Nocking on spring's door after an intense arctic cold front passed over Northern California Bob, Mike and I journeyed atop an icy Mount Diablo. The prevailing wind was west placing us on the lee side as we launched the Tower.
With the mountain shaded in overdevelopment I headed straight for a sun soaked Eagle Peak. This reliable rocky mountain top rises straight from the depths of the underworld and provides a consistently violent thermic column. Unfortunately I could not make Eagle Peak today due to lee side sink and turned towards its steep west slope hoping for lift there.
With luck I found a strong core rising from the steep rock walls straight to cloud base which drifted well downwind. This lee side thermal helped me work on my bump tolerance for the spring ahead.
After topping out, blundering into big sink, executing a low save over Mitchell Rock, back to Eagle Peak and another bumpy big climb it was time to turn altitude into distance. A nice looking cloud street marked the way towards Blake's and Lime Ridge LZ's.
Gliding into a headwind I arrived at Blake's with 2000.' On the windward side of the mountain lift was spectacularly smooth with a nice view back at the distant Mount Diablo.
A 4200' cloud base with plentiful lift on the west side allowed exploration anywhere over the Walnut Creek-Concord area. After a morning swim, typical Eagle Peak turbulence and two hours of mostly thermaling my arms turned to Jello. Deep into Suburbia I turned around.
A wonderful flight and exploration comes to an end at one of my favorite LZ's, Lime Ridge.
With the mountain shaded in overdevelopment I headed straight for a sun soaked Eagle Peak. This reliable rocky mountain top rises straight from the depths of the underworld and provides a consistently violent thermic column. Unfortunately I could not make Eagle Peak today due to lee side sink and turned towards its steep west slope hoping for lift there.
With luck I found a strong core rising from the steep rock walls straight to cloud base which drifted well downwind. This lee side thermal helped me work on my bump tolerance for the spring ahead.
After topping out, blundering into big sink, executing a low save over Mitchell Rock, back to Eagle Peak and another bumpy big climb it was time to turn altitude into distance. A nice looking cloud street marked the way towards Blake's and Lime Ridge LZ's.
Gliding into a headwind I arrived at Blake's with 2000.' On the windward side of the mountain lift was spectacularly smooth with a nice view back at the distant Mount Diablo.
A 4200' cloud base with plentiful lift on the west side allowed exploration anywhere over the Walnut Creek-Concord area. After a morning swim, typical Eagle Peak turbulence and two hours of mostly thermaling my arms turned to Jello. Deep into Suburbia I turned around.
A wonderful flight and exploration comes to an end at one of my favorite LZ's, Lime Ridge.
1 comment:
Ahh, Suburban Excusion - that's fun stuff! I was looking at the day as I drove between projects, and hoping you guys were having a good time.
Robert
Post a Comment