Found this strip when I was flying around the hills north of San Luis Resevoir. Anyone know anything about this strip? I was tempted to land there but since I have little wheels and don't know the condition of the strip and am basically a chicken pilot I was hoping someone with bigger tires and balls would go in and check it out and report back on the field conditions. I guess the road right next to it is landable too. Looks to be about 1500 feet strip. Here's the map with the coords.

[googlemap]https://www.google.com/maps?q=37.2280,+-121.3715&hl=en&ll=37.228005,-121.371503&spn=0.016197,0.030556&sll=37.22698,-121.36837&sspn=0.016197,0.030556&t=h&z=15[/googlemap]

That's the Paradise Flat airstrip. I think I know someone who landed there once It sits in Henry W. Coe State Park. I believe it was shut down in the early 1980's. There's one other strip in the park that is also unfortunately closed.

I found this strip several years ago trolling around on GE in the same area. Alway's wondered what was going on up there. Must be private. Usually if it is a park or public area there will be a few of those blue cubes denoting posted photos, but there is nothing there.
Sorry, after 5 minutes of attempting to edit this to show up on the post .I gave up. It's frustrating repeatedly editing url strings and getting no results.

https://maps.google.ca/maps/myplaces?ll=37.323852,-121.539259&spn=0.00703,0.009645&ctz=480&t=h&z=17

S Vanarts

Used to fly all over that area until it was turned into a WILDERNESS.
I believe your red marker is actually an old dirt road. Could be wrong. Have not been there in over a year.
BUT - Go from you red marker left to the green arrow then diagonally up and left to that small pond. Enlarge the detail and there IS an old strip just above the right side of the dam. One way in - one way out - windy in the afternoon.

Paradise Flat is a few miles east of this strip.
EDIT The other map that is posted is of a private strip further north on the back side of Mt Hamilton. END OF EDIT
Friend of mine used to take Cessna 310 into Paradise. Before it was all converted to wilderness - we would land - taxi back - and get out just ahead of a guy with a jeep with a shotgun. Used to claim it was his but the 310 pilot said he just did that for the real owner. If any of you ever find it and go for it - there is an almost invisible pipe that stood up about 15-20 feet tall real close on the right.

There are several others back there but are all private. I used to get permission to go into one of them on the south side of a large valley.

One interesting on was a mine where you had to turn uphill rather soon after getting on the ground.

We used to land at several "straight" dirt roads - but did not stay long.
There are some old mine head works back there for those that like to get in low.

PS: We did it all on teeny tired Cubs and Champs. Most pilots out of the old Amelia Reid school were regulars back there. Good fishing at some.

It is nice to know where they are - JUST IN CASE.

Might be able to show ya around if I am feeling OK.

Chris C

Sidewinder wrote:Sorry, after 5 minutes of attempting to edit this to show up on the post .I gave up. It's frustrating repeatedly editing url strings and getting no results.

When in doubt, don't bother embedding. Just link it. I'm removing the google maps feature because it's too hard for most people to use, including me.

robw56 wrote:That's the Paradise Flat airstrip. I think I know someone who landed there once It sits in Henry W. Coe State Park. I believe it was shut down in the early 1980's. There's one other strip in the park that is also unfortunately closed.

It looks like someone may have been landing there. I saw wheel ruts in the grass but figured they could have been motorcycles.

What did this theoretical person think of the strip? Smooth-ish? Did he find any hidden hazards? Theoretically?

Sidewinder wrote:I found this strip several years ago trolling around on GE in the same area. Alway's wondered what was going on up there. Must be private. Usually if it is a park or public area there will be a few of those blue cubes denoting posted photos, but there is nothing there.
Sorry, after 5 minutes of attempting to edit this to show up on the post .I gave up. It's frustrating repeatedly editing url strings and getting no results.

https://maps.google.ca/maps/myplaces?ll=37.323852,-121.539259&spn=0.00703,0.009645&ctz=480&t=h&z=17

I've seen this one and was told once by a fairly reliable source that 15 years ago or so the guy that lived there welcomed visiting aircraft. I don't have any current intel on that though. Just as likely to be met with a shotgun these days.

wannabe wrote:S Vanarts

Used to fly all over that area until it was turned into a WILDERNESS.
I believe your red marker is actually an old dirt road. Could be wrong. Have not been there in over a year.
BUT - Go from you red marker left to the green arrow then diagonally up and left to that small pond. Enlarge the detail and there IS an old strip just above the right side of the dam. One way in - one way out - windy in the afternoon.

Paradise Flat is a few miles east of this strip.
EDIT The other map that is posted is of a private strip further north on the back side of Mt Hamilton. END OF EDIT
Friend of mine used to take Cessna 310 into Paradise. Before it was all converted to wilderness - we would land - taxi back - and get out just ahead of a guy with a jeep with a shotgun. Used to claim it was his but the 310 pilot said he just did that for the real owner. If any of you ever find it and go for it - there is an almost invisible pipe that stood up about 15-20 feet tall real close on the right.

There are several others back there but are all private. I used to get permission to go into one of them on the south side of a large valley.

One interesting on was a mine where you had to turn uphill rather soon after getting on the ground.

We used to land at several "straight" dirt roads - but did not stay long.
There are some old mine head works back there for those that like to get in low.

PS: We did it all on teeny tired Cubs and Champs. Most pilots out of the old Amelia Reid school were regulars back there. Good fishing at some.

It is nice to know where they are - JUST IN CASE.

Might be able to show ya around if I am feeling OK.

Chris C

That sounds fun. Let's go touring when you feel up to it.

Zzz wrote:

Sidewinder wrote:Sorry, after 5 minutes of attempting to edit this to show up on the post .I gave up. It's frustrating repeatedly editing url strings and getting no results.

When in doubt, don't bother embedding. Just link it. I'm removing the google maps feature because it's too hard for most people to use, including me.

Actually it worked pretty good for me. Just click the link icon in Google maps, copy the hyperlink, come to BCP, click the google map button and paste in the link. Like this:

[googlemap]https://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid=213732418950957933334.00045631fb4eb5fa0fe98&msa=0&ll=37.991834,-120.574951&spn=2.051976,3.911133[/googlemap]

You smart. We dumb. uuug .Can you do a youtube tutorial .I can't even fiqure out how to generate one of those arrowey thingies on GM. It's baffling.
This embedding stuff should be simple for with no need for any editing.

I bet a mooney never landed there! If it did the owner would prob say its in good shape and that although he's never landed it he'd go again!

Okay, same area, different strip. What's the story on this strip. I can see it's closed and well within the state park but... It's awfully tempting.

[googlemap]https://www.google.com/maps/ms?msid=213732418950957933334.00045631fb4eb5fa0fe98&msa=0&ll=37.153767,-121.442935&spn=0.008106,0.015278[/googlemap]

I can neither confirm nor deny that I will be checking out these two strips tomorrow morning. Does anyone have or not have any condition reports on these strips? Anyone been in there lately... or not?

Hoover has big X's on it but it was an old google image. The other was nice when I didn't land there about a year or so ago!

Thanks Brian! I'll just pretend I didn't hear that.

As far as Hoover, I'm more concerned with the trees I saw growing in the strip than the X's. Hopefully some gophers dragged the X's away.

Too foggy on my side of the valley today. Some other time.