[Amigo] > [Skippy flight index]

Flight Articles from Bike & Fly Weekend Starting Saturday 5/6/06 (in order of posting time stamp)
[Skippy] [Bob Ramey]

Anne-Odile Thomas Flight Log Index (aka Skippy)
Weekend of Saturday 5/6/06, and Sunday 5/7

Bike & Fly

We set off to the New Cuyama valley last Saturday for a bike & fly weekend.  Biking and flying we did, although the order was changed when we got there.  The weather didn't look like it would cooperate for flying on Saturday.  All excited about the weekend, and wondering how to salvage it, got caught up in the moment, and decided to switch the order of activities and go ahead with the bike ride first, hoping for better flying conditions on Sunday.  I think we all feel guilty about it now, not having realized soon enough the impact it would have on those who couldn't make it for the entire weekend.  In hindsight, we should have set the expectations that we may have to switch the days around depending on the weather (I agree with you Allison). Lesson learned.

The bike ride itself was spectacular along the Sierra Madre range.  We packed everyone into Hammer and Tony-the-Tiger's trucks which ended up looking more like boat-people.  Tony had picked up John DeBruin's trailer the night before to bring all the bikes up to McPhearson's Peak. Phoenix and Ramey did the retrieve for us. All their efforts and contributions were more than appreciated, as this ride wouldn't have happened without their help. THANK YOU.

We rode along 25 miles of fire road, across beautiful green meadows, painted caves, spectacular canyons, and wildlife galore (dears, feasan, jack rabbits, cotton tails, horny toads, and even a rabbied or neurotic fox...).  Not many wild flowers on this trip though.  Either we were too early for them, or as Gilbert stated, this year might be a grass year.  "The ride would be mostly downhill", they said.  Well, the downhill sections were a blast, but the uphill sections did raise our heartbeat enough for us to be pretty tired by the end of the day.

Bob A, who showed up late and missed the ride up in the morning, decided to bike up from Bates Campground and tried to catch up to us on the trail.  To our dismay, he showed up only 15-20 minutes after we ended our ride at the bottom on SB Canyon...  Unreal.

On Sunday, the pressure was higher, and we had to wait a while before we could fly from Plowshare Peak.  We didn't launch until 2pm or so, but all had nice flights in the unusually gentle thermals.  Terry, Big A, Hammer and Sean made it to the Barn, while the rest of us flew around and landed at various locations between the Oak trees and the Big LZ.  Killer!

Camping at Bates was real nice too.  We had the campground to ourselves, and we remained sheltered from the winds and the heat.  I would definitely like to do this trip again.

Skippy