John & Anne Wiley

2011/08/21

Water, Stone & Smoke

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,Smiley Adventure — John @ 06:46

After a quick dabble at the shore, we flew up Lake Chelan past all but one or two boats and enjoyed the cool blue water from above. To the third bend, where we could almost see the end. This pic shows it only to the first bend, and this is where most of the boats were. The dam at the bottom-left is where the main town we explored begins, and the airport is a few miles behind and to the right out of frame.

4354 Bottom of Chelan

4354 Bottom of Chelan

Past the second bend there was one large waterfall still running, and the boats offshore had me wondering how much is visible from the water. The lower part by the beach was less spectacular, and I wondered if any people from those boats had gone ashore to climb up for a look at the upper falls.

4394 Lakeshore Waterfall

4394 Lakeshore Waterfall

Skirting the fire West of Wenatchee we got a good look at the source of smoke that added varying amounts of haze to the magnificent views along our route.

4446 Wenatchee Fire

4446 Wenatchee Fire

At a few places we got relatively clear glimpses of Mt. Baker and the remarkable Cascade crags in our foreground.

4493 Baker Brothers

4493 Baker Brothers

Leaving the valley as we neared Seattle airspace, a high valley with finger lake stands to the right of the lower valley where the highway is. It was so tempting, we climbed a little for extra safety to fly through it for closer inspection of the trail left by a massive river of ice when the world was colder.

4517 High Passage

4517 High Passage

Passing through, we were looking and snapping out both sides. I got this view back at the peak toward the highway side, and it might have been interesting to see how it looks from there.

4527 Past Peak

4527 Past Peak

As we began our approach to Renton I took a pass to the left where we got a distant hazy view of Mt. Ranier beyond sleepy farming valleys on our way to pass over Issaquah.

4556 Dim Giant

4556 Dim Giant

So many slumbering volcano giants along this coast, it reminds me how alive our rock is and how much it has changed over the eons. Sometimes flying can take us far beyond the few hundred miles and variety of scenes in a relatively short flight.

2011/08/20

The Rest

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Smiley Adventure,Tripp — John @ 18:11

We’ve found a wifi cafe, so I’m going to post the rest of yesterday’s pix and then we’re off to Renton (Seattle). We had a great rest last night, probably my best sleep of the trip so far. We’d been warned that Chelan can be populated with rowdy drunks on weekends, but it seems quiet and friendly so far. The airport’s out of town so it was really quiet. The airport guy loaned us his old klunker and we drove in last nite too.

Our first stop out of Smiley yesterday was Cascade for nitrogen in Tripp’s nose strut that had gone low. The guys at Arnold’s were fabulous, and by the time we left Tripp had her head held high and was feeling frisky. It was fun to see aerophile cows right next to the runway. They stood right next to the fence to watch the planes come and go.

4169 Cow Cascade

4169 Cow Cascade

The town is next to a big lake, and taking off I spotted some cool rapids people seem to use a lot. Maybe kids having a Friday lunch ride before school starts?

4172 Rapid Loop

4172 Rapid Loop

Next we grabbed lunch in McCall, and I snapped this from over the airport after we’d done a wide climbing turn over the lake.

4203 McCall Calling

4203 McCall Calling

Next a fuel stop in nearby Council, where the airport is a quiet and lonely place amid hay fields. With the somewhat short runway, mid-day heat, and full tanks, I let Tripp take her time climbing out over open fields where I snapped this meandering cool creek.

4209 Creek In Council

4209 Creek In Council

Somewhere on the way North up the valley, a thoughtful farmer had honored our Anne with a large hillside monogram.

4226 Grade A

4226 Grade A

The river valley has lots of rapids punctuating the deep meanders and sandy beaches, and tho I saw some kayakers and rafters the pix eluded me.

4252 River Beach

4252 River Beach

We turned Northwest as the river did and then left it as we bent away from our route to see Moses Lake on the way here. As usual flying fairly low over farm country, the fields and terrain are enchanting.

4282 Terrain Tales

4282 Terrain Tales

I was admiring Lewiston when Anne commented that Clarkston is across the river, and that added to my imagining of the Corps of Discovery passing thru a few years ago when Tripp passing across the sky would have triggered considerable awe rather than perhaps a passing glance.

4293 L&C Together Again

4293 L&C Together Again

Further along I became fascinated with dust. Everything moving left a widening trail lazily climbing into the sun, and this tractor seemed to be chasing the dust devil.

4296 Tractor & Devil

4296 Tractor & Devil

Moses Lake was rather uneventful from the air, aside from a tall fountain just above the bridge at bottom-center. The lake beyond is called Potholes so we didn’t route to that side, but it might actually be more interesting from the air. The town itself sprawls all along Moses Lake, and I guess boaters and water skiers love racing back and forth along the arc of lake that’s mostly out of view to the right.

4302 Moses Lake

4302 Moses Lake

You’ll notice it’s starting to get smoky. There’s a fire near Wenatchee, as you can see at the upper right.

4309 Wenatchee Fire

4309 Wenatchee Fire

When we heard about the fire, we wondered whether the smoke would be hanging over Chelan. As you can see in last nite’s pic during approach to the airport though, it’s only a thin haze here. So now, up and away again… 🙂

2011/08/19

Stanley, Presumably

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,Relationships,Smiley Adventure — John @ 01:28

When we fly into a small town, people often think we’re rich. Then they ask where we’re from, and modestly replying Santa Barbara seals their mis-impression. So flying into Stanley was a nice change, because people there were somehow taking it all in stride. This morning we woke early and watched sunrise paint the Sawtooths behind our surprisingly cozy teepees.

