Not one to wait until the last minute, today I got the SLC sectional out, and drew a line from a bit below Stanley, and a bit below Rexburg. Then I followed that line with my finger, and found that I had camped out along this line just north east of the Mackay dam a few miles just last week as part of a early morning crane job. I continued following along the line and found that it transits a large cattle ranch north of Howe that I installed a solar power system for some years ago, and during the install landed there probably a dozen times, plus another dozen since then just to say hi.
As of now I am planning to take off Monday, as early as I can see, this will put me over the Mackay area about an hour later, I plan to over fly town and see how many planes are parked there. First though I will also fly over and maybe land to say hi at the hang gliding strip south of Mackay, one of my old HG buddies cautioned me that is there is going to be a (relatively) huge number of PG and HG pilots there, and to keep my eyes open if its soaring time. Then I'll eyeball last weeks camp site, then fly up Trail Creek and after over flying it, also fly up to the old lookout cabin nearby at 9500' I rode my bike up to a few weeks ago. Due to it's proximity with Hailey etc. I expect all these sites to be hopping and full of people, cars, rv's, even airplanes. So then I 'll turn around and fly south to Pass Creek, squirt through it (taking an aerial pic of a house I set trusses on a few weeks in the area on the way, and send it off to the California owner) and land either on the dirt road on the ranch or nearby. There will be zero people there, and I am going to try to time it as close as possible, landing just before the event and taking off as soon as it's "normal" again. Landing my strip much past noon can be problematic, so I will just haul ass home, and see what the highways look like on the way.
This event could get ugly, anyone remember the Kneviel jump over the Snake back in '74? Huge numbers of outa staters getting drunk, crowded roads, some with construction going on (though not that day), but it should be a frigging great day to be a pilot, and after viewing the craziness elsewhere it will be especially sweet to land elsewhere! Then again, I may change my mind and land somewhere in the zone totally different, I like to surprise myself.
