilots were out there kiting around, and we joined.  Soon, the wind started to pick up, and others started taking off.  I helped Brent get familiar with launch, and he went and had a brief flight down.  Sunk out quickly, but I went and picked him up along w/ two other Colorado pilots.  Nobody was flying when we arrived back, so we departed to pick up some supplies and then met up with Kurtis, Damion, and David Alvord.  We hit up the bike trails up Coyote Canyon.  Went up Ann's trail, and came down Rush.  It was really fun.  When we returned, we hit up a sushi joint for their 50% off sushi, and ate LOTS.  Got lots of funny looks as we were being a bit rambunctious and one incident of catching a napkin on fire.  Kurtis replied to the waiter, "It's your fault for bringing us fire!"  We got food drunk and caused a ruckus.  Departed back to Damion's place and slept.
*from email*
Today we went to the Point of the Mountain and kited our gliders around for a bit, until the wind picked up enough to fly.  Brent got one flight in, and it started to get rough out, so we went for lunch, then picked up some things for bikes.  Brent put a new pair of much needed brake pads on the Klein.  In the process of inflating the tire, the valve stem came completely out of the tube, much like my brand ultra-thick tube I got last year.  We met up with Damion, Kurtis, and Dave.  Damion has his brand new 29er he was testing out.  It was good to break it in over some good terrain.  The air is chilly, but the sun is hot.  Good balance. We all got food drunk at the sushi restaurant today, and kept ordering more rolls.  I "almost" felt bad for being a bit raucous in our laughter, jokes, and antics.

4/24/13

Pt of mtn bad wind- ate breakfast at damions and drove up to inspo point to meet up with other pilots.  got there early and munched on snacks while enjoying views.  troublesome jeep stayed in parking lot over an hour with engine idling.  paragliders started showing up and evaluating wind conditions. I chatted with several to get a better idea on what to look out for on the site. The wind seemed too strong for most, but it started to cycle, and people started to launch.  Immediately several pilots were well over 11K and some into 13K.  Soon, there were few pilots left.  One guy, mike was left who also hadn't flown Inspo before.  We both got ready, and launched.  He went first w/o trouble, and so did I.  

The flight was kinda rough at first, and i had to lay on the speed bar to make penetration.  Bumpy ride down.  Power lines made me nervous, and sinky air made me choose to land at the school instead of the church.  threaded the needle between the powerlines and the trees while a little boy excitedly hollered at me from the fence.  Made my landing, and had Brent come pick me up.  We went to Betoes for dinner and went up to the POM for some evening flying.  I launched, and Brent soon followed.  Had a nice flight.  Brent sunk out and had to climb back up, but was able to get another longer flight in when i sunk out.  I got a ride back up and took some photos of him and other pilots.  

Went back to Damions to show off videos.  Complications with video conversions might have compromised Brent's last two recordings.

*Filling in blanks with memory 6 years later*

4/25/13  - Went for a scenic drive up in the high elevations.  We weren't able to go where we wanted to go due to gates being closed along with roads.
Inspo Sled run.  Thread the needle between powerlines and trees upon landing.

4/26/13 - Evening flight at north side POTM.  Magical conditions.  Both Brent and I benched up and had an amazing flight as the sun descended.  Got really high and flew over the Draper shelf.  Some of the best conditions some of the locals had seen in a long time.

4/27-28/13 - Drive home?

Met with Dan Sloan for lunch sandwich shop in SLC 11:30.  Ran into Heath Alger too.