Fall Flying

Paragliding conditions were below average this year except for a stellar week in July but we were away for it, paddling our canoe in the Northwest Territories.

But in fall we enjoyed a couple of very scenic flights. On a hike and fly mission we thermaled several hundred meters over the summit of Mt. Cheam and flew over nearby summits of the range.
Dodging clouds at Woodside I got a nice photo of a Glory or Brocken Spectre.

Hike and Fly Mt Cheam

Brocken Spectre at Woodside

Pete exploring the scenery in the Northern Cascades at Sauk Mountain

Fall hikes and colors

Despite the dry summer there was an amazing display of great fall colors this year. Nice weather lasted throughout October and gave opportunity to many hikes. On the trail to Blanca Lake in the Elaho valley we discovered some huge King Boletes. We finally scrambled up Mt Jim Kelly on a lot of rubble and loose shale (not the greatest hiking). My favorite was the area around Mt Bake with easy access and well groomed hiking trails (Chain Lakes, Lake Ann, Yellow Aster Bute, Skyline divide and Railroad grade). Blueberries were fantastic too!

Blueberries and colors were better closer to Heather Meadows parking lot

Adams Lake Sockeye - Dominant Run 2018

At the beginning of October I visited the sockeye salmon that had arrived at Adams Lake. Some of these sockeye ended their journey prematurely on a sandbank of the Fraser River (and then in my freezer), but since it was a dominant year with a solid number of returning fish I could reconciled this with my environmental conscience.

XC Contest 2018

Many paraglider pilots who fly cross country upload their flights to a website called XContest. Its useful to check routes in new areas and when and where good flying conditions happen but also creates a high amount of envy and FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). And it shows how our flying measures up compared to the world's best. Like last year I placed myself on the first page that shows the top 50 women. It helps that only 843 ladies posted their flights but being 48th out of 843 on the world scene isn't all that bad. There is a big gender difference in number of participants (12,000 guys vs 843 girls).

XContest Women 2018 48/834
XContest Women 2017 38/625

Chilko Grizzlies

My second visit with the Grizzlies in the Chilcotin Mountains coincided with an unseasonably early snowfall October 2-4th. It was quite the drive on slushy and icy roads for half of the way but the Delica pulled through. When the snowing stopped 40 cm had accumulated at Chilko River. The snowy landscape was a fantastic object for photos, especially the Aspen trees still in all their yellow fall colors. Bears were frequent and photogenic too but due to the snow we couldn't get to some of the prime photo spots and I felt quite some photo-envy watching the tourboats drift down the river ever so close to the fishing bears. Maybe next time I will bring my inflatable and stay a bit longer too.

Wildfires

 This year was a record year for wildfires. Although big population centers were spared (not like last year when 10,000 inhabitants of Williams Lake had to evacuate); 13,500 square kilometers of land were burned. One of the hardest hit places was the small northern community Telegraph Creek.

From the end of July to mid September much of BC was covered by smoke from the fires. The smoke put an end to thermic and long paragliding flights and obscured mountain views much to the displeasure of the many tourists. One positive outcome was that temperatures didn't climb too high.

We spend a weekend paddling Howe Sound with unusual views and missing mountains.

Anvil Island 2018 but the rest of the Howe Sound surround has gone missing

Anvil Island 2015