Big Walker Sunday 8/4

[XCanytime]

Made the trek to Dublin Saturday to spend the night and be ready for a nice day at Big Walker on Sunday. Skies were partly to mostly cloudy when I took to the air in a light cycle at 12:30P. Worked very hard to get up and finally stair-stepped my way to above the ridge. Headed east towards the goal of landing at VT Airport in Blacksburg. The sky got dark near the Rt. 100 gap and smoothed the air out which made jumping the gap effortless at 3800' MSL. Along the way to the gap I couldn't climb above 4100' MSL. Crossed some power lines about a quarter of the way between the Rt. 100 gap and the New River Gap. Once I got opposite Buckeye Mountain the air got downright nasty, so I headed back west to get out of the "shadow" of Buckeye Mountain. Got to 4100' MSL again and headed once more towards the New River Gap. Lost down to 3000' MSL and loitered under another dark sky above in hopes of climbing up to at least 4K' MSL to jump the gap. Alas it was not meant to be. There are no landing fields out in front at the gap and none reachable on the other side of the river if you sunk out jumping the gap. One option was a pair of flood plain fields OTB on the east side of the river. I flew too far east on the ridge and when I turned back I hit a bunch of sink that put me below ridge height. So I turned 180 degrees and flew east to get some clearance above the ridge. Once I got adequate clearance I peeled south and beelined for the 2 fields. Since it was a light wind day the expected rotor turbulence was moderate and I reached the fields with 500' of altitude. Whipped a 180 above the southernmost field and had a nice landing in zero wind. A nearby landowner ended up giving me a ride all the way back to the main LZ. Turns out he is a professor at my alma mater of VT. Told him I would be back to visit him again (with lots more altitude above the ridge before going OTB!) Bacil