The joy of flying over the mountains. Three years ago today.
From my journal, "Ecstatic and Scary Outdoor Experiences."
I love flying over the mountains with Bill. Love seeing everything pressed below me like a map. I like the thrill of vertigo when the plane banks to turn, when the Earth tips alongside you - mountains and rivers reaching inside you and seizing your heart.
"One of my happiest memories is when you took me snowshoeing up in the mountains," Bill texted a few days ago. I dumped him two-years ago because of his right-wing beliefs.
Yesterday Bill texted: "Decided to fly to Wenatchee and bicycle the Apple Loop trail."
Me: "Good for you. I'm going for a run. I'll bite. Want to get together for a cool drink after we exercise?" Bill: "Would love to see you. If you want a ride, I can meet you at the airport in ninety-minutes."
Happy dance. After running I quickly showered. Grabbed my camera and a down jacket (it's cold in the plane). Laughing, I caught Bill changing his clothes behind the plane.
"You look wonderful!" Bill exclaimed. He missed me. He flew me up Lake Chelan- a narrow, fifty-mile snaking fjord- to North Cascades National Park. "Here are the mountains you love so much, sweetheart," Bill said.
At ten-thousand-feet elevation, it was snowing. Afternoon sun made the snowy mountains shine. Bill felt uneasy because there was no place to land in the North Cascades.
Returning, Bill flew two-hundred-feet above Lake Chelan. The lake was calm and deep blue. I watched currents changing direction. Felt protected by steep ridges cradling the lake. A magical moment. When Bill turned south to follow the Columbia River to Wenatchee, a rainbow seemed to follow us.
A competitive bicycle rider and medical doctor, Bill is super fit. He's a fun playmate, but not long-range relationship material.
22
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10 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Breathtaking photos
Unity
Level 7
Apr 3, 2022
1
Thank you. I live in a beautiful state. Washington.
@phoenixone1, @BitFlipper, @WayneDalton, @19dacar52, @HippieChick58, @Garban, @RichCC, @Theresa_N, @MrDragon, @Fernapple, @xenoview, @Jolanta, @Organist1, @Mitch07102, @Lorajay, @glenlab, @alliwant, @silverotter11, @JackPedigo, @Paddypereira, @Jennifergereth, @yvilletom
Snowshoeing adventure with Bill. His first time on snowshoes. Dec. 2017.
Bill is 10 years younger than me. Used his long arms to take this selfie of us.
LiterateHiker
Level 9
Apr 2, 2022
1
I don't have any pictures, but my first flight was in a four seat Piper. I rode my bicycle out to the municipal airport with a friend that was a little older, and we ran into a neighbor who was a professional pilot. He had some aerial photography to do in the area, and took us up in the plane for some short hops around the area over the next couple of hours. Our small city and the surrounding farms looked very different from 2000 ft.
alliwant
Level 7
Apr 2, 2022
1
Never flew in a small plane but even on an airliner the view is AMAZING!
silverotter11
Level 9
Apr 1, 2022
3
At our annual christmass party we had several silent auctions to benefit United Way. One senior partner (also a friend) auctioned a private flight. We made a bid but got outbid but he said he would take us. Parvins' daughter was visiting and she went as well (she did not like small planes but neither of us were really excited). He flew over the islands and little did we know someday we would be living down there.
That is true
I have never flown over mountains in a light aircraft sadly. But I do remember the alps seen twice from an airliner, all white peaks and fluffy clouds, they looked like an exotic ice cream and cream desert.
Fernapple
Level 9
Apr 1, 2022
3
Wind River Range, Wyoming peaks look like whipped cream.
My ex-husband and I spent a week backpacking in Wind River Range. Beautiful!
I remember flying into Seattle over the cascades. One leaves the empty midlands and then feels the plane bouncing as it hits different pressure zones over the Cascades. There were some times I felt as if I could literally reach and touch Mt. Rainier. Coming into Seattle was another thrill. At night it was not like so many cities with lights extending past the horizon (places like Dallas were especially bad). The lights would be twinkling due to the trees and hills. There were large areas of darkness (lakes and Sea) often with ribbons of moving lights (bridges with traffic or the ferries). Once we flew right over the city perched on the edge of Elliot Bay. Even during the day it was a totally different perspective than most other cities. All the hills, Cascade and Olympic ranges, waters and, of course, the city itself with all the skyscrapers and the highlight of it all, the Spaceneedle and Seattle Center Park.
JackPedigo
Level 9
Apr 1, 2022
4
In a small plane, I took this photo of Mt. Rainer wrapped by the Enchantment Mountains. Feb. 5, 2011
I dated 5-6 men who owned small planes. Always asked for a plane ride before eating. One guy worked for 40 years for Weyerhaeuser clear-cutting Washington and Oregon. We had a big argument about environmental issues. Flush.
A year later, he contacted me with different photos on Fitness Singles. When he walked up, my heart sank. It was the same guy! I asked for a plane ride anyway. The funny thing was he didn't remember meeting me. I was too amused to feel insulted.
@LiterateHiker I can emphasize as have been there several times. Before I met my last partner I joined a dating group (this was before it was online). We would go into an office, fill out a bio and get some pictures made (I even did a video). Everything would go into a book and we could notify any one that struck our fancy. I saw a dark-haired smallish woman who was a research scientist and wrote a paper on toxins. I am attracted to brainy women and sent my interest with no reply. A few months later was on Seward Park for a picnic with the Sierra Club. I heard someone yelling and name calling at a Volleyball game. A dark-haired, smallish woman was yelling at a big dumb looking guy and barking orders. When she turned around there was my scientist. The guy was her boyfriend. Apparently, she was the type who wanted a big dog to protect her and, at the same time, she'd be totally in charge.
On my flight from Cairo to London I flew over some mountains (I guess it was the Alps) and it was like a sight from Heaven, something divinely beautiful. That's what this post reminded me of.
Paddypereira
Level 7
Apr 1, 2022
3
Did an ancient flood form this part of the state?
yvilletom
Level 8
Apr 1, 2022
1
Wow, sorry to hear that but thank God for life
The mountains were formed before the floods.
Imagine a wall of water 40 feet high. The floods carved crenulated curves into the landscape of Eastern Washington. Lifted our topsoil and deposited in the Willamette Valley, Oregon, one of the most fertile areas in the world.
The Great Missoula Floods were a series of floods that occurred in the Pacific Northwest between 18, 000 and 15,000 years ago - at the end of last ice age. They were a cataclysmic type of flood called a glacial lake outburst flood.
They were unimaginably large. During peak discharge they had a flow rate of 17 million meters/second. This makes them the second largest floods ever discovered after the ancient Kuray Floods. Overall, there were roughly 40 floods an average of 50 years apart.
@LiterateHiker One of the first things I learned about WA State was how the mountains formed. When I moved to the east side of the state I learned all about the scablands, the many floods that shaped the eastern part of the state and about the man, geologist J Harlen Bretz who first used the term "Channeled Scablands" in the 1920s. The Geologic Society laughed at him, everyone knew it was erosion that caused the look of that area. Not until flight was he vindicated. Yeah, flying changed so much.
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