3931 Smiley Dawn

3931 Smiley Dawn

Did you notice the three teepees in yesterday’s pic of our approach to Smiley Creek? You might also notice the two Harleys in this pic, belonging to the sweet couple from Utah who slept on the right with us in the middle and Julie at the left. After a wonderful breakfast of home made granola, the gals made the short drive to Stanley while I flew solo to meet them at the airport there. Being late morning, the air was still fairly cool and with all our camping gear in Julie’s car Tripp was light and frisky. So though there were enough thermals to make for a somewhat bouncy ride, I rode a big one up to 12,500′ for a better look at the mountains and Redfish Lake (Stanley’s in the distance beyond the end of the lake).

3994 Redfish Lake

3994 Redfish Lake

Of even more interest to me were the zillions of alpine lakes like this, many clearly nestled where glaciers slumbered until a moment ago in geological time.

4016 High Lake

4016 High Lake

I like the colors amid the gray crags, and the traces of tough trees trying to stretch their march up the mountains. Several lakes had magnificent waterfalls like this next one.

4036 Cascading Lake

4036 Cascading Lake

We drove together from Stanley out to Redfish Lake where we met Julie’s great friend Suzi, who later took a short scenic flight over the lake with me. Then as the ladies waited at big construction projects on the highway back to Smiley, I flew up the valley enjoying the scenery on both sides yet again on a different route in different light. Solo is fun, but I’m looking forward to sharing it all with Anne again tomorrow.

2011/08/16

First Leg

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,Random,SB Region,Smiley Adventure,Tripp — John @ 07:15

Today we left later than hoped, because Tripp needed some TLC. We’d had her nose strut rebuilt a couple of weeks ago, so of course today it was flat when we arrived at the airport to get an early afternoon start on our first leg of the trip up the coast. So by the time we’d had it fixed, we raced sunset and arrived just as the colors were fading and the lights started to twinkle. Oceano looked so wrinkly in the evening light, as shadows began to advance across the dunes.

3038 High Over Oceano

3038 High Over Oceano

We were flying higher and faster than usual to arrive before dark, and get a better look at Big Sur on the way. Morro Bay was lovely with a scatter of soft clouds mingling with the “sister” rocks toward SLO in the distance.

3053 Morro & Sisters

3053 Morro & Sisters

We got a good look at Hearst Castle, though the sun was too low to light up the brilliant aqua blue Grecian pool.

3084 Heast Castle Evening

3084 Heast Castle Evening

One of our fav stops when driving Big Sur is the Julia Pfeiffer Burns park, where you can walk under the highway for a great view of surf surging through sea caves and the long waterfall onto the deserted beach.

3138 Julia Pfeiffer Burns

3138 Julia Pfeiffer Burns

As we passed Nepenthe low clouds were gathering closer to shore and the light was fading, so we climbed direct to San Jose and got this shot of Monterey being overtaken by the fluffy blanket.

3153 Monterey Blanket

3153 Monterey Blanket

Nearby the coast from Pajaro Dunes to Santa Cruz was still clear just as the sun slid into the muck offshore.

3156 Santa Cruz Sunset

3156 Santa Cruz Sunset

We arrived in San Jose just at the right time to have good visibility, but late enough for the flavor of night flight that we so enjoy.

3159 San Jose Twilight

3159 San Jose Twilight

I hope the weather permits more coastal flying tomorrow as we continue North!

2011/08/14

Shell Memories

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,People,Random,SB Region — John @ 01:05

One of my warm childhood memories is the moment during long family drives from the Bay Area to SoCA, when we came through the pass from SLO to catch first glimpse of Shell Beach. The dull brown interior hills and hot valleys suddenly gained a brilliant blue and green top as the breezy Pacific came into view.

2954 Memory Beach

2954 Memory Beach

So when we flew past these hotels near that spot, those memories mingled with new ones from our anniversary stay in one of the hotels. The rock spire between lanes on the freeway (top of pic) looked so much bigger as a kid than looking down on it now, and the brilliant white bluffs tell of ancient marine life. Along with some wide sandy beaches the whole shoreline is riddled with sea caves like these, and the nearby residential area has several places where you can climb down bluffs to explore.

2947 Secret Shore

2947 Secret Shore

Added to my memories of Shell Beach now, are more recent ones in the adjoining towns of Pismo, Grover, Arroyo “Dinky” and of course our new fav Oceano. As you can see in this next pic, there’s a nice park at the lagoon next to the airport.

2959 Oceano Airport

2959 Oceano Airport

A block or two beyond the bottom of the pic is the beach, and just off to the right is the beginning of the vast dunes. It’s such a delight to fly around this beautiful area, land there and stroll to one of the cafes or Mama’s Italian restaurant, wander the dunes, wade the beach, and explore at whim until we find ourselves back at the airport. There we might chat with the owner of that yellow biplane parked next to the white hangar in the middle of the pic (click to see it on the full-size pic). Maybe meet other people who’ve flown in, talk to those waiting for a skydiving jump, or the ultralight flyers who sometimes fly there. Then we take off and often fly around the area again before heading past this lagoon along the beach to look at the crowds enjoying the all terrain vehicle area of the dunes, and the large nature preserve in the dunes beyond.

2962 Dune Lagoon

2962 Dune Lagoon

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