Goat Peak (Mazama, WA)

Wed: today's forecast was pretty pessimistic and I didn't want to spend another day parawaiting on Chelan Butte. So Stacy and I headed for Goat Peak near Mazama (about 1.5 hours away from Chelan). Andy and Jim hoped for something here on the Butte, so they didn't join us.

On the way there we passed Winthrop, a nice little town looking like one would imagine an old western town (except the cars though).

Winthrop

We had to serach for a while for the road up to launch, as we had been given incorrect information in Winthrop's info center, but when we finally reached TO, the wind was coming in straight - perfect for a forward launch. Driving up, we saw a black bear, but he was gone by the time I had the camera ready.

Unfortunately there were just a few weak thermals, which wouldn't get me up, so it was more of an extended sled ride.

As the Continental Divide was just a few miles away, we then headed up to Washington Pass.

Washington Pass Overlook

Driving back down we saw that Goat Peak was by now out of the shadow and the sun was fully heating up its SW flank. So we drove up again and this time it was Stacy's turn: the wind was much stronger and also a little more turbulent. It was not a very clean TO for Stacy, but very well handled...
He was able to climb quickly above Goat Peak where it was a bit turbulent, but further away from the mountain it was pretty smooth. Flying down he even saw an other (east facing) launch (called 'Flagg?)

Stacy 'in trouble'

In a barn at the LZ we found this approx 60 years old car. On the way back we stopped again in Winthrop, where we had an excellent dinner.

This 'side trip' had turned out very well. In Chelan they could fly, but nothing really worthwile.