So the past few months I've been thinking, OK, lift can be found almost wherever,
but still, there's no good lift nearby, right?. PASS members insisted that indeed
there are slope soaring opportunities and that we hold contests there---each is
within a 2-hour drive of Portland, I kept getting told. All good and well, I thought,
but I grew up in SoCal where I could walk to a slope or drive 15-minutes to one---not
2-hours!
With the hand-launch Seeker glider in car at nearly all times lately, I,ve taken
it upon myself to find lift locally, by field or by slope/cliff/rock/tree/building.
What my thought would be a disappointing waste of time, searching for lift in the
inner city---has proven very valuable and fun in the search itself! Not only have
I found that occasionally long flights can be had at local school fields (e.g. Reed
College at SE Steele and 32nd), but I've found cliffs, slopes and bowls locally
that with the right winds generate booming lift! So who needs to do a 2 hours drive
to go soaring.
In fact, in addition to the obvious local spots (Powell Butte and Mount Scott),
I've found 2 sites recently in Inner SE and North Portland that can generate the
most amazing lift and offer tall grassy fields for safe landings.
Dog-bite park (aka Jessup/Willamette Bowl).
This site works with SW to WNW winds. It's above the East end of Swan Island, just
below Willamette Blvd in North Portland. If you took Greeley to Jessup, left to
Willamette Blvd, then drive around the huge bowl to the North side and park, you
can walk right down a trail to a truly great local place to hand-launch or even
a good bungee launch.
The views are great. The landing area is fine (for awhile). The lift can be incredible!
As mentioned, the place works best with a stable SW to WNW wind, but given the wide
bowl area, even when winds come off the top or other directions, hand-launch flights
are fun, if short. The BIGGEST downside of this site is the dogs. It seems that
90% or more of the people who use this park (it appears to be land owned by the
city) are dog owners. And since this is an open, un-groomed field, nearly ALL of
these owners seem to think it,s just fine to have their dogs unleashed, and yes,
don't even think they need to clean up after them. So this presents a big landing
challenge when dogs are around---- to catch your glider before Frisbee-catching
FIDO gets a wing.
What makes this site a great place now, and what makes using it for gliders perhaps
fleeting, is that a recent fire had scoured the bowl and the lower slope. This of
course got rid of bushes, blackberries and other things and allowed lots of great
grass to come up this Spring. But along with the grass are new blackberry shoots
and other baby bushes/trees. This will make retrieving gliders and landings a bit
gnarly- --eventually blackberry growth will make it an undesirable spot. But RIGHT
NOW this is THE site in town for west winds. It could make a great Fun Fly and even
Slope Combat site before next year's blackberry growth sets in.
I had to give this place some kind of name---Dog Bite seems appropriate since that's
what your wing will have if you let your glider land when the dogs are around.
Check this link for more info and pictures:
http://home.comcast.net/~matwete/soaring/InnerCitySoaring_052204.htm