John & Anne Wiley

2010/09/15

Sleep & Renewal

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,MeriTimes Adventure,People,Random,Relationships,Tripp — John @ 05:06

We’ve managed to shift our sleep schedule to an easier time-frame. A couple of nights ago we worked until sunrise on an update of the “C4” website. That’s our nickname for the thoughtful group that’s experiencing explosive growth in their grassroots organizing to elect four new candidates to the Santa Barbara City College governing body: the Board of Trustees. The nickname actually comes from the group’s full name Citizens For SBCC (aka Citizens4SBCC.org – the website I mentioned). It’s a wonderful group of people who care deeply about education, fiscal responsibility, transparency and collaboration (see the website for info).

Anyway, our sleep has been totally zonko. Last night we caught up a bit and tonight we’re already sagging at 10pm so maybe tomorrow morning we’ll be back on track. Today we drove out to pamper Tripp a bit and went for a short flight to Santa Paula to stretch her wings and fill her with fuel. Because we were climbing over the hills enroute, we were higher than usual for a harbor tour.

1049 Translucent Harbor

1049 Translucent Harbor

The water, like the air today, was especially magical. The light haze gave it all a soft veiled effect. The extra altitude also provided a slightly different perspective on Our Town nestled between mountains and seas.

1051 Harbor to Mountains

1051 Harbor to Mountains

Such a beautiful place to fly! Needless to say, it rekindled our interest in starting off on our MerriTimes Adventure! So with one more tweak on Tripp (hopefully tomorrow), we’ll be ready to start packing and decide whether to take off tomorrow afternoon or wait until Thursday or later. We haven’t looked at weather yet, but the recent pattern has been good for departure in the afternoon or early evening.

We’ve struggled a bit with each others’ feelings about all this, but it’s so delightful when we slow down to check in with ourselves and our beloved with the tools we’ve learned and developed in the past decade or two. In many ways, we enjoy such disagreements. I can think of two reasons right away: first, the disagreements have energy and help nudge us toward dialog that leads to conscious closeness. Second, it’s such delicious fun to make up! 🙂

So shall we start a new Adventure? Would it be best to just get started even if only an hour or two before stopping to tent somewhere? Better to sleep one last night in our cozy home and get an early start once any coastal fog clears? Might we want to create a more detailed plan, or just go with our current general notion and follow the “whethers?” That is, Whether we feel like flying, resting, or exploring on the ground at any point. Whether we’d like to detour off our track and look at something from the air or ground (Grand Canyon, Chaco Canyon, Monument Valley, etc.). Whether the weather forecast looks best for picking up the pace or pausing in some interesting place, like we did in Greenville, SC on our Big Adventure several lifetimes ago.

Or, maybe we’ll just keep working on our sleep schedule and Fall weather will rewrite our vision of reaching the Maritimes on this trip.

2010/09/05

Banff & Beyond

Filed under: Flying,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,NxNW Adventure,People,Random,Tripp — John @ 21:10

In a quiet moment just now, I looked again at pix from our NxNW Adventure approaching Banff. It’s so beautiful I had to post a few more. Here are two that give some context for the Banff Lodge pix I posted during the trip.

0667 Banff Approach

0667 Banff Approach

The small city is mostly out of frame to the left, and the lodge is just visible to the right of the bend of the river beneath the jagged peak.

0676 Over Banff

0676 Over Banff

Now we’re over the edge of the city with the lodge just right and beyond the white water rapids. To my eye that peak looks like it was once the bottom of a lake or sea, lifted up to that freakish angle by whatever forces created these mountains.

Passing along the valley to the South we saw innumerable striking vistas, and quite a few more glacial waters.

0710 More Turquoise

0710 More Turquoise

In ordinary terrain, the turquoise water and stark mountain would attract visitors from miles around. In this glut of magnificence it blends into the background. Even what we saw next couldn’t put much of a dent in our joy that such places are preserved for future generations.

It was a bit shocking though, to see what a few years’ supply of fossil fuel extraction leaves behind.

0718 Open Sore

0718 Open Sore

Since it’s miles from Banff and away from main roads at about 50.196572, -114.812794, maybe most Canadians don’t realize this is going on. Only the ragged row of mountains beyond is silently watching.

2010/09/03

Fog Fun

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,People,Random,SB Region,Tripp — John @ 03:05

We took Tripp up for a fun flight this evening, intending to fly an hour or two with brief stop at Santa Paula for fuel and return at sunset. As we walked across the field to trusty Tripp (who seemed to me a bit excited to use her wings), my eye was seeing a different flight. Even though Tripp has all the latest gear to fly on instruments, my license doesn’t have the required notation to use it. The fog I could see blowing over UCSB made it clear that we had an hour at best before my VFR (Visual Flight Rules = no fog) license would make landing back at SBA unlikely. So we changed plans.

Taking off on Runway 33 we got a beautiful view of downtown with fog menacing the entire shoreline to Ventura in the West and beyond where the coast turns South toward L.A.

