Jeff Longcor (aka JLo)
Sunday 10/20/2023
Skyport to VOR to White Ledge OTB to Old Man Mountain to NW Divide to Jameson Lake

Reference: [IGC Text Data File] and [Google Earth KMZ File] and [JPG Overview]

36.8 Miles Straight Line Over-Flown Distance (SLOFD) around 4 Turnpoints (5 legs)
Leg 1 ~ 5.4 miles / Skyport to the VoR
Leg 2 ~ 21.7  miles / VOR to White Ledge
Leg 3 ~ 4.4 miles / White Ledge to Old Man Mountain
Leg 4 ~ 2.7 miles / Old Man Mountain to West Divide
Leg 5 ~ 2.7 miles / West Divide to Jameson Lake

Max Altitude 6,604 Ft MSL
3 hours 13 minutes 49 seconds / Takeoff at 11:27:10 / Land at 2:40:59 PDT

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JLo's Narrative Pending an Edit Update?

JLo's initial comments submitted 1/1/2023 at 3:33 PM via telegram DM
My goal was to work the NE/SW convergence of the Santa Anna event, I patiently got to 6,500 feet over West Divide but there was a headwind going north, I tried going more east to get a better angle on the transition, I climbed again to 6,500 in a climb drifting from the NE on the back ridge behind WL.  I felt no headwind this time and went back toward Old Man, found a climb drifting from the east, eventually pushed over those sharp points along the Watershed Divide but didn't get another climb, at this point I think I should have flown deeper toward Monte Arido and then picked the east or west side to search for a climb like you (sd) and Logan did a couple years ago when you were low back there.  Instead I became nervous about going west into the lee because of the building east wind, although I think this area would have been sheltered and the wind would have declined as I flew away from the divide, and I was nervous about going east because of the perceived lack of soft LZs in Matilija, perhaps you can describe to me where you recommend landing in there, seemed rocky and the canyon is impressively long.  I ended up flying SE into the E wind looking for the climb I found previously, but I was lower and the E was stronger, around 12 mph.  I then flew SW and attempted to cross back over the front range even though I knew I was a little too low, I surfed up the back of the front range at West Divide in the ENE wind, almost made it over the front ridgeline, but was ultimately pushed down into bad mixing air, I flushed down the valley and chose the largest possible grass field for an easy landing on my injured feet.  The hike out was challenging in very dense brush, my feet were painful, but in the days afterward, seem to be better than before the flight, perhaps they needed the exercise to get blood flow to the remaining injured areas.  I think flying west from Monte Arido would have been a good move, while standing at the landing field next to Jameson, the cycles felt very nice and there was not much wind.

JLo's additional clarification comments submitted 1/1/2023 at 9:06 PM via telegram DM
I'm not super impressed by my decision making, despite flying more than most in the backcountry, I rushed my decisions a bit.  I decided against Matilija because it looked rocky and narrow.  For me, landing softly was top priority, my ankle can manage hiking better than a hard landing.  I didn't plug upwind for long, maybe just a couple minutes, then I went for the lowest point in the front range that was mostly downwind which put me on the west side of the divide, still around 5k.  After failing to make it over the front, I landed in a soft field in SW surface wind.

Editors Comment (updated 11/8/2023)

At the risk of appearing arrogant, I'll make some comments, striving to be objective but realizing I wasn't there so my perceptions are somewhat speculative...

Eddie Rickenbacker is credited with a "saying", anyone can learn from there own experience (mistakes), but survivors learn from the mistakes of others.  If you enjoy a challenging bushwhack to reach a 4K vertical stroll down the Franklin Trail in the dark, then no need to familiarize yourself with exit options.  If you prefer to minimize your hiking, then it is helpful to be aware.

Historically, many pilots, both HG and PG, have gone OTB from the front range behind Summerland toward Monte Arido and fizzled, but prior to 2017, the Upper Santa Ynez Recreation area was accessible via the Romero Camuesa Road, which drops down the backside of Ramero Canyon toward the NE.  The Santa Barbara Ranger district closed the gate in 2017 due to road damage issues with the stated intent to repair and reopen before the end of the year (2017), but 6+ years later the designated recreation area is still not accessible by auto and the gate at Ramero Canyon remains closed.  A good source for trail and road status info is [https://www.hikelospadres.com].  You can search road, trail, and gate status via various methods like ranger district or name...

