Westward Ho!
Sheila Boyle

With visions of 100-milers dancing in our heads - Mark Gardner, Joe Gregor, Dan Tomlinson, Dan's wife Maureen and I headed out from Mark's place in PA in two vehicles bright and early the morning of Friday, August 13th. Our anticipation/apprehension was of white knuckled, O2 sucking, hypoxia-inducing flights - fortunately or unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be.

Our plan was to fly Dinosaur, Crested Butte, Willow Creek and Telluride - all in Colorado. We were all psyched about different aspects of the trip. Mark was really looking forward to flying Dinosaur; Joe and I were eagerly anticipating Telluride; and Dan was looking forward to two weeks of flying in Colorado - a place he's wanted to move back to and a desire which was reaffirmed on this trip.

We drove until late Friday night and decided to get a hotel outside St. Louis, MO, since 3 out of 5 had gotten little to no sleep the previous night. We continued the next day, dropping Maureen off at her sister's in Colorado Springs, then continuing through the night and reaching Dinosaur in the early morning hours on Sunday.

We caught some Z's, set up camp and went to talk with the local hang gliding guru Mike Warden. Mike's a great guy with a wealth of information since he was one of two pilots that pioneered the site. He also set us up wih a GPS-toting driver and had a couple O2 sets we could rent by the day. Thanks to Marc Fink and Mike Chevalier we only needed to rent two.

Since it was the week before a comp we expected at least a few pilots to be there but they ended up not dribbling in till Thursday and Friday. Mike assessed conditions and suggested that it might be too strong to fly Sunday but we filled up our O2 just in case and headed up top hoping for the best.

First we checked ou the two LZ's. The farthest from launch was the Corral LZ and the closest is affectionately termed the “Snake Pit.” Both were manageable LZ's in the conditions we were flying in but I can imagine they'd get fairly hairy if thermals were popping. We later found out that the Pit was so-named because one of the first pilots to land there landed on a snake. The Pit is the LZ closest to launch at 2.7 miles (about 6:1 glide but it didn't look like it!) - there weren't any palatable options if you didn't make it so scratching for too long on the ridge was not advised.

The drive to launch was an hour long affair (maze) on a combination of paved and dirt roads, but which Mike in coordination with the BLM, did a fantastic job marking. At 8,120' msl (approx. 2,400' agl) the launch was impressive - it takes S/SW/SE. There are two nice slope launches, and, if the air isn't too rowdy, top-landable. Since the wind was 15-25 mph with gusts to 35, we didn't fly the first day.

The strangest part of flying at Dinosaur and most of the other sites was not seeing a local fly it first, there not being anyone else there but us. So we took turns at launching first and self-launching.

Monday we got the O2, hooked up with Jeremy (our driver) then headed up. Mark launched first and had the flight(s) of the day by first of all top-landing (he said it was rowdier than he had expected) then launching again and going 16 miles. The rest of us got sleds and extended sleds and landed uneventfully in the Snake Pit. I ended up getting 25' over but none of us wanted to scratch too close in. We were slightly nervous about high altitude launches but it worked out fine for everyone. The only place I really noticed a difference was on final glide in the LZ's and longer-than-usual launch runs.

Tuesday it was blowing East and Mike told us about a site called Mellen Hill. It's a lot like Bill's Hill at 620' agl. Dan was really jazzed about the site because it looked just like a place near where his father lives. He always wanted to try to fly it and was so excited that we let him go first. He spent twenty minutes thermalling over two little knobs below launch. Finally he got dizzy and went out to land. It looked like there were some potential storm clouds pretty far off but we discovered that the systems move quickly out there so we all hurried up to set up and beat the gust front. The rest of us sledded with Dan having the honor of the first launch. The LZ was a nice big field that was full of prairie dog holes. Joe said when he was coming in on final a prairie dog popped its little head up, saw this enormous multi-colored (topless) bird coming in and popped back down just as fast as he could - Joe just busted up laughing. It was neat when Joe and I were waiting for Mark and Dan to come back with the car ’cuz we were sitting on top of a hill and talking about gust fronts and as we were sitting there the wind switched - first time I sat through it.

After flying at Mellen Hill we checked out some caves nearby that had petroglyphs and after waiting in the caves through the rain, we were rewarded with a beautiful double rainbow.

