It is for a few years that I have been looking forward to flying here. Mount St Helena is an impressive mountain in a very pretty area.
The launch is in
Robert Louis Stevenson State Park which is worth a visit in itself. Getting a hang glider transported to the launch spot has taken the sonoma wings club many years of negotiation. It's pretty cool they put on an open invite fly-in once a year there.
I was lucky enough to get to fly as there are limited quotas to launch on a given day.
While the conditions were not spectacular, the scenery was.
Our Hostess even lets us camp there, which made for a fun party.
As part of the fly-in there were a couple of low key competitions, highest altitude, longest duration and spot landing. I wasn't even in the running for the first two, but I had a good spot :)
Maddy and Heidi enjoyed the trampolene.
And the mexican fiesta (being cinco de mayo)
The party went on into the night way longer than I could, but alas I had carelessly consumed a good amount of onions, which took their revenge on me for the next 14 hours. Fortunately Heidi and Maddy took off home and missed it.
We tried out the backpack for Maddy today. We got a little carried away with the hike (this has happened before), usually Heidi keeps me in check, but she'd had a redbull ;)
So on we went to the top of the ridge at 3000ft, Maddy seemed peretty happy with the pack. 
It ended up being a 7 1/2 mile hike. Certainly felt like more ;) And even though the camp ground is full we rarely see more than 3 or 5 people out hiking the trails, Which kinda great for us but a sad reflection at the same time.
Had a pretty fun time at McClure, getting away is a challenge these days.
Both days were booming, Saturday I got away from the fishbowl to the southwest, mostly west to start with, then south, then south east, the long way round :) I've landed at Mariposa airport a couple times before so I know its friendly and easy to find. Now I know there also a bar just around the corner! Thanks Wayne for the pickup, my original retrieve plan was not well planned. 
Tall stories were told around the campfire :) Good times.
It is for a few years that I have been looking forward to flying here. Mount St Helena is an impressive mountain in a very pretty area.
The launch is in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park which is worth a visit in itself. Getting a hang glider transported to the launch spot has taken the sonoma wings club many years of negotiation. It's pretty cool they put on an open invite fly-in once a year there.
I was lucky enough to get to fly as there are limited quotas to launch on a given day. 
While the conditions were not spectacular, the scenery was.
Our Hostess even lets us camp there, which made for a fun party.
As part of the fly-in there were a couple of low key competitions, highest altitude, longest duration and spot landing. I wasn't even in the running for the first two, but I had a good spot :) 
Maddy and Heidi enjoyed the trampolene.
And the mexican fiesta (being cinco de mayo)
The party went on into the night way longer than I could, but alas I had carelessly consumed a good amount of onions, which took their revenge on me for the next 14 hours. Fortunately Heidi and Maddy took off home and missed it.