Ridge Soaring MR Cheetah

I ridge soared at Cheetah last night for the first time.  I was up for 45 minutes before I decided to land due to low fog.  I need to get those hours in before I can get my P3 rating.  I was scared of Cheetah, because I had heard that there were some serious dangers there.  But if you don't top land, stay away from rotor and the death bowl then it's fine.

Part of the hike back up after landing on the beach.

I took this picture at Cheetah a few weeks ago.  It was pretty foggy last night.

Update:

I did it again tonight!  One flight that lasted 70 minutes.  If I can keep this up, I'll have my hours for P3 pretty quickly.

Sledders at MR Cheetah

After spending a long time on Saturday parawaiting, I decided I was more than willing to hike for some flying.  I like hiking, so why not.  I had been looking into doing some sledders from Cheetah launch, and I finally tried it for the first time last night.  I decided that I certainly wasn't ready to top land at Cheetah, but a sledder and landing on the beach should be totally fine.

The main challenge was that the wind was very light, which requires more forward movement to bring the wing up.  And since cheetah is on top of a bluff, it means you kinda need to run towards the edge.  But there is enough time to abort if necessary, it's just an unnatural feeling.  The wind picked up a touch after the first flight, and that made the next two much easier.

View from the top

 

View from the bottom

The sun was setting as I climbed up the hill for the last time.

Parawaiting...

I spent a lot of Saturday waiting to fly at Mussel Rock, and it just never happened.  If I was smart, I would have hiked up the Green Monster and launched from there.  Instead I sat around in my lawn chair at Walker launch, and read Slash's autobiography.  But the weather/views were nice, and the book was interesting.

Not a bad spot to read a book for a few hours.

A bummer to hike out instead of flying, but that's the way it goes.

Mountain biking

Last Saturday, I drove down to Skeggs for some mountain biking.  But the parking lot(and all of the pullouts) were so crowded, I just ended up driving home.  Things are weird due to the pandemic.  Anyway I decided to wait until it got dark, and ride Sutro.  I had just gotten a second light.  The new light is a flood for the handlebars, and I already had a spot that mounts on my helmet.  It was a good little ride.  And the combo of spot and flood lights was awesome.  I turned off the flood light a few times to see what a difference it makes, and I wouldn't go night riding without it anymore.  The ride concluded when I saw a skunk on the trail.  After that I decided to head back down and call it a night.

Today(a Friday), I had the day off, so I drove down to Skeggs.  Even for a weekday the parking lot was starting to fill up around 10:15am.  I rode with a facemask under my chin that I could pull up when needed.   As always the trails along the ridge were the most trafficked, and once I was able to descend it got very comfortable.  I did two of my loops on Manzanita, and two of my loops on Olijion.  It felt really good, and I think I've finally gotten my mojo back after breaking my collarbone.

Lots of blue bells along the trail.

Oh and now all my favorite mountain biking spots are open again: China Camp, Tamarancho, Skeggs, and Mt. Sutro.  The trick is just figuring out how to avoid the crowds.