Elinor

[Steve Forslund]

That is clouds flying from on the ground.

The experience was opposite of last weekend. I arrived at Hoodsport late
and the cloudbase was obviously too low. I managed to hitch a ride to
the Staircase cut off then walked a mile and a half to the Elinor road
where some hikers gave me a ride to the lower trail. Assuming someone
would stop I hiked up the road to upper trail (should have just taken
the trail) arriving at upper trail at 2:00 pm already tired. The launch
off the road is overgrown so I continued up. I was warned of some angry
wasp by some hiking down and the two hiking in front of me ran by the
nest fast with arms swinging which annoyed the bees and I watch one fly
right for my eye stinging me below my eyebrow. Oh well the pain was a
diversion from the effort to get up the hill. The summit was near the
top of the clouds with wind from the SW. Too much lift and too thick for
launching and flying down I waited a bit and then started hiking down.
It cleared off on the way down and I Iturned around hiking back up
hoping to launch the east gully. It took a while to layout and clear my
line on the steep scree slope and there were some light puffs coming up
and occasional clearing with gorgeous view of the lake below. My leading
edge fell down and a hiker helped sort it out but then knocked a rock
loose which folded up the wing, I had asked her to step to the side to
avoid that problem. Now the light puffs were gone and I packed up
realizing I obviously was not meant to fly today and better get off the
hill before all the cars are gone forcing a long hike back to my
vehicle. My eye is just about swelled shut but I did have a nice after
work flight at Tiger on Monday.


SF