Print of the Week

Taken at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (highly recommended) on our last trip. I love the abstract shape and colors but also that it's a living creature. Yet another example of how amazing nature is. Who needs space aliens!

Although they are mostly sessile (stay fixed in one spot) like plants, anemones are actually predatory animals. And they can move around, although usually so slowly that you wouldn't notice. Some kinds can even detach from the ground and swim. 

Last Flight

My last flight, of both our three days in the Owens Valley and of our two month road trip, didn’t disappoint. I haven't done much XC (cross country) so I had had my fingers crossed for something on this XC/thermal clinic.

I had another good launch, thankfully. I have to admit being a little nervous with an instructor and a bunch of other participants watching closely, and video being recorded for analysis. Especially after the first person to launch on our first day got a pretty severe critique. Luckily the worst comment I got was that my launches were too “casual”. i.e. I could add a little more energy.



Our last flight was from the Paiute launch (or Piute?). This launch is up a very steep, narrow, rocky road and I was glad I wasn’t driving! Our instructor (Kari) launched early to try to give us some guidance in the air. I caught some lift right away. Launch is about 2430 m (8000 ft) and I managed to make it to 2760 m (9000 ft) not long into the flight. But the thermals were broken and most didn't seem to go very high.

After about 25 min I was getting low and approaching "last chance hill". I wasn't having any luck finding another thermal and I was pretty sure I was headed for the LZ (landing zone). Some of the other people had already landed, but frustratingly there were also a bunch of people managing to stay up above.

Meanwhile, Kari got on the radio to say she had hopped over to the next spine to the north (downwind). In my struggles to stay up I had lost track of her, and I was in no position to follow anyway. One of the other participants was higher and seemed to be heading in that direction. I was bummed that they were going to head out while I sank. :-(

Then I felt a little something and tried to head for what I hoped would be some lift. Sure enough I found a thermal and managed to climb from my low of 2080 m back up to 2360 m (about a thousand foot climb). Not super high (still below launch) but enough (I hoped) to take a stab at heading north. Thankfully I found another small thermal on the way and topped up to 2400 m.

Chasing Kari really made me realize just how big the Owens Valley is. From the bottom of the valley to the top of the mountains is about 10,000 feet, almost two miles! Even though we were in just one tiny corner, her glider ahead of me looked tiny relative to the scenery.

By the time I caught up at the next spine I was down to about 2000m. But I was higher than Kari, and could see there was some lift. We searched together, finding little bits of choppy lift but only enough to maintain.

Eventually Kari decided to head out towards the highway in the valley. I had tried to stay above Kari to give myself some margin since she was way more skilled and on a better glider. But by this point I was below her. I was pretty sure I wouldn't make the highway from my present height so I decided to search a bit more. Worst case I'd just land a bit shorter. Best case I'd find another thermal. In paragliding, more height is like more gas in the tank, allowing you to make a longer glide. Just as I was about to give up, at 1660 m, I felt a tug on the wing and turned into the best climb of the flight. It was about 3 m/sec (600 ft/sec) - not super strong but decent. I managed to hang onto it till 2180 m (climbing about 1700 ft).

Meanwhile, Kari hadn't found any lift in the valley and had landed, short of the highway as I had figured, but on a side road for an easy retrieve. Up high, I could relay her position by radio to the rest of the group.

Now I had a decision - should I try to continue north along the foothills? I headed towards the hills but right away changed my mind and decided to use my height to glide out to the highway. Without Kari, I was a little nervous about continuing and landing somewhere with a long hike out to the nearest road. The rough conditions were another factor in the decision.

I hoped for some thermals over the valley, but I didn't find much. I angled to intersect the highway at a decent height to pick an LZ. As I approached I had my eye on a clear spot next to the road.

huge landing strip next to the highway (image courtesy of Google maps)

It turned out to be a large pullout with a couple of piles of gravel but no power-lines or barbed wire fences. Of course, there was no windsock or streamers so it was a little hard to judge the wind. I almost landed short since the wind was stronger than I guessed (poor judgement) but in the end I made a good no-step landing on the end of the pullout and laid my glider down on pavement (much preferable to the sagebrush!)

While I still had radio coverage from the air I let them know where I was landing. After landing I was out of radio contact and had no cell phone coverage, so I was happy to have my inReach satellite gps/messenger to pass on my exact location.

