Crossing the Border: Woodrat to Hilt

by Peter Warren (peter@nomad.org)

For more 3D topos and pictures, click here.

Andy Stocker and I both flew earlier that day (July 24, '02). We launched around 2:15, and I got 13 minutes while Andy squeezed out 16. So I wasn't feeling too optimistic about our second flights and even remarked half-jokingly to Andy that I expected we'd get 22 minutes on our next flights. Well, I was a little wrong.

I launched again at 4:40 and promptly went up, up, up. The NW wind was pretty strong so I didn't let myself drift back too far. A hang glider we had seen the day before said the microwave towers often worked well, so I floated over that way. He was right -- the towers were working well, but I still couldn't circle much because of the strong drift. Soon Andy launched, and I happened to look over at him just as he momentarily rocketed skywards and then suffered two tip folds as he got spit out.  Next I saw he was beelining it across the hill away from that spot. The air was definitely working.

After a while I got bored playing around near launch. The day before had been a good day with cloudbase around 9000' msl. I had climbed to base off launch underneath a large cloud and quickly turned to follow Christian and Hayden as they headed south. Once away from the cloud in the Little Applegate valley, I had a hard time finding much lift and was down after a disappointing hour and 8 minutes.

Andy

Today I decided it would be different. Today I would fly until satisfied and then consider going somewhere. With this in mind I started heading north from Woodrat. I figured that I'd explore as much as I could and if I got low, I could always turn and head with the wind back to Woodrat. On half speed bar I inched my way across the valley and finally reached the peak on the other side. I continued along a spine that led to a higher peak but wasn't finding much lift, and once down at 5200' msl and 6.5k away from launch, I decided to turn tail and head back to the lz. I got as low as 4800' msl, only 3k after turning around, before I found something big. Before I knew it I was at 8700' and back over launch! Andy was up too, and we flew by each other a couple times taking pictures in the smoky air.

I was hesitant to go anywhere because I didn't want to cause a retrieve hassle for Andy and myself if I wasn't going to make it very far. But with the great drift and good altitude I figured I might be able to make it out to the valley near Ashland or at least a ways in that direction. With Andy's blessing (in fact he'd been hassling me to go somewhere for a while) I decided to head out. I was at 7300' and cursing myself for the indecision that let me squander 1400' of height. But it wasn't long (in fact only about 3 minutes and 2k) until I found more lift.

This thermal would top out at a height of 10,382' msl 16 minutes later. I giddily radioed my height back to Andy who enthusiastically urged me on. From this point I drifted almost due east to make sure I could arrive at an lz in the valley. All the way along, I would sit and spin in even the lightest lift, knowing that the NW wind was always blowing me in the right direction.

I maintained roughly 9000' msl for a while, comfortably poking along and content with the fact that I always had a glide out to land. Since I had good height, I followed the ridge to the south, knowing I could cut east at any time. Soon I would find another thermal that would take me to my highest point of the day: 10,582' msl.

I followed the spine to McDonald Peak

It was here that I made my big decision: to forsake my landing options in the valley and head southeast almost straight for Mt. Ashland (7533' msl). I knew it was a long glide (almost 9k looking at my track log), but I thought with the wind working for me I could make it. There's actually a peak west of Mt. Ashland that I think is called McDonald Peak (7226' msl) according to my topo map. Between Mt. Ashland and McDonald Peak is a shallow saddle that I thought I could head between if it really got close. At some point I could see some great lz's in the distance beyond Mt. Ashland, and I knew if I could make it past there I would have an easy glide to the lz.

There were many points on that long glide where I wondered if I would make it. I had good ground speed but was dropping quickly. I started scouting for bail out lz's and thought over and over in my head, "Please let me make it, please let me make it," as I neared McDonald Peak. I didn't really want to be sleeping on the mountain that night. Well, I arrived at McDonald Peak at 7700' msl with a whopping 500' to spare. As a bonus, I scrounged out 300' worth of lift over the top, enough to get me comfortably past the peaks and into the nasty, rotory air on the other side. From my high point at 10,500' to McDonald Peak, I'd averaged 50k/hr over the 9k.

I thought if I cleared the peaks I would be home free. I didn't consider that I'd be fighting rotor in the lee of those peaks and that I'd be dropping far more quickly because of it and the shade. I worked to keep my wing open to salvage as much glide as possible. I paused to turn once or twice in some broken lift but gave up and continued on.

Crossing the peaks and gliding down the back side, hoping desperately to reach the green meadows that beckoned, was pretty stressful. As soon as I knew I had an lz secured, I relaxed and began to savor the whole experience. Once I got out over the flats and pastures, my glide improved and I kept floating along: past the first pastures I spied as an lz, past some more pastures, on toward a pond, over the pond where some geese started honking at me, and finally I turned into the wind and set down softly east of the pond. At first I was just happy to be down in a pleasant lz close to roads. Then after checking my lz, I was psyched to see I'd made it across the border into California!

I pulled out my cell phone to find I had great signal.  I left a message for Andy, called my girlfriend, Emily, and then packed up my gear and started hiking up the road.  About two miles up was an offramp from I-5.  Once there, I set my stuff down, leaned up against a rock, and munched on a mushy peanut butter & jelly sandwich.  Pretty soon Andy arrived with a cold beer and congratulations and we headed back up to Woodrat.  Thanks again to Andy for encouraging me to leave and then cheerfully coming to get me after I did.

Total distance from launch: 41km Total time: 2:48 Highest point: 10,582' msl Top speed: 78km/hr Avg. speed to Hilt after I left Woodrat: 34km/hr

altitude in feet / time in hours	speed in kilometers per hour / time in hours