Brain, Andrew and I headed out early Sunday Monday to ride what is locally know as the figure-8 up near Brainerd Lakes. It starts at 8700ft near the Boy Scout camp and heads up the Sourdough Trail to Brainerd Lakes, west across Little Raven at 10,500ft and back down the bouncy South St Vrain Trail. Quite fun on these new long travel mountain bikes.

Video of the ride.

Villa Grove

A big turn-out! ~160 pilots I think I heard. From the LZ looking up at launch and the Sangre de Cristo Range

I didn't have sufficient time to do my homework for this trip. I thought the swifts fly in was a Hang Gliding class5 event -Ha Nope! Anyway I had decided to take it easy and not be too ambitious since I've barely flown in 16 months. Over launch looking south ~13k.

Over launch looking down at Villa Grove.

Over launch about 15k looking north toward Salida.

Over Villa Grove looking down on the LZ and Launch. A place I've heard about for years, but hadn't managed to visit until now.

Valley is around 8k feet MSL Peaks around 13.5k, previous day I flew down to the corner and back, flying the Freedom as I'm really out-of-practice. This glider is much easier to land and more forgiving of mistakes.

Looking south down toward the Great Sand Dunes National Park. What a great fun weekend, so nice to see (at a distance) so many friendly faces I've not seen in months/years. Somehow I was so busy catching up I didn't take a single group shot.