With the dry winter and early spring I am thinking about flying over to the Alvord next weekend and enjoying a hot soak. Has anyone landed there this year? Also wondering about conditions at Trego down on the Black Rock?
Bob

Alvord Desert is really cool. Back in '96 I flew the ultralight out there for a fly-in in Sept. So, I'm not sure about conditions this time of year. I know it can get moist, and therefore sinky. Even in Sep there were some sippy holes.

To the east of the Alvord the terrain rises up onto some plateaus, about 200-300 feet or so. Probably one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life, better even than aerobatics, was flying the Quicksilver westbound about 20' off the top of those plateaus, and shooting off the cliff, burying the stick forward. We called it "bluff diving."

Perhaps jtgmt can be persuaded to head up that direction in the 182, I'll tag along.

Z

I usually fly to the Alvord later in the season, generally from May through September. March is early, it can be too soft to risk a landing, but with the very dry winter I was wondering.
I have landed on the road, but it can be tricky at times. Zane mentioned zooming off the 200 or 300 foot plateaus to the east. However those who haven't been there before, take note: the Steen's highest ridge is just to the NW of the hot spring... within about a mile the elevation change is over 5000 feet. This can and does, among other things, make for some interesting cross winds on the road which follows the base of the escarpment.
Bob

Here is a shot from the Alvord. Found this on Google image search. Nice little Taylorcraft, but you can see how damn flat it is out there. It's fun to just fly along about 5 feet off the ground, for miles.

I don't know what the current conditions are but I'll bet you could call the folks at the Fields store and ask them.

Q

Drop in between June 26th and July 4th and I'll loan you my little trail bike for some ground exploring. We'll have a group of PPC flyers camping about a mile south of the hot springs.

Q

Alvord is definitely a strange and special place. Us Reno guys could be up there in just about 2 hours.

Z

A few tidbits about the Alvord area:

A good place to see bighorn sheep is on top of Mickey Mountain, just north of the Alvord playa, right next to Mickey hot springs.

Alvord Ranch hot springs is between the road the the playa. It's a pair of concrete pools with a wood deck. One is surrounded by a tin shed, the other is in the open. You can land on the playa nearby and walk the 1/4 mile to the spring.

There is a cold water spring with water good for drinking about a mile to the south of the Alvord Ranch hot spring. It's between the road and the playa, look for lots of green bushes surrounded by a fence.

About 7 or 8 miles south of the Alvord playa is Borax hot springs. Several springs there, some too hot to get into, some almost too hot. Then there's the small lake that is bathwater warm. A good place for a swim. It has a "bottomless pit" which goes down who knows how far. No place to land a plane there but a standard passenger car can get there on dirt roads.

The 9,700 foot Steens Mountain is just west of the Alvord. Some of the mountain is now wilderness so watch your altitude. Great views of Kiger Gorge and other glacier carved gorges from over the mountain.

About 12 miles east of the Alvord is Coyote Lake, another dry lake where one could land if you really want to be out in the middle of nowhere. It's about half way between the Alvord and Alkali Lake State Airport.

The little town of Fields, about 14 miles south of the Alvord has auto gas, cafe, store, motel, and a small airstrip.

Farther south is Denio Junction which has a small airstrip but the store/gas station was closed when we flew down there last year.

Q

Our PPC fly-in/camp-out at the Alvord went well. 18 PPCs and 1 trike turned out and all had a great time. Here are some links to a few of the photos I took while there.

BTW: The fireball was a toy brought by one of the pilots. It'll burn your eyebrows off at 100'. He also brought a bowling ball cannon that would shoot a ball nearly 2000' into the air.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/QDM/water.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/QDM/horses.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/QDM/lake.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/ ... eylake.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/ ... rttrip.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/ ... mclock.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/ ... yButte.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/QDM/candle2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v499/QDM/candle.jpg

Q

Wow. Those ARE great. They look like something from a coffee table book.

z

OUTSTANDING!!

Q,

Do you know of any other ultralight fly-ins at the Alvord this year? The ones I have been to in the past were in Sept, but I don't know how to find out. I have always just heard thru word-of-mouth.

Z

Q wrote:Our PPC fly-in/camp-out at the Alvord went well. BTW: The fireball was a toy brought by one of the pilots. It'll burn your eyebrows off at 100'. He also brought a bowling ball cannon that would shoot a ball nearly 2000' into the air.
Q

ONE FINE SEPTEMBER MORNING

Holy crap.

UHUH....

Zane,

The Sept fly-ins were organized by the Top Fun Flyers from Idaho. They have a web page at http://www.topfunflyers.com . Last year they held the fly-in at Baker City but it looks like this year they are back at the Alvord on Sept 23rd thru 26th.

Q

zane wrote:Q,

Do you know of any other ultralight fly-ins at the Alvord this year? The ones I have been to in the past were in Sept, but I don't know how to find out. I have always just heard thru word-of-mouth.

Z

You going to come down for that one, Q?

I'm planning on driving down the 23rd after work if the weather looks good. Hope to get in a Saturday and Sunday morning flight. Are you going?

Q

zane wrote:You going to come down for that one, Q?

Going to try. Would like to see you fly your PPC. -Z

Is there a more or less established landing area at Alvord hot springs...I don't mean cones and a wind sock, just an area most people use?