Day One: Miracle Valley

I adventured!

I planned a day consisting of hiking up Bridal Falls and then flying.  Simple fun, but not to happen: Al called me while I was driving and suggested that we take advantage of the good conditions and fly Mount St. Benedict in the Miracle Valley (seriously, who named these?!).  Of course, I agreed.  Some real 4x4'ing in Al's vehicle, and we arrived at the new Flying Jewel of the West Coast Soaring Club.

A quick introduction to the site (here is the house thermal, and there is a field to land in) and Al set a task for the day of flying to Bridal Falls (50 km away)... of course he didn't set a task, but just mentioning it makes it so in my mind.  I had done some Google Earth'ing and knew somewhat where I was.  New site and I'm going to do an XC flight from it right off?  Hah.

Some new site "sink out" jitters set in so I launched after the cycles became somewhat regular.  Straight up to cloud base (1550m) and, well, the XC bug could not to be held back, so I headed straight over to the next mountain (Sylvester Mt.), and then with the help of a friendly bird found a thermal to take me up to the top.

I was supposed to look for an upside down Z clearcut into some mountains, but I couldn't find it.  I headed to a likely looking mountain at the edge of the Fraser Valley, which turned out to be Big Nic (everything needs a name --- it is actually called Nicomen Mountain).  Then from there to Harrison Hill (yes, the hill is that boring) where I creeped up in some very light thermals.  Radio chatter had Woodside Mt., my next destination and a local reliable flying site, being rough and unpleasant.  Not so easily deterred, I glided toward it, wishing I had a better wing.  I barely squeaked over the lowest clear cut where I found a strong thermal.

After a few climbs I usually have a good feeling for the day.  If everything is working then you can go on glide confidently.  At this point, I knew the day was good enough to get me almost anywhere.

So, there I am at one of my local flying sites, Woodside Mt., where I have soared numerous times, usually landing comfortably at the Riverside landing field.  My only XC flight from there was basically just a glide to an alternative landing zone after one big climb.  The LZ beckoned, though a field can't really motion "Come Hither", so the thermal won the argument and I followed it up and over launch.  All the details of the local site (don't go here, venturi, or RotorZ Here) disappeared once I was high enough and I went over the back and around the edge of the valley.

On the way is a CYR: a no fly cylinder centered on Kent Prison.  I was plenty above it and off to the side but was too busy flying to fiddle with my GPS at the time to make sure of that... so I had fleeting visions of cells, bad food, and flashbacks to my broken leg hospital stay when I met a former prison guard from there.

Al had informed Rob that I had no idea where I was going, so they got on radio to give me some advice and also to ask where my car keys were.  Of course my radio battery chose right then to run out of juice.  Some interesting "click once" or "click twice" communication until finally after going on glide across the mouth of Harrison Hot Springs I swapped batteries.  Despite their best efforts, I understood nothing of the advice, partly because I knew none of the local landmarks and I have a broken speaker in my radio helmet kit.  Soon enough I was high above a set of crossing high voltage power lines both going where I wanted to head to.  A weak attempt to get to the front of Green Hills (caught a thermal just a few dozen meters above the deck) and I finally landed at Seabird just as Al pulls up with my car!

Many thanks to Al and Rob and others for pioneering this new site and the days of work they put in.  The air is great in the Miracle Valley and I think you should all fly there.  Here's my Leonardo track log.