After a much-need rest day (too windy yesterday) it was back on launch for what we thought would be a short-ish (relatively speaking) task. We were wrong...about 120km OR to essentially Sim's corner and back via Gonam Peak.
The winds were very north which meant it was crosswind to Sim's, and every thermal resulted in a more downwind climb. It was very difficult to stay upwind and by the time I reached close to Sim's I was quite far south of highway 172. Too much north wind and I landed about 46km out.
The retrieve didn't come by for about 2 hours, and then it was an adventure-fest down small primitive roads that turned into trails (and we weren't actually looking for anybody at this point, but trying to get back to Chelan), culminating in a "Thelma and Louise" moment when the trail dead-ended at a 700' cliff on Jameson Lake and we had to screech to a halt. Obviously we were lost!
After some serious 4 wheel driving, going through gates and past "no trespassing" signs, down to Jameson Lake and back up the other side, we finally found a paved road and eventually found our way back to Mansfield. Back at HQ 5 hours later...
I think about 20-25 pilots made goal; most dirted around the first TP as the winds were stronger than predicted. And I think the scoring is taking a bit longer than expected...with the funky task (1 exit cylinder, followed by a much larger entry cylinder around the same point!) I think the scoring software is having issues :)
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