I had a surprisingly fun flight from Walt’s Point in the Owens Valley Friday the 9th of October.

I had no driver, and Covid rules applied, so I dropped my eBike at the bottom and drove to launch. I launched just after noon, and got to 12,600 feet several times. I could have gotten higher, but I was too cold. I trusted the forecast, which said I wouldn’t get above 11k, so I under dressed. Won’t do that again. Probably. I hate being too warm even more than being too cold. Also, I could easily have launched earlier and stayed up. But there was an event at the airport making me decide not to land there. I hadn’t counted on spending extra time tracking down a safe place to stash my bike at Diaz, and installing a streamer, etc. I lost at least 40 minutes.

Flew to Whitney Portal and Back.  I didn’t continue North as I’d normally do.  No driver, remember?  I had to be sure I could get back to where I stashed my bike!  Then I went South a few miles, then half way back to Whitney Portal before I had to land to be sure I’d have time to ride to the top to get my vehicle before it got completely dark.  (I did the arithmetic in advance, and had a “Land by time” decided on.)  Still, an hour and 50 minutes and lots of altitude changes and ground covered.  Pretty darned good for October.  I had a blast.

I landed at Diaz Lake.  Usually, when I’m using my eBike at Walt’s, I leave it at the airport and land there, but there was some sort of event going on with 8 or 9 planes and a helicopter.  It seemed wiser to use the Diaz Lake LZ.

BTW, it takes me about 2 – 2 1/2 hours to ride to the top on my eBike.  But the ride is pleasant, and the view is lovely.  This past July, I flew Glacier Point in Yosemite 3 times and used my eBike for turnaround.  That takes longer, but the ride is more pleasant, except for the fact that there’s more traffic.