Nice sunny weather but windy..
Arrived at Rat Race headquarters after a long drive yesterday nearly the whole length of California in about 15 hrs. I was entertained some of the way by a hitchhiker and her dog - a husky-german shepard-akita mix that slept at her feet the whole time. She was a 'traveller', of no fixed abode, heading up to Mt Shasta for the summer to camp in the mountains. I did a bit of hitching in New Zealand when younger so feel like I still have a duty to pick people up to balance my karma. Plus make sure I get rides when landing out paragliding!
Weather looked good at launch but out on the course it started to get windy very quickly at the race start at 2:15. I signed up for the Rat Race this year, with longer courses. The practice day task was around 60km, and I ended up flying 34 km of that.
The course went across from launch to the Rabies ridge then a 30km into wind leg towards Grants Pass. There was convergence lift along the main ridges and I made about 23km of progress staying at about 6000ft.
My progress slowed when the wind kept getting stronger and stronger until the thermals would drift so much that at a certain point I decided I wasn't making any forward progress at all.
When I finally decided to turn back and found myself doing over 60km/h downwind. Landed vertically in the biggest field I could find at the Red Lily Vineyard in the valley in 25km/h valley wind. The owner of the vineyard came out for a quick chat before going off to organize a wedding in this beautiful location. There will be a dinner for pilots there on Tuesday.
A nice local saw my 'Pilot needs ride' sign on the main road and gave me a lift all the way back to headquarters. I guess that was the karma from giving the hitchhiker a ride yesterday... It's always great to chat to local people and explain what us crazy people are doing floating around in the sky!