Here's a 3D visualization of my flight (watch it fullscreen for best view).



The flight only lasted an hour and ten minutes, I've had longer flights. But it was my longest in straight line distance - 13 km. In overall paragliding terms, that's nothing, people routinely fly hundreds of kilometers, but it was satisfying for me, nonetheless. And it was the best flight anyone in our group managed in the three days we spent with Kari.

Santa Barbara, Alice Keck Park

Because we went paragliding every day in Santa Barbara, we didn't have a lot of time for other things. However, we did visit Alice Keck Memorial Gardens. We had stopped there last time but it started raining so we didn't spend much time. This time it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the flowers and ducks and turtles.

When we walked into the park and over to the pond I noticed a single turtle and started taking photographs of it. Then we realized that there were literally hundreds of turtles in the small pond!





There were lots out sunning and also lots swimming around, where often all you saw was their head sticking out. (With nice reflections from the greenery and flowers.)



There were also lots of nice flowers, including masses of bougainvillea:



And hibiscus:



The bees were enjoying the flowers as well: (so were the butterflies, but they wouldn't sit still to be photographed!)



There were lots of ducks and they were obviously quite accustomed to people so I got some good close up "portraits".







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San Luis Obispo

On our way south to Santa Barbara we stopped overnight in San Luis Obispo. We stayed at the Garden Street Inn - a small hotel close to downtown.

It's not obvious if you just walk down the main street, but there is a creek just behind and a number of the restaurants have patios overlooking the creek - definitely the place to eat lunch on a nice day. Our favorite is Novo Restaurant. We had supper (tapas) at Luna Red.



The next morning we checked out the Botanical Gardens - still a work in progress, but nice nonetheless.

There were some "regular" flowers:



as well as some more unusual plants:









I managed to catch one of the fast moving hummingbirds:



Turkey vultures soared overhead (much better fliers than us!) and one swooped by, perhaps to check us out.



And lots of lizards (Western Fence Lizards?) scurried about:



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Sequoias

After paragliding at Dunlap we spent a relaxing overnight at Sequoia View B&B at Cedar View Winery. We stumbled across this place a few years ago on another road trip and it coincidentally was close to Dunlap. They only have three suites so it's not a big place, but it's nice overlooking the vineyards. The tasting room is only open on the weekends but we were still able to buy a bottle of their wine to enjoy on the terrace.  We looked forward to eating at the nearby Schoolhouse Restaurant again but unfortunately it was closed on the day of the week we were there. (And there's not much else in the way of interesting restaurants in this rural location.)



There were lots of birds around like these lark sparrows.



This little bird had a bit of a struggle eating a large dragonfly.



Although it wasn't really on our route, we decided to take a day and drive through Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. I love the big trees.  Although they're quite different trees, redwoods and sequoias often get mixed up. Coastal redwoods grow near the coast, they're the tallest trees in the world. Inland, where we were, there are giant sequoias, which are the largest in volume.

We drove around the loop by Hume lake and got some great views of Kings Canyon.



As well as the big scenery, there were also butterflies.





And reflections in Hume Lake.



We stopped (as we did on our last visit) to hike in Redwood Canyon (a confusing name, since it contains giant sequoias, not redwoods). It doesn't have the record holding trees like Sherman and Grant, but it still has amazing trees, in a much more natural setting, with a lot less people.

It's always hard to capture the size of these trees.





Here's a young tree in front of a giant.



There have been some controlled fires in this area, leaving many of the trees with charred parts. Their thick bark protects them from smaller fires. And their seeds need the fire to germinate.

There were various butterflies, but they weren't very cooperative for photography!



And a few flowers managing to live on the mostly shaded forest floor.



I don't recall seeing these multicolored round seeds/fruits before. They were about the size of golf balls.



We stopped for supper at the Wuksachi Lodge. Before supper we did another short hike to a nearby stream where the evening light was good for reflections.



We'd planned to camp at the Buckeye Flat Campground where we'd stayed before but it turned out to be full. Luckily there was space at the nearby Potwisha Campground which was also quite nice.

Flying Dunlap

People on our SIV course recommended flying at a mountain site near Dunlap, California so after Monterey we headed over there. A San Francisco instructor, Jeff Greenbaum, was going to be there with a group so we could get a briefing on the site.

We got in two flights a day, about 11am and 5pm, avoiding the hottest part of the day when the thermals can get too strong (for us). I was happy to average about an hour per flight, some longer, some shorter. The thermals weren't that strong but it was a little rough. The locals call it the "Dunlap slap". I had a good sized asymmetric (one side) collapse which unusually didn't come out right away and I had time to look up and watch it. Having just come from our SIV clinic it wasn't too scary. I just went hands up, flew straight, and waited for it to open.

After the Sunday morning flight the other pilots left for the drive back to San Francisco and Shelley and I stayed for a couple more flights on our own. Thankfully, Greg, who lives at the site, was there to drive us up to launch.

I had my best flight Monday morning. It wasn't the longest flight time, but I managed to get up high above launch (6500 ft) and go across the valley. I hoped for some thermals out in the valley, but I didn't get anything more than a few bumps and it was just a long glide. It was funny because every time I would put on my speed bar (to cross quicker), then I'd get some bumps and let it off. I thought even if I didn't get any thermals across the valley, for sure the mountain on the other side would have some. But I just kept sinking. I still think there must have been thermals somewhere on that mountain, but I didn't find them. One of the other pilots had pointed out a possible landing area nearby so I kept that in sight as I crossed the gap to the next mountain. (I didn't have enough height at this point to make it back to the main landing area.) Thankfully, just after I crossed the gap I picked up a thermal and managed to climb back up to where I could easily make it to the main LZ. I probably had enough to climb back up to the main launch ridge, but it was getting a bit strong so I just cruised back to land. I was happy with my mini "cross country" (XC) flight. Any kind of flying is great, but I especially like the adventure of going somewhere rather than just flying around one site.

As I came in to land I realized I was going to be very close to the spot landing target, but I was a few feet too high. I pulled my brakes to flare and I was close enough that I reached out a foot and touched the target. However, that put me off balance and you can see the resulting stumble in Shelley's video of me landing. You can also hear me laugh at my own antics. At least I stayed on my feet!

I happened to record this flight and I pulled out a few clips to give an idea of the flight and the scenery.

Between Flying

The landing zone and camping at Dunlap is next to a pond which had turtles and frogs and birds.



I noticed the first frogs as they jumped into the water when I approached the shore. Then I noticed eyes sticking out of the water.



I spotted one that hadn't jumped in the water which was how I identified them.



Bullfrogs are native to eastern North America but they have been introduced into a wider range where they are often considered invasive species since they out compete native species. They are common in California. They are also harvested for food (frog's legs) in some places. They can grow up to 8 inches and almost 2 lbs!

The most common birds on the pond were coots, although there were also Canada geese.



And some nice reflections in the morning light.





Away from the pond Western Fence Lizards (aka "bluebellies" for the obvious reason) were common.

Why did the tarantula cross the road?

Driving on a back road we saw something crossing and Shelley stopped the car. She thought it might be a big beetle but it turned out to be a large spider. I think it was a California tarantula.



I grabbed my camera and jumped out of the car. I ran around and blocked its path so it wouldn't disappear into the ditch.

It was about 2 or 3 inches across. I got Shelley to put her foot near it to give an idea of scale. Understandably, she didn't want to get too close!



Tarantula spiders are mostly nocturnal so you don't often see them. But in the fall the mature males (7 to 10 years old) wander around looking for females. The males die soon after mating but the females can live up to 25 years.

They are not usually aggressive and even if they do bite it's like a bee sting.

Carmel Mission

Looking for somewhere to stay close to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Sand City we ended up in Carmel (at Vendange) which turned out to be a good choice. Monterey is quite touristy with the aquarium and Cannery Row (of Steinbeck fame). Carmel was quiet but still had some good restaurants. We even managed to make it out for a run in the nearby park. (Although us flatlanders aren't used to the hills.)

We spent part of a morning (before flying) at the Carmel Mission where I spent most of my time taking photos of the flowers and insects :-)



For a change I managed to get decent shots of both the top and underside of this butterfly. I think it's a Painted Lady (one of the most common)



The bees were also visiting the flowers. They were hovering, giving me a chance to catch them in midair.





They're not quite as colorful, but I still like the shapes and patterns of the agaves:



I even found a snail hiding in one:



Given my fascination with water I had to take some photos of the fountain. I like the way this one turned out. (backlit, of course)



Bougainvillea is always a favorite:



And just to prove that I was actually at the Mission:



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