We got packed up and headed out from our friend's house and headed the 20 minute drive to Tiger mountain. Up there is the launch.

And this is the landing zone. It is a very small lz in the bottom of a narrow valley.

The hike up is 2 miles and over 1600 foot elevation gain. It runs through some really cool forest up the side and the trail is SUPER well worn. I mobbed up the trail at my normal pace of <30min miles.

I hat e my phone camera. That is supposed to be a pic of Rainier from the south launch but camera go Nope.

Soon I was at the top and completely soaked in sweat. It was warm and there were oodles of people all over the mountain.

At launch there was a bunch of tandems that were getting ready to launch. I tossed my stuff down and wandered a bit to get an idea of the layout.

About 4 of the tandems launched then a guy in his pod went after squeezing in. I watched his lead then followed and snuck in between and got a perfect launch window.

I got popped up nicely off launch and floated around above launch a bit getting a feel for the air.

Then at about 6 minutes into the flight I was in straight and level flight when all of a sudden my wing fully collapsed on itself. I looked up as I heard the flapping to see the thing in a horseshoe over my head. I had time to say "oh shit" and my arms raised some and the wing popped right back open. I caught the pitch over and off I flew with WAY less fear than after the first collapse.

I felt better flying and was able to relax mostly into the flight. I still was sitting forward too much but was able to make a number of turns across the face of the mountain.

I got to the point where I was feeling like I was ready to go try landing and I had been eyeing the tandems and how they were gliding in. I knew I would want more distance for my final glide since the tandem pilots know the site and can spin down to land. I flew south of the lz a ways.

A few of the tandems landed below and I was sitting in the venturi of the valley on top of VERY buoyant air that didn't want to let me down.

This tandem spun down pretty close to me to land.

I was making sure to stay out of other pilot's way so had chosen my glide for that and to make the lz.

I came in slow and smooth and got another really easy landing.

Every flight so far with this wing my lnadings have been great. @stryeyz and the boys got to watch me fly some and then land.

So after I was SUPER thirsty and hungry so we found a brewpub nearer our hotel. Good food and great beer and I was feeling WAY better.

As we sat and ate and drank I heard the sound of the dragsters at the speedway we passed on the way in... It took a while for it to hit me but when it did... HOLY SHIT!!!!

We finished up and then headed over to the track.

The last time I was at this track was about 1990 when I was 12 years old and we had brought the nostalgia dragster up from California to the Auburn Racetrack. Fuck me was it crazy to be back at the track after all these years!!! We parked along the fence and got out and walked to the fence to see a JET CAR make a run!

We just stopped for a minute but wow was that cool to see that again. I have pictures at the house of me at the track back then.

So we got to our hotel and had a little time to hang out in the room before having to drive to the concert. The White River Amphitheater is really shit for roads around it and it makes for horrible traffic in and out.

Finally parked we headed in to the concert.

We were the top of the seats but on the end of the row and I had no one behind me.

HOLY SHIT INCREDIBLE CONCERT!!!!! Primus played Brown Album tracks, Winona, and other classics. Puscifer and A Perfect Circle played some of their best tracks as well.

This is the last concert in the Sessenta 2.0 tour for Maynard's 61st birthday. So killer to get to see the tour the second time.

Such Music! Such Loud! Such Wow! We managed to slide out nicely as the last track ended.

The drive back to the hotel took an hour and it was midnight when we walked into the room. I heard the booms and opened the drapes to see the fireworks display going off at the casino a few miles away.

It took a while to calm down then go to sleep and I got okay sleep this morning. @stryeyz and the boys are swimming now then we will get packed and head out for home with a stop in Ellensburg for food, beer, and maybe a bookstore. Quite the whirlwind trip but worth it for sure. I did miss a lot of flying at home but have the summer to do that.

SIGNUP FOR YOUR NEWTON PORTAL ACCOUNT AND WE BOTH EARN!