Didn't get out to Bridal until later but heard it was OK at Woodside but starting to get windy. A pilot had just tossed their reserve at Woody, landing in a cutblock next to the road and no real rescue necessary...not sure why he/she tossed. A few pilots tried to cross to Bridal but got flushed due to the south winds coming over the top at Bridal...this is the third or fourth time I've heard of a Woodside-Bridal crossing being unsuccessful due to south winds flushing pilots arriving low at Ludwig off the mountain (it happened to me once this year and to several others too). Something to put in the ol' toolbox of Fraser Valley XC tips.
Over at Bridal it was kinda shady at first but the clouds eventually broke and it became very sweet. Windy at Ludwig but otherwise uneventful...Alex reported seeing a speedflyer really high at Killarney and a helicopter in the area beforehand so we figure he must have launched from Cheam when the clouds broke.
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| At Upper Bridal, looking at the forest fire on Harrison Lake (click to enlarge). |
Somebody pointed out what looked like a forest fire on an island on Harrison Lake...I watched it grow all afternoon and didn't see any helicopters fighting it...maybe they won't bother since it's on an uninhabited island and can't really spread too far?
Toplanded Upper Bridal and had a nice siesta watching the gliders come up from Lower Bridal. At one point I was searching for the memorial propellor from the plane crash a few years ago...I eventually found the top 3" of it sticking out of the snow...the rest is still buried. Lots of snow still behind launch!
Nothing epic XC-wise or altitude-wise (1700+m)...just a nice "regular" Bridal flight during a typical summer day.
In the picture, I was camping across the lake to the right of the fire. We watched a plane first scope out the area. Then we also saw two planes come by 4 or 5 times flying in circles then descending behind the island (they weren't picking up water but they were dropping fire bombs I assume) We saw lots of thick smoke before the planes came, but afterwards it continued to smolder the rest of the evening. They did a good job!
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