La Salina

From: Brendan
Activity_Date: 12/31/00
Remote Name: 4.33.113.55

Comments

Kristi and I went to Mexico for New Years weekend. Saturday we arrived at La Salina and spent some time getting acquainted with the site (read "looking for launch"). After doing some 4x4ing and some hiking, we took a long break and then figured out where it was (actually much easier to reach than we thought); but we were too late to fly. In retrospect we may have spent too much time sipping Coronas at the La Salina Bar when we should have been hiking to launch.

Sunday we got there around 11:00, launched at 12:00 but couldn't stay up. From the LZ we hiked back up to launch and were back in the air by 1:00. This time had nice flights, I about 40 minutes, Kristi a little over an hour.

The site required about a 20 minute hike up a well groomed trail to a carpeted launch. (Yes, I did say carpeted. Bush-to-bush carpeting, it was quite nice). The ridge was a few miles long with pockets of thermals along the way. Except for some paramotors flying at the beach, and a buddy of Kristi's from Colorado, we were the only ones there. We landed with huge smiles and definite commitments to return. Baja seasons resort is a few hundred yards from the LZ and offers both campsites and hotel rooms with pool, jaccuzzi, and lounge ammenities for either type of guest.

After lobster at Pueto Nuevo we headed to Torrey Pines. Tried to fly Torrey both Monday and Tuesday, but it was North to nada both days so no-one was in the air.

Upon arriving back in Ventura at 4:30 we made a dash for Solimar to end the day with a sledder at sunset if not a few minutes of ridge soaring. Unfortunately we experienced strong swirling gusts at launch and after each of us blew one attempt (badly) we decided that caution was the better part of valor and we drove back down.

The sunset was nice, nonetheless.