Big Sur Washout?

[Tony de Groot]

Man, I love flying Big Sur but it's looking quite wet. Any diehards still going.........that are tent camping???

[Marge]

Hey tony, I know bob and Shannon drove up yesterday. I'm pretty sure the zenders were on their way too.

[Tony de Groot]

Thanks Marge. I never made a move for my glider. It just looked too wet. James Z. drove back as well. Gonna have to wait for the next club trip....

[JimmyZ]

Well.... The predictions happened..... just earlier than predicted.

Adena Duke and I drove up there an got there around 8:30 to a light rain. Wayne and Lissa had set up a little tarp shelter and were enjoying a beer when we arrived. Very shortly, the rain stopped and we set up camp. It was wet, but soon the starts started to peep out of the clouds and we all had a good night camping at the group sites (all 7 of us....).

The next morning, still no rain, and Duke and I went for a hike out to the end of the point at Sand Dollar Beach checking out the BIG waves. Pretty impressive... Around 10:30, it started to drizzle, and never really stopped from then on. We decided to take Lissa on a tour of the Big Sur coastline. We drove till a couple of miles from Big Sur city, checked out Julia Pfiefer State Park, and drove back. When we returned, Bob and Shannon were enjoying our 200sf of canopy for the kitchen and hang out area.

We decided to go up to check out the "Knob" (I think that is what it is called) above camp. Had to kick it into 4 wheel drive as the road was super slippery and was eroding. Made it to launch, checked out the view, and slowly made our way back down.

At camp... it was obvious that it wasn't going to stop raining, so we decided to pack it up and head home around 3:30.

We had a GREAT time even though we didn't fly. If the timing was right, and that 12 hour window of no rain arrived during the daylight hours as predicted, we would have had some Knob flights in and enjoyed the INTENSE ocean and scenery.

Better luck next time!!! We couldn't believe that there weren't more die-hards up there camping. Kudos to Wayne, Lissa, Bob, Shannon, [Adena, and Duke for braving the elements.

Some pictures....
http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?fb ... aid=287342

[Marge]

Really impressed you guys braved the storm. Duke is the man for sure! Love the pics especially the ones Duke took. Sorry the rest of us bailed. Hopefully we'll get good weather next time. We're certainly due!

"The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it." ~Patrick Young

[Skippy]

Too bad there weren't more poeople going to make it more of a party... Glad you had a good time though.

This reminds me of one of the most epic Big Sur weekends a few years back when we had this big storm litterally creating rivers through the campground, Little John using his glider as a tent pole for a giant tarp attached to trucks and tables... The party went on like crazy below the canopy, with fire, drums and all, SBSA-style... And we got to fly the following day, which made the trip one of the most memorable ones ever... Here is the link to the story: http://sbsa.info/archives/bigsur110400.htm