Elusive Wave

A cold front bearing down on Northern California should make epic wave conditions between 11PM and 2AM. The FAA and all their nonsense, no night gliding rules. Oh well, early South winds and a chance of elusive, weak wave is good enough for me, but I need help. I decide to shanghai the most notorious soaring pilot in this half of the state and unbeknownst to the general media strap Chris Valley into the back seat of the Duo Discus and give it a go. Off tow in the lee of South Goat I take a brief search for that elusive wave and find only sink. At 5300', 25 miles out and falling at 300 fpm with a decent cross wind Chris asks "SO ... we can make it back from here?"
"Sure ... I do this all the time." GULP
Well, I revert to me safeguard ... LUCK ... and blunder into the smallest, most fickle, weakest wave anyone has EVER caught coming off a tiny SW facing speed bump in the South Mendocino Range.
Work, work, work, in and out of wave I consider changing my vario scale to feet per hour.
Then ... BAM ... we break into the good stuff and climb to 12.5K.
A well earned climb, CRV gives the thumbs up.
We head Southbound, over Walker Ridge with Clearlake and Indian Valley Reservoir shining bright.
Across the Rumsey Gap for a nice view of the Capay Valley from up high.
And onto a big circular, sight seeing final glide, we bring it home to WSC for a well earned 3 1/2 hours on this elusive wave day.