Day 309: North towards Alaska

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Ben

This morning ended the run of atypical Oregon Coast weather with a drizzle that became a drenching rain. My flying dreams crushed, we packed up and began our trip North to Alaska.

On the way back to Portland, we stopped at the relatively new Tillamook Forestry Center:

The museum shows a great video about the fires in the 1930s through 1950s that burned almost 500,000 acres of what later became the Tillamook State Forest. An aggressive replanting campaign which had convicts, volunteers, and school children plant 17 million Douglas Fir seedlings throughout the burn area has today yielded a restored woodland.

The museum was very well done with interactive displays and exhibits:

Watch the fake salmon swim!

Magnetic matching works:

The view from the bridge out back is of the Wilson River:

On our way out we climbed the fire tower:

The museum from the fire tower:

Continuing to Portland, we got caught in rush hour traffic on the Sunset Highway. Rather than crawl up I-5 to Vancouver, we got off onto US-30 and headed up past Sauvie Island to Longview, Washington. The timber loading area there is amazingly vast, see here.

We are overnighting at the Walmart of Chehalis, Washington. See the trip map for details.

Day 308: Sand Lake, Day 2

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Ben

This morning the winds were again calm, so I tried again:

Great inflation, great run out, and I’m in the air!

I was up for about 18 minutes and overflew a bit of Camp Meriwether, a Boy Scout camp I attended back in the day, and then flew South to circle Whalen Island. My landing flare was great, but somehow I forgot to get out of my seat, so my landing run didn’t exactly go as planned. Check out this video, which is also my debut of video editing using the most excellent (and free!) Lightworks:

M helped me carry back my wing:

Trish put this map work together a couple days ago to teach South American geography:

The kids shucked corn for lunch:

PPG pilots fly all day at the beach, but I had no way of knowing if the afternoon winds were normal, so I decided to wait. We all built castles and sculptures at the surf line:

And then we broke out the little kite:

Finishing touches:

At sunset, it seemed a little gusty, so I decided to try for another morning flight tomorrow.

Trish has been making wire wrap jewelry at night. Hopefully she’ll write about it on Tricia’s blog:

Day 307: Sand Lake, Day 1

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Ben

This morning, the winds were calm. Excited, I got all set up to fly. Unfortunately, the fuel line quick disconnect I recently purchased was faulty, so I could not get fuel from the tank to the engine. By the time I diagnosed the problem, the winds were howling, so we stowed the paramotor in the RV and worked through a morning of homeschool.

In the afternoon, we drove into Pacific City, about 10 miles South of here, and I purchased a male-to-male barb fitting that I could use to replace the faulty quick disconnect, as well as a tarp to cover the paramotor.

Heading North back to the RV, we stopped at Cape Kiwanda:

The main attraction here is the massive sand dune at the North end of the beach. I trudged up to the top with the kids and we ran down:

Continuing North, we pulled it at Whalen Island and walked out to an overlook. It was very beautiful and peaceful. With days like this, it’s hard to remember that the Oregon Coast receives about 90 inches of rain a year:

Winds this afternoon topped out with gusts of 25 miles an hour. Tonight, it was still windy so I did a bit of kiting:

The kids ran down the dunes with my kite’s stuff sack. The best part was B yelling “clear prop!” before M started his run. At the end he would turn around and bring down his “wing” just like in training:

Hopefully tomorrow will be less windy. Goodnight from Sand Lake, Oregon!

Day 306: Coast-bound again

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Ben

This morning, I found this note on the doughnut holes. Our kids need to learn to share. Or maybe I need to learn to share:

Yesterday, my PPG companion Nick suggested we head to Sand Lake on the coast to do some flying. We hitched up and said our farewells to Portland. Heading West, we stopped at the dump station we used when we lived in Hillsboro (ah, the nostalgia!) Next we stopped at Lowes, which I think occupies the former location of Griffith Polymers. How’s that for progress?

We purchased the wall sections for the already built wall frame in the kids’ bedroom. Having it cut here is a big time saver:

I’ll install these while we’re at the beach. They are white and smooth, so we’re hoping the kids can each have a dry erase wall in their room!

We drove over the coast range to Tillamook, then South a bit to Sand Lake. Were staying at the West Dunes “campground”, which is just one large paved area adjacent to the dune field which is two miles long and about a quarter mile wide, and is adjacent to the beach at the South end where we’re staying. When we arrived it was very windy, but tomorrow’s forecast looks better. Hopefully I can get in the air!

Day 305: Gardening and Skating in Portland

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Ben

Another sunny day in Portland, could this be a dream? Truth is, summers here are the dry time of the year and very pleasant, it’s been in the 70s every day so far. This morning I drove out to Sauvie Island to do some PPG flying. I had an issue with the starter, and by the time I fixed it, Nick, my flying companion, told me it was pretty rough aloft, so I decided to get in some kiting practice instead and call it a day.

Trish and the kids drove to Southeast Portland to visit her high school friend Erica and her amazing backyard garden:

Meanwhile I fabricated a sewer hose holder from a length of 5” vinyl fence post. This gets the hose out of our basement where it was in the tub at left and stinking up the place:

My childhood hangout, Skate World in Hillsboro, is going out of business after 33 years after being unable to renew their lease. I had to go skating one last time: