Independence Day

Our 4th of July Celebration started Saturday morning with the Lewiston parade!

Overcast skies kept the morning temperatures from climbing too quickly.

Tanner, Josh, Landon, Keri and the entire Skyview Marching band did great!

Saturday afternoon the 3-day Cache Valley Cruise In culminated with the parade of classic cars on main street.

There were all kind of Oldies but Goodies - like this pink Cadillac,

this not so old Delorean,

this 3-wheelin' Monte Carlo,

I'm not sure what this one is called,

a flame-throwin' '53,

some VERY low-riders (yes, there were sparks flying!),

and a few pimped out bikes too.

We found some time for a little 4-wheelin',

including Klobberhed!

We finished the day lighting off a few mostly-legal fireworks. Then we relaxed and watched some of the less-than legal fireworks go off in the neighborhoods around us.

Short Divide in July

On Friday Landon and I met up with Cody on launch at Short Divide. Conditions looked great at 85 degrees, SW winds 16-18, and some nice puffy cumulus overhead.

Landon and I launched first into some moderately strong thermals mixed in with some definite areas of sink. This translated into some July rodeo-airtime! About 10 minutes later Cody launched and we took turns showing each other the thermals, until Cody hooked one that stayed together well enough for him to follow it back and bench up over Clarkston Peak. Landon and I worked the same thermal, but fell out of it and had to scoot back out front. Cody found the usually reliable lift on the upper mountains a bit sketchy.

By now Landon was getting a little woozy from the "textured" air and tight turns, so we descended to a nice wheel-landing below, while Cody did some air-playin' above, and eventually joined the "early-landers" in the LZ below. With this flight, Landon just passed 10 hours of airtime! It was a very nice "day before the 4th of July" flight.

Airtime: 50 minutes x 2!

Wind Caves

Ryan and I took advantage of the improving weather to have our 1st annual 11 year-old Scout backyard overnighter and Wind Caves day hike.

Participants included Andrew, Daniel, Jake, Jordan, Spencer and Aaron.

We worked on a number of Scouting skills and requirements, including knife and axe safety, firebuilding, tent pitching, cooking, camping, ropework and knot tying. A brief thundershower didn't dampen our spirits, as we enjoyed our foil dinners

and dutch oven cobbler desserts with ice cream!

After a competetive snakeball/monkey bars golf tournament, Daniel conducted our campfire program, complete with a song, some jokes (ha ha), a skit, and a Scoutmaster's minute.

The boys stayed up late telling jokes, while Ryan and I drifted off to sleep in our treehouse lookout. After a big breakfast, we packed up "camp" and drove up the canyon

to the Wind Caves trailhead.

Clover helped keep everyone in line as we climbed the steep, two-mile switchbacking trail.

At one point the trail crosses a rushing stream, which literally springs forth right out of the ground!

After a number of repeated "how much further" inquisitions, we finally arrived at our destination just before noon.

The view in all directions was spectacular, including the China Wall rock formation on the opposite side of the canyon below the Crimson Trail and the backside of Logan Peak.

We paused to explore the open-air caves and take a few pictures.

Standing just above the upper openings, we felt the up-canyon wind rushing through, better understanding how they were so appropriately named.

We made the descent in about half the time.

Clover and the boys were dog-tired by the time we made it back to the vehicles, but everyone had a great time!

Summer Arrives at Short Divide

Landon and I went out to Short Divide Wednesday for some airtime. The Spring rains finally stopped for a couple of days allowing for the warmest day of the year at about 90 degrees. On launch the wind was straight in, but cycling from about 8 mph up to 15. A bit light for a tandem launch, so we waited to see if it would build and fill in. At about 4 pm conditions were the same, but after watching a red-tailed hawk catch a ride and speck out, we decided to attempt to follow suit. We picked a good cycle, but still had to earn our launch with a few extra steps as we made our seamless transition into the sky. We safely skimmed over the juniper covered launch ridge, as Landon was happy to be "back in the harness" again. As we watched two deer running through the trees below us, we quickly found a number of moderately strong thermals which took us about 100' over launch. We were unable to replicate our feathered friend's gravity-defying feat as we gradually descended to the lower ridge, set up our final, and came in for a safe wheel-in landing.

Airtime: 15 minutes - YeeeHaaaaw!