Summer 2018, Day 31: Alvord Desert, Day 1

Posted on August 7, 2018 by Ben

We woke up to a clear day on the Alvord Desert:

Time to do some flying:

Flight #121:

This video has both flights from today and tomorrow’s flight:

We unloaded the motorcycles:

Oreo keeps an eye on things:

M and I went exploring:

We checked out Borax Lake:

It’s getting warm out there, we fired up the generators:

B agreed to give driving a try. I sat behind her:

Sporting our shade tarp:

B learns fast, she went for a ride with M:

Time for a night flight:

Flight #122:

Visiting the neighbors:

After the flight, I hooked B into the harness and pushed her into the air:

We had a great day on the Alvord!

Summer 2018, Day 30: To the Alvord

Posted on August 6, 2018 by Ben

Yesterday, we intended to continue on past Fairview, but we discovered at this gas station that the RV has a broken leaf spring, so we stayed here overnight:

I have to drive about 1.5 hours back to Klammath Falls to buy replacement leaf springs. Might as well have a hearty breakfast:

After returning from Klammath Falls, I got to work:

Installing the new spring:

The old spring, with the break at the top:

Ready to go:

We drove east to overnight at the Alvord Desert, a large dry lake in southeast Oregon. Getting from the road to the lake bad was tricky, but we managed it and got set up around 1:30am:

See the alternating yellow line on the trip map for today’s drive.

Summer 2018, Day 29: Lava Beds NM, WW2 Valor in the Pacific NM-Tule Lake Unit

Posted on August 5, 2018 by Ben

Shabbos dispersed camping on the California/Oregon border was peaceful. We went for a walk and turned around when we ran into a bull.

This morning we wanted to visit Lava Beds National Monument. We decided to double up on the motorcycles and drive there.

We decided to explore the Catacombs cave, which we last visited on Day 473:

Today we’re exploring a portion of the cave that we didn’t explore the last time:

The floor and the ceiling are not mistake friendly:

The lava made interesting patterns as it cooled:

We eventually ran into reduced ceiling clearance:

We arrived at Howard’s Hole:

Subsequent lava flows create tunnels at multiple levels. Howard’s Hole is a break between levels, and we used it to explore the next level up:

At some point, B and I continued on. We eventually arrived at “Cleopatra’s Tomb”:

These arrows point to “The Crossover”, a one-foot high passage connecting to the part of the cave we explored last time:

We all cut our heads or backs on the ceiling:

On the way back, we went up a level:

The map shows our last visit in red, our current visit in blue, and the overlap in purple. Click the photo for a larger view:

Out we go:

All of this would have been a lava tube had the ceiling not collapsed:

After our spelunking, we motorcycled back to the RV, stowed the motorcycles, and drove north. We stopped to look at what’s left of Tule Lake Segregation Center. Built during World War II in response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Tule Lake was one of ten Japanese American internment camps used to imprison over 100,000 US residents of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were US citizens. This is the fifth internment camp we’ve visited:

We visited the visitor center for the Tule Lake Unit of World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument. The Tule Lake unit preserves the Tule Lake Segregation Center, not yet open to the public:

The facility, also used as a county museum, has one of the guard towers from the camp:

We continued north to Oregon. It’s good to be home:

Trish has been working on a crochet project in the car:

We continued east to overnight at the Shell station in Fairview, Oregon. See the alternating yellow line on the trip map for today’s drive.

Summer 2018, Day 27: Lassen Volcanic NP

Posted on August 3, 2018 by Ben

It was pretty quiet overnight here at the Walmart of Willows, California. We thought it was snowing, but it was actually raining ash from the Carr Fire:

We drove north to Lassen Volcanic National Park:

Visibility was limited here thanks to the Carr Fire:

Our first stop was the Sulphur Works area. We checked out the boiling mud pots:

For the Lassen Dark Sky Festival, NASA scientists set up a display about Astrobiology here:

We continued north to our dispersed camping Shabbos location near Lava Beds National Monument:

Good Shabbos!

Summer 2018, Day 26: First Paragliding Free-Flight

Posted on August 2, 2018 by Ben

After a second night at the State campground in Half Moon Bay, it’s time to leave. While waiting for everyone to get ready, I partially disassembled the motorcycles to tighten up some bolts that had vibrated loose. I applied threadlock compound to the bolts, then reassembled the bike:

We said goodbye to the beach:

We drove over to the day use area and unhitched the RV:

I drove up to Pacifica to meet Mark for a tandem flight. Mark flew over to our launch location:

We hitched up to the wing and ran off this cliff:

With no engine, we relied on updrafts from on-shore winds deflecting upwards along the cliffs:

We flew north towards San Francisco:

We had some company:

We flew past the Olympic Club, where my grandfather was a member:

Remnants of the old Route 1:

Thanks Mark, that was amazing!

Meanwhile, back at the RV….

A kitten stopped by to say hello. I found its sibling under the hood of the truck this morning, keeping warm:

I drove the truck south a bit and launched my PPG for flight #120:

Right after I launched, a wall of fog moved in and the temperature dropped dramatically. Since the air mass below the fog was still warm, it began to rise through the colder upper layer, essentially generating thermals. It got a bit bumpy, so I landed: