Victoria, June 26/27

But wait, it’s not quite summer yet. Weather forecast wasn’t good for flying so Pete suggested a long due visit in Victoria. And despite the not so great forecast we got to fly Mt. Prevost, even spending most of an hour well above it (I was on top of the stack and flying longer than Pete – a rare event up to now).

I also got my hands on the rudder of Tsonoqua, the trimaran, steered a few tacks and getting up to 11 knots (that's pretty fast for a pleasure sailboat). Yet another form of locomotion powered by nature, just like floating down a river, skiing a slope or flying in thermals.

But most importantly (and the priority of the visit), we got to spend time with the family, catch up with news and play with the kids (and dogs and chickens and horses) – a very nice weekend.

Start of summer - June 23

Finally summer! I do like cooler temperatures, but this May and June were a touch too cold.

Apparently a record – this year is the latest ever to reach 75oF (sorry about the old-style temperature units but the data are from Seattle according to Cliff Mass’ very interesting weather blog). Runner up was June 9th (still have to find out which year that was)!

Wenatchee Paddling, June 19/20

Sun, warm weather (at least for our current wetcoast pattern) and lots of wave time at 6,500 and 7,500 cfs on the Wenatchee this weekend! Good conditions for Trestle/Rodeo/Turkey Shoot/Snowblind/Suffocator on one or both days. Grannies is different - much more of a hole. With the strange weather this year the river is still running at a good level and may keep going for another couple of weeks.

Strange also that there were only few other paddlers, but plenty of rafts. In the end we met all the usual WA paddlers and friends and a few new ones – nice meeting everybody again!

Getting back on the water is a nice change after too much weather 'guestimates' and 'parawaiting'. Although my 'parawaiting' percentage has significantly decreased this year, there are still too many days when the conditions are just OK and not stellar and too many of those 'you should have been here yesterday' days. But that will probably never change. It's the nature of paragliding - it's very weather-dependent and weather is just not that predictable. If you want to be there on the stellar days you just have to put the time in.

Lumby Air Races - June 12/13

Too many to count!

One flying day, one day blown-out and one day of sled rides (but I didn't take an extra day off for this) ... well, this is paragliding (if I wanted guarantees I would check river levels and go paddling… right?).

Thermals were not quite as nice as for our Lumby visit two weeks ago, despite this I managed to fly over to Lumby Ridge for a micro cross country flight (an improvement from last visit). Later in the evening I got an extended sled ride from Saddle right across from Coopers launch. The guys were gentlemen and waited to help me launch, and got in the air after I had used up the last of the thermals…


Launching my Sport 4 at Coopers

Selway Hummingbirds

Don't seem to get around to editing videos these days (it's summer after all!), so here are a couple of frame grabs.

It's well known that hummingbirds like all things red (or is it the beer he is after?).



But what about Pete's ears? Is it the red color or the flower shape that makes them so attractive?


Approach


Insert


Retract

Pemberton Air - June 5

Saturday brought finally a break in the not very May/June-like weather and a good flying day in Pemberton. After a couple of short flights I had a nice one with good climbs but stayed near the launch (see track log), while Pete flew XC towards Hurley Pass Road (twice), on route experiencing his biggest frontal - ever.

Pretty sweet to climb high enough to see Lillooett Lake and the snowcovered peaks to the east, maybe some of them on the Duffy Lake Road? Focus on thermalling didn't leave me time to ID any of them.