09 - Paragliding, Utah

SEEKING THE WHOO HOO ELEMENT!




Flyers at North Side, Point of the Mountain


Our travels into Northern Utah led us to the Provo area (just south of Salt Lake City). We established base camp at the Utah Lake State Park and were 20 miles from a world renowned paragliding/hang gliding hill called Point of the Mountain. We decided to check out the local talent the night we arrived. There amongst an assortment of students & flyers, we met Patrick Johnson. Pat's a local who knows the area & it's conditions extremely well, has over 11 years experience, an obvious love of flight, and the willingness to spend over an hour talking to us about the sport, answering all our questions.  It didn't take much convincing for us to wake up at 5am the next morning and start our training.  Dave had a goal to soar off a cliff while Avril just wanted to have fun and maybe get a little flying in...

Dave the kiting master!

So like any kind of training, our schedule for the next 10 days or so would include: wake up at 5am, check weather, confirm winds are favorable and in the right direction, if so, get up and leave around 6am for training. Spend 3 hrs training and sometimes have groundschool in Pat's basement after lesson (you need to complete at least 10 hrs of groundschool). Then spend the afternoon on your own, seeing the sights or napping! Around 5pm head back to see if the winds & crowds are in your favor for more training or simply people watch...In a perfect world with perfect wind conditions 5-7 days is all you need. But in our case it took a little longer due to weather. I have to say the 5am wake up time were getting to me, some days I would hope for non flying conditions just to get more time to sleep!!! 

In paragliding there is a P1 rating which tells an instructor you have completed so many hours and are proficient in handling the wing. All P1 students must be accompanied by an instructor when they want to go out flying. A P2 rating is where the training wheels are off and you can fly without the aid of an instructor. Other ratings like P3 & P4 are just more advanced/competition flying. Initially we were thinking P2 but due to the weather and time needed, we decided a P1 rating would meet our objectives.

Before leaving Texas I had taken some time in getting paramotoring lessons thinking that perhaps Dave & I would get his & her paramotors that would satisfy our aviation fix while traveling around the countryside. Again mother nature wasn't co-operative in March and the winds were too strong for training so I was only able to get 4 hrs of kiting lessons (without the motor) before we left. Dave flew a paramotor 10-15 years ago and so was already ahead of the learning curve. Utah, unlike where we live in Texas, has mountains, so paragliding is easily available. In Friendswood, we sit at 26' above sea level and so unless you were towed, it's a little harder to find good places to soar. But we have our scuba certification and you don't have to live beside the ocean to use it was our rationale... It's always fun to try new things and you just never know....




Does this harness make my butt look big???


We spent a couple of days kiting, just getting a feel for the wing and being consistent in getting clean stable launches into the air. Point of the Mountain has 2 sides, South Side & North Side. South Side is a great area to do toboggan runs where you run down the hill, inflate your wing and get 10-20' off the ground as you glide down the slope of the hill.  You are able to hear your instructor through his hand held radio that is attached to your harness.

My first toboggan run started off with squeals of delight, my landing....well, a little road rash as I landed like a duck! Well at least I now know what NOT to do!!!

DUDE, THAT WAS EPIC!
By my 6th lesson, I was flying higher, longer and with more control. At landing I could feel Pat's smile as he was pleased with his fledgling's progress AND the word epic was used in his critique....so it's official, dude, I'm, like, on my way to earning my wings, man! .... and yes, we met a few of those stereotypical types at the hill; harmless but very entertaining, indeed :)

TANDEMS ANYONE?

During our training we were given tandem rides. I think I got the better end of the deal by going early in our training which resulted in a 2 hr ride. Dave's turn came near the end of our training when the winds started doing their funky thing and not blowing as hard as we would have liked. As a result, his ride was only 15 min, not much lift, mostly sink...kind of like being flushed down a toilet! We had contemplated sticking around for a few more days hoping things would improve but we were also itching to get back to hiking and seeing more areas.

Dave & Pat our instructor!

KENNECOTT COPPER MINE




See those tonka trucks, they are actually 2 stories tall!

 During one of our weathered out days we drove to the world's largest open pit copper mine, spanning almost 3 miles wide and 3/4 of a mile deep.  Monster trucks drive like ants up and down the roads with ore that's been blasted out of the mine (2 blasts a day). Interesting fact, the drivers of these trucks sit 18' above ground and each tire on the truck cost between $18,000-$26,000 and only lasts 9 months! One nice by product of the copper mining is gold & silver. One person we met told us the mine pays for itself through the profits from the gold & silver and the 140,000 tons of ore a day is just gravy...(at the visitors center we didn't find any info. to confirm this).  The mine, discovered in 1903 has about 30 years of life remaining. What do you do with a big hole in the mountainside after you finish mining? One employee told us there are plans to fill it with water and make it into a huge lake! Pretty neat from the top elevation of 8000 all the way down to 4400 ft!


TIMPANOGOS CAVE

Doesn't look so bad on paper.... worth the hike!

We did manage a hike up to Timpanogos Cave one afternoon. To get to the entrance you have to walk a mile & half uphill, climbing 1100 ft in the process. This reminded me of the multiple hikes uphill carrying the wing while in the harness when training. The cave tour ended up being a 3 in 1 cave tour with tunnels connecting all 3 together. The cave keeps a cool 45 degree F (8 deg C) temp all year round and was discovered back in the early 1900's. A fun fact was that one of the caves we went through was discovered by two 14 yr old boys who kept it a secret for over 6 yrs before telling people about it.  I guess this was the start of the "man cave" era!

ONWARD & NORTHWARD

One great advantage to our trekking around is that it is very unscheduled. We are literally winging it when it comes to planning our future stops. For now, we figure we'll venture North of Utah into Idaho & into Wyoming to tour around. We have talked about possibly heading into Canada to visit family so stayed tuned....