Goodbye Utah... until we meet again.

Well, I'm late in posting this. Life has a way of catching up with you fast when you return home from vacation! When last I blogged we had finished waiting around at Commodore all day Sunday but had never had the chance to fly. Monday was our final day and we had high hopes for a wonderful day at a site called both Crawfords and Randolph. I'm still falling asleep at night dreaming of this magical flight. It went down like this:

The forecast for Monday was looking ideal. The southerly winds that had been plaguing us were to pass and a nice northerly flow was going to come in offering some welcome instability and the perfect conditions for launching and soaring at Randolph. We finally got a decent night sleep and met up as a group at Ryan's place at about 11AM. On the way to the site we had to make a pit stop at the airport where Shadd allowed us to drool over the jets he flies for a living... lucky dog!

We made it out to the Randolph site by about 2:00 and proceeded to set up eagerly. Conditions looked a bit light but the afternoon was still warm and we had high hopes.

The view of launch at Crawfords from the LZ

As the hours ticked by first one, then two, then three, then four pilots flew and could not stay up. Our high hopes were turning to despair. We waited for hours just hoping that the valley would start to lift and we would have a chance to soar this epic site. Finally as the sun was dipping low there were only three of us left who had not flown... me, Brandon, and Ringo. The three Southern boys. I finally decided that I might as well launch because in less than an hour it was going to get dark and I'd rather break down while there was some light left. I launched... turned right... and headed down the ridge. Something strange is happening... I'm not going down... I'm not going up... I'm staying right there at launch altitude. Ryan comes onto the radio and says "Paul, you're above launch. I THINK IT'S GLASSING OFF!!!" Sure enough, on my return pass I came back about 40' over launch and was slowly climbing higher.

Both Brandon and Ringo launched soon after me all of us seeking to make the most of our final moments in the air in Utah. Words cannot describe the nature of this flight. Having built our hopes up all morning, then having lost all hope in the evening, and finally discovering that we were in fact soaring after all led to a kind of dizzy euphoria. More than that however was the fact that this was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. The full moon was rising up behind launch while the glorious sunset was progressing in front of us. The air we were flying in was so absolutely smooth that you could literally float around hands off with confidence! As the minutes passed the lift slowly grew until it peaked at about 400' over launch.

Three Amigos Over Randolph

We flew around as long as we could. With the air as smooth as it was we could play really close together. Brandon had more tolerance for it than me so I let him fly around me while I just maintained a steady course. Finally I decided that it was dark enough and headed out toward the LZ to land.

Utah was good to us. Even though conditions were not ideal, we still flew many times over our 5 days there. 3 new sites, 4 new LZs (top and bottom at the South Side). 7 flights and over 4 hours of air time. The country there is rugged and beautiful. I was left with the feeling that this is what free flying is meant to be... you and your hang glider alone in the vast expanse of mountains and air. The people of Utah were generous and enthusiastic about having us around... like family welcoming us home more than strangers welcoming guests into their lives for a time. I know I will make this trip again. Hopefully next time the weather will treat us better and we can taste some of that high altitude air!

As for me, this is a trip I will remember for a long long time both awake and in my dreams.

Off into the sunset... till next year.