Chirico Trail to Poo-Poo Point

We have had to be up early more often than not this week, so it was nice to sleep late today.  After a leisurely morning we met Pat and Clark for a delightful lunch in Issaquah.  Food was good, the company was better.
After lunch we decided it would be good to hike the Chirico trail to see how my new orthotics are doing.  It's 2 miles and 1,700 feet up, the grade is fairly relentless.
This is Mr. Rainier from the south launching point for the paragliders.  I have not taken one good picture of the mountain this summer due to persistent haze from fires in Asia and humidity.  It's SO annoying.

 

This is the north launch, aka Poo-Poo Pont.  It was windy at the top. From eavesdropping on the guys flying we learned that there is a pattern to the wind; they wait for it to be favorable and then turn around and run off the launching area, into the wind.

 

There were many tandem jumps.  The instructor was giving the woman instructions on when to run straight, when to run to the side, and what to do once in the air.

 

There they go, they're leaning forward and leaving the ground.  Notice the orange piece of tape is horizontal to the ground.

 

This guy was just magic.  He's flying a smaller wing than the tandems.  He basically got it filled out, turned around and stepped off the ground.  Really pretty to watch.

 

This woman was not paying enough attention to the instructor.  She had a video camera on a stick and was paying attention to the camera, and not what he was telling her to do.  Eventually they launched, but it wasn't pretty.

 

This was really not pretty, a strong gust went through and just picked them up.  The instructor was able to get his weight shifted back onto the seat in the harness, but she's pretty much along for the ride.

 

This is the guy I'm going up with, if we ever do a tandem jump.  His name is Todd Henningsen (253.226.3357).  He's really good, and eavesdropping revealed that he is well respected in the paragliding community.  This is his wing, beautifully shaped in the wind.

 

 And this is him, on the ground, getting his parasail up in air while he watches it.  None of the other tandem jumps did that, as soon as the wing left the ground, they were running.  The two of them calmly turned into the wind, and stepped in to the air.

 

We got back to the truck in the parking lot about 4:45, and the shuttle was on its way back up to the launch zone with more people and more kit.  Some people hike up and fly down.

 

Today drove home the point that I am not in good enough shape to do this hike.  The descent was very painful, putting a lot of strain on my knees and hips.  I think we should ease in to this one a little.