Matilija Canyon has a 4.9 mile public paved road (maintained by Ventura County) from Hwy 33 up to a locked gate about half way up the canyon (NNE of White Ledge).  The locked gate is the trailhead for the upper Matilija Canyon and the Murietta Divide (aka Watershed Divide) The Ventura County website list the road status as "emergency" use? The forest service website currently indicates the road may be closed, but the California Road info system says Highway 33 is closed at Matilija.  There is a significant population of people who live in Matilija Canyon, so I suspect the road is currently passable?  There are good trails that continue past the Matilija Canyon gate, which is populated with hiker's vehicles at the trail head.  When airborne low over the Watershed Divide and needing to commit to the east or west side, I'll fall off  to the east/Matilija Canyon side, which will be upwind down low.  The Murietta Divide (aka Watershed Divide) divides not only the watershed but also the upriver draw so down low it tends to draw uphill/upriver from the east on the east side and uphill/upriver from the west on the west side.  As with most gaps, the low spot or throat of the gap can be a funnel with flow spilling from one side to the other, but up higher toward Old Man Mountain and Monte Arido it will often be convergence.

The reason I bail east toward Matilija rather than west toward Jameson Lake is because I don't have the ability to hike uphill long distances like some of our more athletic adventurers.  You can usually reach the Matilija gate on glide from the divide. If you are short there are reasonable landing options and well worn downhill/downriver hiking trails to the gate from further up the forking drainage.  The landing options up canyon west of the Matilija gate are open, but it narrows down canyon as you get closer to the old dam site.  The last time I landed in Matilija [8/30/2020] (couldn't clear the front range near Divide Peak on glide from Pine) I set down at the gate in upriver flow from the east.

JLo's choice to bushwhack direct uphill was likely a good choice for him (JLo is a strong hiker), but for weaker hikers it might be more prudent to hike west around the south side of the lake toward the Ramero Camuesa Road, which is longer, but easier footing with a shallower grade, and you might be able to get a motor bike around the series of locked gates and down to the lake from Camino Cielo?  Emergency rescue should be able to find and pluck if you follow the road.

Based on JLo's Sunday track, it appears going OTB for Step One and Old Man Mountain was a reasonable adventurous option.  He had achieved his max altitude for the day and it was initially quartering downwind (or crosswind).  He was able to climb 800 feet from the mid 5s back above 63 on the 2nd spine (one spine up from Step One), drifting from the east.  JLo was back down to just over 6K arriving at Old Man Mountain, where he opted to turn and backtrack upwind toward the SE through down air to his last thermal location, but arrived too low?  He was able to break even with a few frisbees, drifting from the east, into the lee side of the saddle.  JLo appears to have opted to try and pull a cross wind glide back to the front range, but came in a tad too low on the NW spine of West Divide.

As a Monday morning quarterback, I suspect from his last thermal location he could have fished upwind eastbound along the spine (that yielded his last thermal) into the Matilija drainage rather than falling off and committing to the west side of the divide?

I also suspect JLo might have been able to continue north from Old Man Mountain along the ridge that connects to Monte Arido and fish east toward the Matilija drainage over the next higher spine if he didn't get lucky over the Watershed spine, which is what Logan and I did in October 2020 [photos].  I had about the same altitude as JLo at Old Man mountain, but our (2020) Watershed Divide drift was from the west not the east.  We (Logan and I) fished downwind into the Matilija drainage on the next spine uphill and connected to big altitude in an E/W convergence.  We went east rather than west for a couple of reasons. One, retrievability, and two, it was downwind toward potential convergence (convergence is more likely to be downwind).  One might argue that JLo made a good call going downwind westbound toward potential convergence? 

JLo's track eastbound along the front range shows mostly neutral drift in the thermals, perhaps a bit of NE up high and SW down lower early on, but trending more west as the day aged?  His climb at West Divide was drawing uphill from the SW down lower with maybe a touch of east up near the TOL?  JLo encountered significant headwind from the east as he approached White Ledge. So, there was likely convergence to be had.  JLo achieved his max altitude on the east side of the convergence.

JLo might have been tad early for the Watershed Divide Convergence?  I had a flight in October 2014 [photos] where I started to go OTB from on my westbound leg from Ojai but changed my mind due to too much east wind.  The west was building on my way back so I was right on time and able to connect with the Watershed Divide Convergence, going OTB from East Divide later in the day.

After giving up on the WSD and attempting to glide back for the south side of the front range, JLo arrived a bit too low on the NE side of the NW spine of West Divide, he might have been able to side-hill land, then hike a hundred feet up to West Divide for a re-launch from the south side?  I've personally landed up near the top of Divide (to try something different) and re-launched.  JLo was only about a hundred feet below the OVH road.  The ridgeline slopes downhill to the west, so he opted to curve around the spine and reach for the ridgeline but still wasn't able to clear it, so he fell off NW, angling toward the Upper Santa Ynez River.  He couldn't quite get up on the spine running NNW to his west, so his line out was perhaps less than optimal, not over-flying potential triggers and needing to get lucky?  He did have a couple of weak climbs out near the river, but he was kind of in limbo.  One might argue that in mid-fall when the sun angle is low, JLo might have been better off spending his altitude crossing directly back to the SSW facing foothills on the north side of the river for better sun exposure?  A review of [Mitch Riley's Matilija exploration and iteration] to Step One in the fall of 2021 is a good study.

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