Lummi Island, July 2/3

Got our sea kayaks on the water again and paddled to Lummi Island, WA. Great campsite on the island with lots of Arbutus trees around. Next day we found a whale skeleton, skull over 3 meters long. Interesting story: the whale was found dead in Bellingham Bay in early May and towed to this beach on Lummi Island to decompose. Bellingham Herald article: here. Fortunately well away from the camp site.

Saddle Mountain Soaring - October 24

The weather forecast looked dismal for southwest BC but rather promising for Saddle Mountain in Central Washington. So we took a chance and drove the long drive (actually very close to our old climbing grounds at Frenchmen Coulee).

We were rewarded with an excellent ridge soaring session! Our success with Saddle is much better than with Fort Ebey. Out of 3 times we visited: one time too windy, one time good thermaling/ridge lift and this fun ridge soaring session.

Wind speed and direction were just right for a sweet session with lots of top landings, low passes and best of all... it was just the two of us there! Pete estimated that he doubled the number of his top-landings, and he has done quite a few of them. I must have at least quadrupled mine.

Saddle Rock, September 5-7

The rainy season has begun just in time for the last long weekend of summer – Labour Day. We decided to run away from the rain and spend the weekend east of the Cascades. Conditions were not promising for flying but at least it would be mostly dry. In the end, 3 days of parawaiting yielded 4 hrs of ridge soaring in rather strong winds at Saddle/Silos in central WA. While parawaiting we kept ourselves busy with climbing at Frenchmen Coulee. But it was time for only 2 climbs before we got rained off. Very windy so tents were getting blown around in the gusts.

Other weekend adventures: most amazing views of clouds, rainbows, overwhelming scent of sage brush after the rain, waking up on top of Saddle Mt when tents almost blew over, watching pelicans soar in +50 km/h winds and being buzzed by an owl interested in our lonely tent (after it finally calmed down). Despite low air time - a great weekend in the empty WA desert.

From Saddle Mt, WA

From Saddle Mt, WA