Mont-Saint-Michel

Always an impressive place to visit, day or night, sunny or rainy, winter or summer. However you will want to check the tides. We almost had   Mont Saint Michel to ourselves,  quite a privilege these days. Lucky us :) 

There are several fortified entries, no surprise this place was never compromised.

The first wall contains the lower town, the second the upper town, a few shops and living quarters. Then above the next wall is the Abby.

The top layer of the Mont where the Abbey starts.

The 200 year old treadwheel that brought the sled 300 feet up. Driven by prisoners.

quite a perch for a church.

amazing doors

Cruising the town, contained in the lower walls.

St Malo

Departing England by ferry first stop was Saint Malo, not the most direct route but a great place to stop and have a walk about.

Taking the ferry over night is usually a good way to get a rest from driving and still make a few miles while avoiding some London traffic. The cabins aren't too expensive but for some reason the rooms were hot and dry, not much sleep for me.

The fresh air walk was very welcome.

With multiple medevil forts, San Malo is beautiful especially at sunrise.

The wall around the old town is completely walk-able with a few beaches thrown in that must be gorgeous in the summer.

I think we got pretty lucky with the weather, the crystal clear winter post rain air was just the ticket.

The town is a favorite for many tourists, ocean going and others.

Euro trip Xmas 2017

Back to England, first time for Maddy. Had the travel fairly well figured out, although there are more than one coach station at Heathrow, something to remember when catching the oxford express. We went to the wrong one to start with. Happily we missed the severe snow storm by just a couple of days.

First stop Brill. Where my sister lived for a short while.

Brill is know for its windmill without the snow. 

It was a fun village to visit a great change to meet the new nephews.

Having never met, Eli and Maddy had quite a few quirks in common.

Only there a couple of days but we did manage to go see Waddesdon manor a Victorian mansion built for Baron de Rothschild.

There was a cool light show just after it got dark, surprisingly some of the birds in the avairy were still active out.

2017 Eclipse

I am writing this well after the event, but I have a lot to catch up on! This one was definitely one of the highlights of 2017. A number of us had known about the eclipse for over a decade and the fact that totality would traverse King Mountain, a favourite hang gliding site. However none of us had really studied the details. Initially we thought it would be fun to fly through the eclipse, however after some research and consideration we realized; the 1.5 hour twilight build up of partiality would eliminate thermal activity, and likely make the air catabatic. On top of that, the one thing you want to see/enjoy is the corona, and you wouldn't get to see it since the wing would be in the way. Another interesting surprise was the shadow tracked west to east, as shown by the clip below.

An eclipse does not always have totality, both the orbit of the earth around the sun, and orbit the of the moon around the earth are concentric. In fact is entirely coincidence that the moon in it's orbit is roughly the right angle to equal the suns diameter at its' distance. This fact has surely blown the minds of astronomers past. Perhaps even new faiths were born of this. Some years in the future there will no longer be totality.

So given flying was off the plan, where to watch it ? Well first some logistics... When was it, how long was it predicted to last, what was feasible ?

A few different spots were considered, for vantage point (proximity to center line, angle of shadow approach, without other hills or peaks blocking the shadow approach view, accessibility in the time frame from the morning. NASA helped with the size and velocity of the shadow relative to the ground.

There were a few good candidates, Borah peak, Jumpoff peak, Mckay peak, and Saddle mountain. In the end we decided on King, the timing was good eclipse started ~10:30 and supposedly it was a 3.5 hour scramble from the upper launch @ 8000feet msl to the top @ 10,600ft msl. It was only 15% off the center line (still plenty of totality).

The umbra (totality shadow)  diameter was ~100km on this occasion, and with the shadowing approaching at ~40km/min, would yield about 2min 20sec. So far the math is working out. What would be really cool we thought, would be to watch the shadow approach at twice the speed of sound. Was it possible ? the edge would likely be quite diffuse, and I could not find previous evidence in the internet of it being something to observe.

Well... One way to find out ! We set off from camp in the valley at dawn with the 1 hour drive to upper launch.

The scramble was steep right off the bat, and then it got steeper. Once above tree line it was not straight forward picking a stable line.

The scramble was plenty technical. There were some moments of knee knocking standing on loose scree looking down 4000 feet, wondering if the stones would slide away from under our feet.

We made it to the top in good time, 2 and a half hours if I recall. Once up, it started to get cold, the light was eerie but not noticeably dark. However it was cold! really cold! Maybe 40'F off normal. And that was without windchill (fortunately).

The only time you can see the planet Mercury with the naked eye. (bottom left). 

The next (spectacular) eclipse will be in Hill country Texas 2024 Apr 08 - Time to start planning ! Note : although it was crazy smokey from the Montana wild fires and the inversion obscured the ground shadow, we we lucky not to have cloudy skies, or wind that would have made the trip less feasible. Could we be so lucky next time? Certainly not many opportunities like this in life !

Dinosaur 2017

Dinosaur 2017 - maybe the last national hang gliding event held at the location. This is really the kind of flying I love, even though it doesn't make for the best competition environment, the sense of wonder and elation from the dramatic views and weather really leave a lasting impression.

While I flew here the year before, the flights I managed and the pictures I took did not do the place justice. I was glad for a second chance. (I would go back and free fly)

getting up over launch, the views and colors are other worldly, you could argue that the geology, altitude and method are.

The route eastward follows the Yampa river, which I would love to raft some day. The canyon and colors are more vibrant than the grande canyon, though not the same scale, not so far off mind you.

There seem to be 3 main bands of rock types from plateau to river bed. Each its own colour and texture.

One of the days the task was cancelled, however I didn't find sink to get down in so I flew in a 18mph headwind 20 Miles back to town without really turning. Again the views are amazing.

Another day I was unzipped and ready to land next to the road exiting that canyon next to big John, only to find a ripper get me back up and on my way to goal.

Goal ! Turbulent along the way though, probably a convergence boundary.

Home for the week, pretty peaceful although the flys were entirely anoying.

Another flight looking into the Yampa Canyon.

A low save along another red arc. 

An almost goal in Steamboat Springs, 120 Miles an almost goal.