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There was thunder and lightning in the early morning with rain a bit later. A forest fire was started on the west side of the valley by the lightning. The rain didn't put it out and it was still burning in the evening. After the rainbow before sunrise there was a double rainbow when the sun came up.

It looked like the rain and some of the clouds would go away later in the morning so we headed up Sugar after a 10 AM weather update (they looked out doors). The winds were forecasted to be higher than the light winds the day before, and when we got to launch it was clear that that forecast was accurate. I measured 15 mph on average with gusts to 20 mph.

A wind tech got off the hill in the high winds and started ridge soaring, so we knew that there was no problem staying up. Soon after that the winds at launch subsided as thermals came through and blocked the winds. It looked very civilized.

I got off thirty minutes before the first start time, hoping to get the second start time or later. But we climbed out quickly and got to cloud base at over 12,000' before the first start time. Now we had to wait around at cloud base. I had Zippy and Jeff O'Brien next to me and Jeff said we would have to wait around high and get cold for the next ten minutes.

I decided to head back upwind to get the next cloud and promptly lost a lot of altitude while Zippy and Jeff stayed high at cloud base and just drifted toward the edge of the start circle. I had to get back up again and take the third start time as Zippy did the day before.

Zippy and Jeff and most of the crew headed out at the second start time. I got high again in the start cylinder and took off fifteen minutes later. Jeff called on the radio and said that the first fifteen kilometers were fast, but it was slow after that.

I found strong lift at the north/south ridge line just outside the start circle. The rest of the pilots that started with me hadn't left so high and were scratching on the hillsides while I rocketed away under the good looking dark bottomed clouds.

I turned north and headed toward the first turnpoint that was just south of Lakeview. There was plenty of light lift along the way and I just kept on going and not worrying. There were cu's about and it seemed like there would be good lift ahead.

Racing that way got me almost caught up with Jeff. I came to some lift still reasonably high four kilometers short of the first turnpoint and Jeff heard me while he was struggling at the turnpoint. I climbed to 11,200'. It now looked my "decision" to go third was working out well. I had already caught up with a number of stragglers.

I was back in the hills a bit so I had to run forward into the west wind out into the valley to get the turnpoint. As I got there the hail started to hit me. There was a black cloud to my south west and a shadow all the way to the east along the course line.

I was down to 9,500' and not ready to run across the hills along the course line up highway 140 to the northwest at that altitude. There were plenty of cu's to the north so I ran toward them to get away from the hail. I ran past Black Cap but the hail was following me as it was coming fast from the south.

I ran and ran to get under the nice puffy cu's ahead and away from the cloud causing the hail. There was lift every where and the valley was going ballistic. But I couldn't get away from the hail cloud and the air was spooking me, so I ran to try to find some where to get down. It was not easy.

Finally I ran up against the hills going into the valley to the north and I just had to get down. Only when I got below 1000' AGL was I able to find some sink and to find some air that wasn't continuing to toss me around.

Meanwhile Jeff had also gone north to Black Cap and finally got up, but he had lost the lead gaggle. He was drifting fast north away from the east/west highway 140 road and over the trees low as he climbed up going toward Plush to the northeast.

He made it up on the mountain side but got low just before Plush but then came in under two circling hang gliders and climbed high. He was high enough to go on final glide downwind. He came in second after Zippy, who won the day again. A number of folks made goal.

We apparently have the run of the place at the Hunter's Hot Springs Resort. Gale has the kitchen going and with the barbeque grill out by the pool it is easy of pilots to have dinner without having to go into town. The burgers are cheap from Gale, but you can fix your own food also. Most pilots are here in tents.

The Chamber of Commerce is great helping us as much as possible and the local Shell station is providing gas cards. It's a lovely town in a great location.