The next day (Wednesday) it was back to Dinosaur where Mark and Joe fought the good fight, with Mark going 10 miles, Joe 19 miles and Dan and I getting extended sleds. Dan broke a downtube when he landed in a gulley in the Snake Pit LZ. Joe got up to 15K MSL twice on this flight and was glad he had the O2 with him, although it was accidentally flipped off for the first half of the flight. He had a great view of the Dinosaur monument valley from up there. He picked one of the nicest fields out there and whacked it in doing a downwind landing. Turns out it was light East and he had been bucking a headwind the whole way without realizing it.

Thursday, August 19th, there were huge storms developing so we decided to go sightseeing instead. We saw the Dinosaur National Monument which is really incredible where you see actual dinosaur bones that are still in the mountainside. Since the restaurant choices in Dinosaur are limited to two, eating in Vernal that evening was a nice change.

Friday was the first day that there were folks other than us on launch. It was nice to have company. Mark launched first of our group, flew for about 1/2 hour but couldn't get over and landed in the Snake Pit. Dan didn't fly due to problems with his glider and Joe and I only waited about 1/2 hour after Mark flew because the skies were so crowded and everyone was scratching. Unfortunately it was long enough for a storm to come in and after eyeing the storm clouds to see if we could beat it - we dejectedly broke down on top. The big boys that were already in the air outran the storm and went 20 miles.

We had a team meeting and decided that a week was long enough for one site - especially since we were all pretty disheartened by less-than-stellar weather and flights. After checking maps to see where we could outrun the weather and thinking about possibly going to Chelan, Washington, we settled on going to King Mountain, Idaho. We decided on the way to check out Point of the Mountain in Utah since we were so close.

So Saturday morning we packed up, drove west and got evening flights at Point of the Mountain, along with a gazillion paraglider pilots. Dan and I got about 1/2 hour, Mark flew about 1 hour and “benched up” to the upper launch and Joe had an extended sled. It was so light and crowded it was almost impossible to make a 360 and especially tough for Fusions. It was incredible how close the housing development was encroaching on the site but I guess the launch area has recently been designated park area. We debated staying Saturday night and flying Sunday but none of us were very excited by the site so we decided to head to King.

We finished the drive to King Sunday morning, checked out the two lz's and headed straight to launch hoping to find local pilots - no luck. So we then headed to the upper launch which was a relatively nerve-wracking affair given the steepness - Dan's 4x4 was a necessity. They have an incredible steel ramp at the upper launch. The air was squirrelly at the upper launch and we were worried about being able to get Dan's truck down in the dark so we decided to launch from the lower launch.

The air got lighter and lighter and it was an incredibly flat slope (at 7,300' msl). I launched first after sweating it out and waiting for a 1/2 hour for the wind to stop blowing over the back or 90 degrees cross. I had to run a long ways but made it off uneventfully and had an extended sled. Dan was off next and had a great run but didn't make it off when the wind totally quit on him. He was okay but was down another downtube. Joe and Mark were ready to break down after Dan's attempt but when Mark was shown the “correct” place to launch (more steep) when the pg'ers came up - he decided to “just see how it felt on his wings”. I guess it felt pretty darn good and he flew for about an hour and got about 3K over launch. Joe launched shortly thereafter and had an exhilarating hour and 45 minute evening flight with a gain of 4,700'. Mark and Joe both got pretty cold since they were only dressed for sleds. Joe said he'll never forget soaring above the huge granite peak at 12K msl... dodging friggin’ paragliders, for pete's sake! After breaking down, we met a Brazilian pilot and his friend who were interested in flying the site the next day - we met them for dinner that evening and had a great time.

Dan called around and found a guy named Frank Gillette who could get him a downtube. He was a couple hours away and told us he had quite a few awesome sites by him so we headed out from King for Burley, Idaho. I had a great drive there with Dan where he taught me some harmonica and told me a great story about when he went hitchhiking for two weeks from San Francisco to Canada to New York then DC with only $10 and a harmonica.

Frank was the ultimate host for Monday and Tuesday. We figured that he's in his early 70's and he told us he's been hanggliding for 27 years, paragliding for 11, flies small planes and was a ski instructor for 30 years. Pretty incredible guy. In his backyard he has a 400' training hill launch where he still teaches hanggliding and paragliding, a landing field directly below his house and he takes off and lands his Kit Fox plane on his front lawn. The whole thing has to be seen to be believed.

Unfortunately storms were blowing in (big surprise) but he showed us two great sites. Connor is a south site that's about 8,000’ msl (3,000’ agl). Mt. Harrison takes W/NW and is about 9,500’ msl (4,500’ agl). After checking out both sites he took us to the working firetower at the top of Mt. Harrison and the guys there showed us how everything works. It was very interesting! That night it was looking like rain and he offered for us to stay in his hangar. Joe was in his glory and insisted that he get the spot under the wing of the Kit Fox - he went to sleep with a contented smile on his face. The hangar was also great ‘cuz we got to dry everything out that was still drenched from all our camping in the rain. We saw an awesome lightning storm that night.