1013 Foggy Coast

1013 Foggy Coast

So we just flew to the harbor and back, enjoying the unusual weather while keeping one eye on the airport. Because of the westerly wind blowing along the shoreline, we could see the fog moving among the trees on the hills of the “Mesa” and Hope Ranch areas. So fun to watch!

1031 Fluffy Fingers

1031 Fluffy Fingers

Years ago, before getting my pilot license, we used to drive the Big Sur coast occasionally so I could gasp. Every time we drove there, several times I would take an audible deep breath. It was involuntary, and so predictable that we took to counting them. Well it happens much more often now that we fly, and not just in the Big Sur area. Our twenty minute flight today was a two gasp jaunt that consumed far less time and fuel than those scenic drives.

Flying the Big Sur coast is nice, but in some ways driving it is still better. Driving from here is an all-day adventure each way, with only brief stretches of highway along the scenic coast before the views get gasp-ish at San Simeon. Flying it again is in our near-term to-do list, as is repeating our way of touring it in more detail. We land at Monterey, ride the inexpensive metro bus to the southern end of the line, get off and enjoy the environs for a while, then catch a later bus back to our plane for the flight home. This gives us four views of that amazing place, all in an easy day from home. Meanwhile, I can get my gasps from a few minutes of flying around SB in Tripp.

1037 Hope Hills

1037 Hope Hills

2010/08/31

Long Day

Filed under: Aviation,Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,NxNW Adventure,People,Random,Tripp — John @ 04:49

Back on August fourth, after our short night in Terrace we flew past Prince Rupert to Ketchikan then back past Terrace to Smithers. We slept well in the hotel that night! Here then are two more views from our extensive exploration of Ketchikan. Aside from our few minutes at the airport after satisfying the CBP agent, those explorations consisted of arriving and departing this busy airspace in Tripp. After taking off and turning back toward Prince Rupert I snapped these overlapping shots across the bay.

0517 Ketchikan

0517 Ketchikan

0518 Ketchikan

0518 Ketchikan

As you may recall, the weather here differed considerably from that in nearby Prince Rupert where we’d planned to stop. Below is the one glimpse we got of that runway between the low clouds, as we pleaded by radio with various Canadian agencies to authorize changing our cross-border re-entry landing from Rupert to Terrace – that was eventually changed to Smithers.

0527 Prince Rupert WX

0527 Prince Rupert WX

I believe we actually could have safely landed in Rupert with “clear of clouds” (Special VFR) permission but it would have been a highly unconventional approach, and taking off again after clearing customs all but impossible. I’m glad we didn’t have to test my belief.

So we flew the now-familiar river route to Terrace and then took the back country shortcut to Smithers climbing high among these peaks to maximize our radio contact and options in event of an unscheduled landing. We always had passable sites within glide, but were again appreciative of Tripp’s ease in lifting us to the limits of our comfort level for flying without oxygen.

0528 Terrace To Smithers

0528 Terrace To Smithers

Tripp was eager to climb higher, so we’re probably going to buy some sort of supplemental short-term oxygen setup for future adventures. Flash the 172M we took on our first Big Adventure could not have taken only we two and two hours’ fuel this high, without considerable struggle. Tripp our 172Q happily did so even with more fuel and a lot of luggage and supplies added to her load. This is why people invest in that extra 20hp!

Still, we were glad to finally see familiar Hudson Bay Mountain pass beneath our wings. As we glided by glacier-fed Lake Kathryn on our descent into Smithers airport, the glassy waters seemed to promise a quiet and reflective sleep.

0531 Kathryn Welcome

0531 Kathryn Welcome

2010/08/30

Early Winter

Filed under: Flying,Happiness,Has Photos,Inner World,Nature,NxNW Adventure,People,Random,Relationships,Tripp — John @ 21:53

I once scribbled a rough poem with the same title as this post, sitting on the tree stump that was then the front porch of the small cabin I built between two lakes a few miles outside the small town of Smithers, B.C. Though the view was different from there, the Presence of the mountain towered over my loneliness. Looking again today at this photo, a wide spectrum of powerful feelings is somehow summed up in a long, deep sigh.

0262 Return To Mountain

0262 Return To Mountain

More than with the first photo I posted from that flight a few weeks ago, this one connects because we’re sitting at home with time to reflect. Being a California native that was my first real Winter, and marking the end of my first marriage it was also a very cold season of my life. How miraculous to have transcended this icy passage shouldered up to Anne’s warmth, with Tripp’s stout wings lifting us effortlessly behind the throaty song of her engine. An archetypal journey with mythical steed.

0266 Cascade of Memories

0266 Cascade of Memories

I have paused in the refreshing mists of many waterfalls since this one draining the glacier on that peak. Each has cleansed my wounds with rainbows of acceptance and awareness. Nourished my arduous climb back into the light of Loving and Understanding.

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