This morning I got up a little earlier to fly. The only folks up before me were Russ and his 11-year-old son D:
I flew around for a bit:
Bringing the wing down after landing:
We did homeschool and Trish worked on her beading projects:
Towards sunset a group of dune buggy drivers got together for a camp fire:
I went flying again, here flying over a PPG trike. I had a couple failed launches, so my actual flight was really short. I wanted to be down before sunset:
Moonrise:
Getting ready for a morning flight:
Other folks were in the air first:
It was a beautiful morning for a flight:
The birds were out too:
M was driving around on his motorcycle:
Coming in for a landing:
M kited my wing:
During the day we did homeschool. M worked on building a detector for spilled water. We found that with salty water, the wires could be much farther apart and still complete the circuit through the water, so salty water is a better conductor than fresh water. When we ran the water through our Brita pitcher, the circuit didn’t work at all, so we proved electronically that our water filter works:
B was having a good time in Chumash class:
More Tu B’Shvat mosaics:
Salton City is a town that just won’t give up. They maintain puddles of grass in the desert and call in a golf course. They even get mowed from time to time:
Towards sunset, pilots began to to take to the sky again:
Before taking off, I kite the wing to make sure no lines are tangled:
Now I have to look for other pilots before taking off:
Here we go:
Flying low:
Moonrise was wonderful:
This morning I photographed our campground sign. Like most things in Salton City, it has seen better days. The campground, owned by the Imperial County Irrigation District, used to charge $8 a night to camp here, but they’ve since turned off the water and walked away, so it’s free now:
With the massive Salton Sea inhibiting the formation of thermals, I’m able to fly here all day long so long as I stay within a few hundred yards of the shore. I set up my PPG and drove it the 50 yards or so out to the beach:
While I flew, the kids rode their bikes on the beach:
We also fixed M’s motorcycle (again), so he put in some time on driving that:
While getting ready to do a sunset flight, a couple other PPG pilot flew by. The RV park a quarter mile from our camping area is hosting a PPG fly-in starting Thursday, but there are already a number of pilots here:
The air is thick here at 200 feet below sea level, so take offs and landing are easier, and the laminar on-shore breeze from the lake makes for smooth flying, especially in the morning and late afternoon:
I’m in the lead:
Sunset:
As we pack up, more PPGs fly over:
M’s motorcycle needs a fuel-up:
For Tu B’Shvat, Trish and the kids made paper mosaics representing various agricultural themes:
B had music class today. Having a bedroom wall made of whiteboard comes in handy:
This morning Trish took the kids to the Anza Borrego State Park visitor center where they received their Junior Ranger badges:
Meanwhile, I was riding up Montezuma Grade, a 3,900 foot climb over 10 miles. At the summit, at 4,500 feet, it looks a lot less like a desert:
Looking back towards Borrego Springs, I could see all the way to the mountains on the far side of Salton Sea:
The descent:
About halfway down, I stopped at the overlook which looks out over Borrego Springs:
The kids photographed a Lego desert scene:
In the afternoon, we hitched up and drove down to Salton City, which has a fascinating history. Laid out to accommodate tens of thousands of residents, the town only has a few thousand residents, leaving a vast grid of paved and signed neighborhood roads with no houses on them.
A city campground which has been abandoned now provides free camping. We set up as the sun began to set:
We’ve come here for a PPG fly-in that is scheduled to start on Thursday, so we were quite surprised to see that a number of pilots are already here. Most are staying at the full-service RV park next door, which has it’s own ultralight runway:
Not a bad place to spend a few days:
See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.
I decided to fly this morning. Here I’m power testing the motor:
And away!
It’s interesting how different the valley looks from 1,000 feet up:
Furnace Creek Ranch is left of center in this photo:
Coming in to land:
There’s another PPG pilot here, flying a quad buggy instead of foot launch. This is the only aircraft being stored at the airport today:
Packed up and ready to head back to the RV:
Here’s my flight path:
This afternoon we drove up to the Greenwater Valley. The goal was to visit three town sites from the days of Death Valley mining from 1900 to 1910. Our first stop was the town site of Furnace. Nothing remains of the settlement, so we hiked up to look at an old mine:
The mine has been capped to prevent foolish tourists from being hurt:
The concrete pad is probably the base for the winch used to pull mine cars up the shaft:
Not much copper was found here, but traces of other green minerals like malachite can be found on rocks here:
Another capped mine:
This piece of rusting metal is all that remains of Furnace:
Another mine:
Next we visited the town site of Kunze, where several stone building still stand, at least partially:
This house now has an unintentional skylight:
The artifacts and furniture here are probably about 110 years old:
Lots of old broken glass around here:
Trish found an old spoon:
The town can dump?
Another mine:
This mine opening was large, and stones thrown in took a good 6 seconds to hit bottom, so the shaft must be pretty deep:
Our last stop was the town site of Greenwater. Nothing remains except a modern sculpture made from antique debris collected here:
We had a great time learning about this aspect of Death Valley’s history!
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