Hurricane on the Fourth of July

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Ken Andrews
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Posts: 215
Joined: Mon Jun 06, 2005 8:22 pm
Location: Pasadena

Hurricane on the Fourth of July

Post by Ken Andrews »

I’m just discovering that the Fourth of July is almost here! We should definitely go fly somewhere.

The obvious choice is to return to Hurricane, Utah, where we’ve usually gotten both spectacular cross-country flights and great ridge-soaring. The weather is always hot and sunny, with occasional thunderstorms mixed in. I’d say that the site generally requires basic Hang-3 flying skills, but with Hang-4 weather-prediction skills due to the potential for thunderstorms, gust fronts, and whatnot. Non-flying attractions include Zion National park just down the road, Bryce National Park a couple hours away, swimming and splashing in the river just a short cross-country flight back from the Hurricane ridge, and fireworks on the evening of the Fourth of course.

Since we haven’t made plans in advance, the easiest option is to camp at the Red Ledge campground in Kanarraville, which is about a half hour drive north of Hurricane and ten degrees cooler. Given sufficient interest soon enough, it might still be possible to rent a house as we did last year; I don’t know. Hurricane is a six or seven hour drive from Sylmar (plus an hour of time change), so one possible schedule is to drive east on Wednesday July 3, aim to fly on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and drive home through Las Vegas traffic on Sunday, July 7. Variants include spending a night at Primm or Las Vegas on the outbound or return trips.

The interested pilots I know about include Greg Angsten, Steve and Pat Murillo, Jeff Odle, Sue Sen, and myself. Please speak up if you’re interested, with any plans or preferences you may have. Thanks.
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gregangsten
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Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2005 11:22 am
Location: Westchester

Re: Hurricane on the Fourth of July

Post by gregangsten »

Well, we hit a winner for weather at Hurricane this time. Temps were warm of course, but surprisingly nice, and we had good flying every day. Long flights were possible if you were both a little lucky and willing to go. On the fourth we were getting over 12k at times and I was over 14 once. Flew to Colorado City over spectacular terrain, but since I didn't bother to dig my bar mitts out of all that junk in the car, I wasn't ready to try and make a high jump to Kanab and beyond. Ken went also but took an unfortunate line that sent him into the ground short of the AZ border.

The next day was lighter and some of us made the flight to the river for a swim. Saturday we made yet another futile climb up Cedar mtn. to find it strong over the back, so most went hiking in Kolob canyon while I gave Su another shot back at the ridge where conditions were glass-off perfect with 17 straight in and she could go effortlessly for miles.

We were comfy in a perfect house right under the ridge that was a 15 minute stroll to a little hike up this canyon:
Image

Yes, you are correct. I am trying to make you feel like you blew it by not going.
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