July 6th, 2006

Route 3 was called. We set up slowly waiting for the day to heat up. Then it rained and many people quit setting up and a few tore down. Finally Shannon Raby launched from upper and soared around. Still most weren't willing to chase him. The cycles came and went all day with rain dropping in the next valley out front. Wayne launched first off Lower and bubbled around a bit. A couple others were in the air with him when he got real low over the LZ. Then he found a bubble. The bubble became a gurgle and then became a thermal and he rode it all the way up to ~12k and over the back. My hero!

Bruce launched and so did Eric. Bruce fought hard and made it up and over while Eric got spooked by a possible gust front and along with having radio trouble headed out to land. Ben launched and I tried hard to follow him after Dave M. Ben cored a couple and went up and over while I struggled for half an hour getting above launch twice over the knob to the right of launch before finally giving up the ghost. Came in to land hot and then saw the ditch that my dad and I had hit a few years ago. Afraid of zooming and not being used to the ground speeds at altitude I flared just a bit late, the wheel-less control bar hit the dirt and I whacked taking out the left downtube. Flew for 35 minutes.

Bruce and Wayne made it over to the end of the Howe Valley and Ben made it 46 miles. Kurt Bainum made it another mile or so past him but with the handicap system Ben is in first place!