hiking

1/5/06

We hiked up to launch again. Nice flying over to the Penon and then got up and over crazy thermal. We all ended up dispersed as usual. Cloudbase was low over the Mesa, like 3000m and the Mesa is about 300m below. But I sent it over the back anyway for something different and found a small one working, drifted it back to Capulin and scratched until i landed on the ground in the middle of the Mesa. I hiked out for an hour and a half until i got picked up by a local. Funny, the conditions since weve been here have been totally different than the usual Valle. The pattern seems to be no cloud flying, thermals over the flats and little more wind. Maybe thats why ive been flying like shit but it takes me awhile to figure this out. Usually here, its rocking and rolling over all of the peaks and points where you get up pretty regularly. Low saves are common but the sky gets shaded over around 1pm. Otherwise, I got some flying with my hiking today. The most Ive hiked ever in Valle. Last day tommorrow, not looking forward to the weather conditions back home we've been hearing about...saludos. SM