Harrison River Eagles: Nov 26

Every fall when the salmon migrate up the Fraser, Harrison and Chehalis Rivers bald eagles congregate in big numbers for the feast.

When conditions are mild enough for us human fliers to get in the air we can soar with the birds.

At other times, when the outflow winds blow from the east, we can only watch from the ground or from the water, as I did when I paddled my kayak up the river (keeping to the main channel in order to not disturb the eagles in the mud flats). 

About 100 eagles just in this picture soaring in the outflow wind behind Mt. Woodside. In 2010 the count was > 7000 birds and this year this record was supposedly broken. An amazing spectacle of nature.

November Thermals – Nov 5

Although I’m by no means an expert of thermal-powered flight, I’m pretty sure that it is a rare occasion to have cross country flying conditions in November in our part of Canada. There have been quite a few nice flying days lately, but unfortunately only during the week. Well, last Saturday we hit the jack-pot, mother lode, bonanza of early winter-flying.

We met a couple of friends early for a hike&fly from Elk Mountain, the 1400 meter-high first bump on the ridge between Fraser and Chilliwack Valley. A dusting of snow started where the trail got steep. Combined with sub-zero temperatures this made the approach rather treacherous, but my newly acquired mini-crampons made short work of it. Although the 1 h 50 min hike had warmed me up nicely, only minutes after launching my fingers were frozen and in pain. Not very motivated to spend much time up high, I searched for lift lower down, but had no luck and I soon was on the ground. The rest of the crew kept soaring at and above launch height until the cold got to them too and everyone landed, trying to warm up painfully cold hands and fingers (aptly named ‘screaming barfies’). After this for me somewhat disappointing flight we moved over to Woodside for afternoon air time.

We were much intrigued by the interesting cloud shapes over Mt Woodside, Agassiz Mt and Bear Mt. Looks like some thermaling potential! After launch I sank out again, but patiently worked the lift until I joined a fellow flyer and many eagles floating around at 1200 meters. The first thermal flight on my new wing, an Artik 2! Although it had felt pretty sensitive on the sled-rides I had done so far and surprised me with a somewhat dynamic exit from a spiral, it felt just fine in the thermals. Pete had already taken off to Agassiz Mt, and after some wisp-surfing and close and personal views of several eagles I headed for Agassiz Mt too. There I arrived low at 500 meter (probably the lowest ever) and worked my way up to almost 800 meter a couple of times. Alas, November sun doesn’t stick around long and so I left to fly back and land at Harvest Dykes to shorten the walk back. But there I lucked out again. As soon as I had packed up and got to the road, a PG pilot on his way home picked me up, turned around and delivered me to the Coffee Kettle where our car was parked.

Woodside Cross-Country

Almost mid-air with an eagle

Although the weekend weather forecast looked rather depressing all week, in the end both Saturday and Sunday were not only fly-able, but also provided good spring conditions. We arrived early on Saturday to strong wind over the back – but had planned to work on the launch carpet anyway. After almost everything was pinned down, the thermals started coming up. Paddy and I went for two sled rides, Pete drove the second time. I enjoyed the warm spring air at the Riverside LZ and wasn’t too keen on driving up for a third sleddie, but in the end we did go up and scored a sweet 1.5h ridge soaring flight to 1000 meters. I went all the way back over the North Towers and got a good look over the ridge up Harrison Lake. Lots of traffic in the air: eagles and human flyers, including Andrei, Ryan and Amin. To finish off the nice flight I followed Pete for a little cross country to Harvest Market.


Agassiz Mt (left), Harrison Lake, Bear Mt (centre), Fraser Valley (right) and Green Hill (bottom right)

Sunday’s flying conditions were even better. Pete took off to Sasquatch before I got high enough to join him. Good thing I wasn’t ready, because he sunk out, while I ventured east along the ridge to Agassiz Mt, following some other pilots. They were more comfortable getting up and close to the clouds – which meant I was below, behind and pretty much on my own. Being still pretty new to the cross country thing I focus a lot on possible landing zones, especially when I’m flying alone (well, I wasn’t not really alone, there were plenty of other pilots in radio-reach, just nobody nearby who's “line” I could follow). Things are somewhat complicated by the prison below the ridge between Woodside and Agassiz Mt; a no-fly and no-landing zone. But just like the first time when I flew here with Pete and Andrew last year, whenever I thought about turning out and heading for a nice green field to land in, my vario started beeping reassuringly. I found a couple of nice thermals up to ridge height (and one somewhat rougher thermal which I left alone after an uneventful frontal collapse). After some scratching I got just a bit above Aggasiz Mt, but not high enough to follow the others to Bear. I flew out to Green Hill, played in some mild thermals and landed at Green Hill’s southeast end after almost 14 km xc.

Harrison River Eagle, Dec 18

Eagles are out in full force at Harrison River, over 5000 last weekend. According to the Fraser River Bald Eagle Festival website that’s more than the chief 'eagle biologist' has seen in his life-time.

We paddled down the river on Saturday and saw between 150 to 200, in the trees, on shore, in the water, in the air. 40 or 50 were soaring in the strong outflow over a northwest ridge of Mt Woodside. At least someone is getting airtime!

Pretty neat and fitting that after watching the record Sockeye run on the Adams River we now get to see this record eagle congregation!

Another Day of PARAWAITING – November 22

For some reason optimism prevailed and we drove up to Mt Wood side, only to be greeted by +40 km/h winds. The only man-made object flying was a model plane – quite impressive!


But the day was not lost. On the way back we watched Bald Eagle soar at Harrison River – must have been 40 or 50 of them!


We also picked up some mushrooms.