We got up early Tuesday and headed to Connor hoping to get in a soaring flight or two. Frank was thrilled to having someone to play with (not many pilots in the area) and took us up in his truck (both sites are definitely 4x4). Mark and Frank (in his paraglider) launched first and sledded, followed by Joe. Unfortunately, Joe had a major cramp just as he landed and didn't drop the glider to deal with it. It ended up being a painful mistake that plagued him for the rest of the trip. Of course he still had a picture perfect landing. Dan waited for a nice cycle and ran, launched, ran again and launched again (all in the same launch run!) and had an awesome soaring flight. I ran forever on launch and enjoyed a sled but really screwed up on my approach. I KNEW what the wind direction was, could see the streamers and was told the wind direction, but I had a brain-freeze and whacked in hard on a downwind landing after dragging my feet through bushes trying to slow down as I headed for a ditch, fence, powerlines, and road. Busted my downtube in half and messed up my arm but fortunately no real serious damage (other than to my ego). Dan came in after me with a beautiful landing.

We went up again hoping to get in another flight before the storms reached us. I couldn't fly because of my arm and Joe couldn't because of his leg but Mark and Frank got in another flight before it started raining.

We headed back to Frank's and packed up our stuff, gave him our effusive thanks for all his hospitality and headed out as we watched a storm coming down the road and saw Auntie Em, Dorothy and Toto fly by. Very interesting.

On our way to Telluride we decided to check out a site called Inspiration Point that's by Draper, Utah. The wind was light but since we couldn't figure out where the LZ was and Mark's back was hurting him, I couldn't fly because of my arm and Joe's leg was still bad - we decided not to fly. On our continuing trek I got to listen to a cool CD of Joe's called War of the Worlds - it's great!

Dan had to meet Maureen in Colorado Springs so he didn't head to Telluride with us. Meanwhile, we were skeptical about the weather but forged on hoping for the best. We stayed Wednesday night in Montrose and ate at a cool restaurant where a church was converted into an Italian restaurant.

Thursday morning we arrived in Telluride, debated whether we should try to scramble to set up camp and head up top right away but decided to go ahead at Mark's urging (rushing). Thank goodness we did!

Joe, Mark and I piled on the 4x4 truck fondly named Big Betty that was heading to the top. During the comp this is the only way to get up and is an *extremely* hair-raising experience. About 20 hg'ing and pg'ing pilots piled into, onto and around the vehicle with most of us standing on the edges of the truck bed holding onto the gliders. The truck went around curves and along edges where I thought for sure we were going to skid off and go over the VERY steep sides. I was facing the whole thing in my usual straight-forward manner - with my eyes shut TIGHT, with my heart in my throat and wishing I'd made out my will. Mark kept urging (yelling at) me to open my eyes so that I'd be ready to jump if we needed to. I didn't know if it was a comforting thought when I saw a ski-sign trail that was named “Happy Thoughts.” I was only slightly comforted by the fact that the folks we were heading up with only knew of one time that a truck - gliders and all - went over the side.

FINALLY, (and with a great sigh of relief) we made it to the top - Telluride launch is a beautiful and breathtaking experience. Launch is at 12,200 msl (approx. 3200' agl) and there are two landing fields, neither of which can be seen from launch - the Leisure and Seizure fields. They both live up to their names. The Seizure field is where all the comp pilots were landing and doing shows for the crowds and is very small. Needless to say - I was planning on opting for the Leisure field.

By the time everyone set up it started to rain. Most people broke down and headed back down in the truck including Joe who didn't want to attempt a high altitude launch with a bad leg. The only three left were Mark, Eric Kaye and myself. We decided to try to wait it out and enjoyed talking with each other and playing with the medical kit and oxygen with the EMT's. Finally it stopped raining and we were rewarded with winds between 3-5 mph. We took what we could get, ran like crazy and enjoyed our sleds. The view was absolutely gorgeous - especially because we could see waterfalls in the mountains that were not visible from the ground.

That flight ended up being the end of our trip. We desperately tried in vain to fly the next couple of days but unfortunately the rain was with us to stay. We were all pretty dejected with all the rain we encountered on the trip but enjoyed the sites and folks we met and agreed that we were glad we went.