USFS / CHGPA Edith's Gap Project

[Matthew]

I'll come for fellowship but sleep elsewhere. - Hugh


************


You say that to all the boys...

Matthew


We too plan to attend the Edith's Gap project.

[mingram]

I reserved another campsite for Saturday so we have 2 campsites that will support up to 20 people. I've paid for 14 people, but we can add another 6 if needed. The list for Saturday is below.

I also reserved a campsite for Friday. Currently myself and Tom will be camping, but others are welcome.

Matt Ingram
Jono Fisher
Peter van Oevelen
Tom Ceunen
Petr Kalab
Greg Launt
Laszlo Lovei
Kyle Kearney
George Huffman
Ben Brooks
Krista Auchenbach
Jesse Yoder and Liz
John Hopkinson
Bruce

[mingram]

Does anyone have thoughts for food on Saturday? Anyone want to take responsibility for coordinating it? I'm thinking we could call in an order for sandwiches somewhere in Luray and have someone pick it up.

[JohnE]

I called Chuck over at Main Street Bakery and Catering in Luray and he told me that Bill at West Main Market 540-743-1125 is the place to go in town for a bunch of sandwiches and chips and so on. They are at www.westmainmarket.com. They have a nice menu of sandwiches, can provide chips and so on. I am happy to prepare the order, go into town and pick up it up, along with ice, drinks, etc. I figure it will be about 20-25 people. Clearly we will treat the USFS team, as well, I hope. It could be a coordination hassle to take invidual orders, but I will give it a try if that is the consensus of the route to take. An alternative, we could order up a bunch of 3-4 kinds of sandwiches and let folks pick from them, first come, first served. I will bring a menu and we will need to make a call fairly early in the say (10ish?) to be able to get the sandwiches for mid-day, for such a big order.
John

[bahamianflyer]

Count me in for a campsite Saturday night if one is still available.

Bruce

[mingram]

Thanks John for getting info about food. Sounds like a good option.

Bruce, yes there's still room. I added you to the list.

[PTerry]

Hi everyone. We are Good-To-Go on Edith's Gap. We have 24 people confirmed. That is a great group of pilots & family. Looks like a good party crowd and there will be instruments there too. I think there will be fire side songs for sure.
The USFS has been really good to work with so far and they are impressed with CHGPA and our commitment.
The USFS wants pictures of the group and a write up for the forest newsletter and lee district annual report. Also USHPA has already agreed to take an article on the project. More good work to do once we get the site picked up.
Some serious "sweat equity" will be applied under a party cloudy 86 degree weekend.

See you there!
Pat

[Matthew]

So, is there enough parking for all of the vehicles???

Matthew

[Matthew]

Also, I think I have directions in my old site guide. But it's been years since I've been there and the new site guide doesn't list Edith's Gap. Will someone please send directions?

Thanks,

Matthew

[mingram]

I was just thinking about that. We'd have to park cars on the side of the road. It'd be better to carpool, but not sure what time people plan to arrive. Tom and I will be camping Friday night and will arrive at the site early - my guess is 8am.

Directions are pretty easy. It's Fort Valley Road - Rt. 675 - easy to find if you google Luray.
https://www.google.com/search?q=38.7256 ... e&ie=UTF-8
38.725631,-78.509773

[deveil]

hey, thought it might be an appropriate time to give this guy a mention .

Sun Feb 06, 2011 8:20 am

I visited Edith's Gap yesterday...

Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:36 pm

I met with a USFS Ranger today...

[mingram]

Two and a half years in the making!

[mingram]

Here's better local directions to Camp Outback and you can see the road 675 to Edith's Gap as well.
http://www.shenandoahriver.com/Directions.html

[laszlo]

Yes, Dan deserves credit for kicking this process off a while ago.

Regarding directions, I wonder whether coming from I-81 through the Edinburgh gap is faster than going via Luray.

Laszlo

[PTerry]

PARKING: We will need to run a shuttle: Best place to park will be Stephen’s Trail parking lot just above Camp Roosevelt. Left side of SR657. Horse Parking sign with an arrow. Plenty of room 20+ cars.

[mingram]

For the BBQ on Saturday, Jono is bringing charcoal and I am bringing plates and plastic-ware. If we actually clear the site and end up flying the BBQ might be late or we might decide to do our own thing if people are going XC. We'll get a consensus on Saturday at the site.

[Matthew]

end up flying???

Do we have any LZ options???

Matthew

[mingram]

Yes. Landowner approved. But need a P3 to try it first.

[Matthew]

Sounds great!

You go first.....

Matthew

[mingram]

Tom and I are at campsite #11 - big blue tent.

http://www.shenandoahriver.com/CampOutBackMap.html

ETA 8 am at Ediths

[PTerry]

13 folks are out here now. Great progress so far.
Get out here you lazy bones.

[dbodner]

Very successful effort. The launch looks great. Lots of PGs flew.

Kudos to those responsible for organizing this effort. Very well done.

[mingram]

Thanks to everyone who came! We had a great turnout and were rewarded with hours of flying in magic air. Tom flew 5 hours to Shenandoah and back. Edith's is the most beautiful site in Virginia. We're so lucky.

We will be at the site tomorrow at 9am to see if we can do a little more perhaps or maybe fly early. Weather doesn't look great for the afternoon.

Matt

[Dan T]

FANTASTIC!

Congratulations and thanks to everyone.

Dan

[Matthew]

Wow! We should have Patrick Terry schedule more site clean-ups. So many people working and awesome flying afterwards!!!!

I got 18 minutes and a whopping 40 feet over on my first flight. Lazlo did a great job of staying up in light lift while it rained gliders in the LZ. Randy, Paul, Peter Humes and Ben Brooks landed right after me. BTW-- it's a tight little LZ.

Back up at launch it was blowing in great and everyone started to stick. I went to launch and my glider overshot me while I was still facing backwards, I got picked up flying backwards and couldn't untwist the risers. This was my third high flight on my new PG-- Ozone Delta 2. I slammed into the trees on the right side of launch. I was surprisingly unharmed. And with the help of several others, we extracted my glider and it too was undamaged. BIG THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!!! After twenty minutes of sorting out the lines I re-launched. Again, not a pretty launch. The glider shot overhead-- I checked it with hard brakes. However, I fell on my ass when I turned around. The glider still flying-- I jumped up and launched. I need a good day on a steep training hill in strong winds!!!!

I got 1400 over launch in mostly smooth lift and flew most of the way down the ridge and back. Several gliders were way behind the ridge only a few hundred over. I don't have that big of balls. I wouldn't be that far behind the ridge, that low, in my hang glider.

I flew for about an hour and a half and followed a lift line out into the valley-- crossing the river and landing about a mile upwind of the bridge. I was still a couple of hundred over launch when I got over the field!

Several pilots flew till sunset. Ellis flew three times and was still up when Karen and I hit the road. With a bright full moon last night -- she may still be up for all I know.


Matthew