I got everything in the truck and was on my way north to Chewelah.

Met Chris at the Parker lz where I parked my truck with my wind sock up and he drove us to the trailhead for the hike up to Quartzite mountain.

There is 5 feet of level right at the parking area then it is up the entire trail to the launch, 700 ft vertical over .84 miles.

But it is super worth the hike for a launch site like this.

That is the top of the ~500 foot tall rock faces that overlooks Chewelah in the valley below.

Chris checking the view while I ran around and tied up streamers around the hillside for wind indicators..

I had one failed attempt so moved my wing and then got the launch on the second try.

I had to run a bit farther down the launch than I had expected but my wing was loading so I was able to hop off and over the branches and logs while it took my weight.

From launch I hung a right and flew straight over the edge of the cliff.

I have been wanting to see these rocks up close for 25 years but never thought I would have THIS viewpoint. Art and I have talked about climbing them for years...

I didn't really think about how low angle they really are until really seeing the angle like this.

Gt nice bumps of lift off the south ridge then flew out to the southwest to the lz.

Over the big farm I found some really rowdy air that felt like multiple small thermals were working to a bigger one higher so I decided not to play in it and went for the small hills to see if they had much bump to them.

My glide felt fine then it didn't. I was aiming for the light colored field other side the line of trees.

As I got closer my glide angle got a lot steeper and I nearly kicked the trees as I flew the gap of the road.

Then as soon as I passed the trees the field was buoyant and popped me back up a bit which allowed me to glide about a 1/3 of the way down the field.

It was a killer first flight and Chris decided not to fly it and hiked back down to his truck. I walked the 1/4 mile back to my truck then headed over to Inkler's as Kim was heading over.

I was parked for a few minutes when Kim pulled up and as we talked Chris pulled into the lz. We all rode up in Kim's truck and I went down the launch hill to replace a bunch of the flagging.

The winds were kinda light and largely out of the west. Chris got setup but was having trouble getting launched so I got ready and launched for a sled ride.

I flew along the ridge, really close to the hill trying to find any lift and nearly got tossed into a couple trees. I hit the north end and had just enough height to make it back towards the quarry. Along the base of the hill I caught a nice bit of lift off the tree line that gave me enough glide to make it to the normal lz.

As I landed Chris took off but he stayed right around launch and then came down to land.

I packed up then gave Chris a ride back up top before heading for home. Once home I spent some time going over my videos of the flights, writing my log, and in general relaxing. I looked out the slider towards the creek and saw some bugs all flying off in the same direction. They were glinting in the sun. I walked down and found it was flying ants all taking off. They had massed atop the pine cone and were all flying off in streams.

My body is still super worked from the shoveling then the hiking so I didn't do a ton with the shed. I got some raking done and removed the patch on the wall. I will be rebuilding the whole wall at this point. I am going to remove the studs and the outer boards then install new full length studs then cover it with the woods from the old studio roof reno.

It was later but I got a fire going in the pit so I could grill steaks for dinner.

Soaking felt quite nice as my back seriously needed the work.

Of course the boys have a 4 day weekend 2 days after starting school. Today darts is on finally, I have to work on the shed more, get harvests done, the cucumbers are in desperate need of trimming and tying, I need to do a write up on my Quartzite flight, get the HD order in, and figure out dinner this evening.

ᛏᛋᛇᛉᚱᛚ

^Affiliate/Referral Link^

For more information about our farm:
Fleming Family Farm
FLEMING FAMILY FARM, LLC
Sustainable & Organic Methods | Heirloom Produce

All images are original works of Fleming Family Farm unless otherwise notated and credited.

If you find this post useful or entertaining, your support is greatly appreciated by upvoting, following, and sharing!

You can Also Find Me On:

Donations or Tips

Zap Me ⚡️ ᛒᛏᚲ

!

---