Life after Monument Valley

Mike Marker departed his home field last Tuesday on one of the only days in his area predicted to be decent flying weather. He flew the more than 700 miles in one day, arriving in the afternoon. I am quite impressed, he is one tough cookie. Roger Hankins arrived, towing his Kolb KXP the next afternoon, making up this years version of a Rock House fly-in.

The weather has been marginal to say the least, almost every where, so I guess we didn't get special treatment. Mike was able to fly Wed morning and get enough light for a few pictures.

 

All of these pictures were taken by Mike on his travels. The crater is Jordan Crater. It is quite striking and the Lava flows for 25 miles. As for the feral horses, I have been trying for years to get a picture of these two horses, but never had camera enough to get the job done.   My thanks to Mike for sharing                                                                                     

The next morning wasn't all that great, although Roger and I attempted to do some flying. The wind was blowing so hard that I was looking out my side window to see where I was going, so we spent some time installing and experimenting with VG's on Rogers plane. We finally found a happy spot for them on his wing and made them a permanent fixture. ( For those that are not familiar with the purpose of VG'S I will explain, in short they help the air flowing over the wings of a plane to remain attached to the wing surface longer at an increased angle of attack, thus slowing the stall speed of the plane.)

After testing was complete the winds kicked up, so we went on a road trip to view the Pillars of Rome. Karen wasn't feeling well, and stayed in the car while the rest of us explored on foot. It wasn't flying, but it was still entertaining and fun.

The next day Roger and I did a short trip around the area, but the weather was bad enough that I was satisfied to look at some horses and check the river for water levels. The wind was blowing sideways so we went home. Mike arrived shortly after our touch down, and after breakfast we made another Road Trip. This time to Danner and Cow Lakes with a Ice Cream stop in Jordan Valley.We went through Arock to look at some of the wildlife there.

Mike had a mission to take some pictures of Three Forks and the Owyhee as well as the Leslie Gulch area, so he departed early on Friday, while Roger and I left at a more leisurely pace to the Owyhee area. It was bumpy, windy and cold, but we managed to get to the Chalk Basin area to pinpoint a trail down over the escarpment to an old homestead that was built in 1877, then on to Leslie Gulch. On the way we found quite a bunch of Big Horned Sheep on a Mesa above the river. When we got to Leslie Gulch I ran into a snow storm that cooled my ardor for further flying, so we headed home as fast as the winds would allow.

After breakfast we elected to take another road trip, this time to the trail that Roger and I had found. The GPS was a great help as the two track was pretty faint that lead to the trail. It was a nice walk down in spite of the cold wind. I wish that I could know more of the people that homesteaded that spot. You would have to see it and experience the remoteness of their chosen spot to understand. Hard to say whether they just gave up and moved on or what. Tough times and tough people. The flowers are blooming and some of them are quite spectacular. Quite a few are new to me.

Yesterday we flew to the Alvord, while Mike tried Leslie Gulch again before going there. The weather was actually quite good in the morning with calm winds for a change. A fella from the Nampa area was there to fly his new Sky Raider and I had told him that I would check on him while he was there.

We managed a few pictures of the area that were acceptable, but far from ideal as the sky was filled with ice crystals that caused the sky to be mostly white rather than blue. We visited a bit with Bryant Lawrence, the owner of the plane, and then left to check on the Sheep in that area. I left Mike and Roger to look while I went home to start the Pork shoulder in the smoker that was to be our dinner that evening.

Mike left this morning for home in a light drizzle that lasted long enough to mess up his windscreen. The last I checked he was in Wells, Nevada. Roger stayed long enough for Sourdough Waffles and then he too departed for home, leaving us with an empty feeling and just plain glad that I didn't have to drive or fly anywhere to get home.