Marble: 7:09 am Creede: 1:01 pm Today s Airtime: 5.8 hrs Cartographic length 351 miles. Total PIC Time: Total Logged Time 1623.

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1 Monday, September 11, 2017 Cobra flight #600, PIC #613, 1 landings Misty Meadows, Clear Creek Falls, Lost Lakes, Ute Ridge, Silex, Rio Grande Pyramid, Hossick Lake, Pagosa Peak, Chama Headwaters and Falls, Chama Canyon, Jemez Caldera, Caldron of Hell, Best Endurance and Distance Marble: 7:09 am Creede: 1:01 pm Today s Airtime: 5.8 hrs Cartographic length 351 miles. Total PIC Time: Total Logged Time I wasted a half hour getting my cameras realigned after the bush scrape at Marble. Should have done this the night before. Winds aloft were calm, all the way to 30,000 ft. This was gonna be a great flight today.

2 All that camera alignment turned out to be a waste of time as my left side battery died before I made my touch and go after takeoff. It had rained until about midnight and there was some whispy ground fog on the valley floor, but it was clear over the airstrip and up the valley.

3 I followed the Rio Grande upstream to the large meadow at Antelope Park where the river turns. The entire valley was covered by a thin layer of ground fog.

4 The trike glory looked fantastic, and I aligned the shadow with the center point. Too bad I forgot that the camera was mounted about 15 ft to the right or left of my eye.

5 The valley floor cleared upstream. Strange streamers of mist rose vertically from this pond.

6 I flew to beautiful Clear Creek Falls, with a full flow of water this morning.

7 After skirting the edge of the Brown and Hermit Lakes in Clear Creek Canyon, I found the Lost Lakes. This secret hideaway has a lakeshore cabin and a small boat.

8 A white peak rose to the west, the only white peak in view.

9 This unnamed summit on Ute Ridge had collected a lot of hail and snow during last night s storm.

10 Four miles to east rose the ft summit of the Rio Grande Pyramid. Note the gap visible in the silhouette. It is called The Window and is about 180 ft across. We ll take a closer look at both of these later on. I flew to the far western edge of the basin that drains into the Rio Grande watershed and looked over the back. The view is on the next page.

11 Directly below me it was save to land on the tundra. Beyond I could only see high peaks and hostile terrain.

12 Here are some more features at the edge of the basin. Mt Nebo on the right and an unnamed lake.

13 I saw a small yellow tent, far below on a gravel bar on the edge of Ute Lake.

14 The Pyramid rises at the center of a large basin, totally dominating the landscape for miles.

15 I always get a thrill out of circling the Pyramid. I haven t been here in a couple years.

16 I stayed high at approximately ft and crossed over to Mt Hossick. The Weimenuche Valley is on the right, extending to the south.

17 I took another look at Hossick Lake.

18 I saw the pyramid of Pagosa Peak rising from the last of four ridgelines to the southeast. I crossed these high ridges, looking down into the valleys and soon was at Pagosa Peak.

19 I have flown over the top of Pagosa Peak on almost every trip to Pagosa Springs.

20 Sometime in the spring of 2004, a huge landslide fell in the headwaters of the Chama River. It was discovered when a forest ranger hiked up the canyon in June. No one had heard a thing. I have been up here 4 or 5 times, but never flew up around the corner to where the landslide is located. I discovered it exploring with Google Earth, then found a page describing the landslide. The landside is to the west of Chama Falls, but tucked around the corner in a canyon. Look how steep that cliff is.

21 I took a final high altitude look at Chama Falls.

22 I flew south past the town of Chama to Heron and El Vado Lakes.

23 I followed the Chama River downstream of El Vado Reservoir.

24 Further downstream, the canyon opened up with dirt roads on the banks. I could relax and enjoy the flight a little more.

25 I climbed up high and overflew a great location for a stronghold fortress. An island connected by a bridge.

26 I continued south across the valley west of Abiquiu Lake and climbed up to fly over one of my favorite meadows in the Jemez Caldera, Valle de Grulla. No is up here, its not part of a park or wilderness area so I felt free to fly as low as I wanted. I think this was the first time I ever approached Valle de Grulla from the north.

27 I flew down canyon and Maroon Lake came into view. Usually, I am flying north and approach with this view.

28 I flew down canyon and Maroon Lake came into view. I followed the web of valleys to the Valle Grande, whose edge is on the right side.

29 The last highlight on the trip was a high pass over the Valle Grande. Afterwards, I flew down Jemez Canyon, then flew down the east side of Prieta Mesa and followed the Rio Puerco south. My GPS was estimating my flight to be 5.5 hours long. I thought my old record endurance record was around that, so I extended my flight slightly swinging to the west to fly over to the Caldron of Hell.

30 Beyond Maroon Lake, was the canyon I was in join the next canyon to the east. I headed down the to the intersection. With this slight deviation to the Caldron, my time aloft for this flight would be 5.8 hours with a cartographic length of 351 miles. Both record numbers for me. I think my theoretical maximum is 7 hrs and 420 miles.

31 Here is my GPS track for today s amazing flight. Belen Valle Grande Chama Canyon Pagosa Peak Chama Headwaters Mt Hossick Rio Grande Pyramid Ute Ridge Antelope Park Fog Lost Lakes Creede Spring Creek Fall