October 14th 2013: Learning to Hang Glide in Charlestown, NH

Early this morning, I had an appointment to learn how to hang glide at Morningside Flight Park in Charlestown NH. It is at least 2 hours from where I live, so I had to get up really early to make it to the lesson on time. The scenery of the fall foliage along the way was awesome though.

I was really early, so the hillside where the lesson was to take place was still pretty void of gliders and people.

When the place finally opened up, I went inside the shop and waited for the lesson to start.

I had one other person learning to hang glide with me, and when he arrived, our instructor took us into the other room, where he taught us a little bit about the physics behind hang gliding, and the various components of a typical hang glider.

It was then time to take out our gliders and assemble them.

After unwrapping the cover encasing the glider,

the king post is first pushed up

before spreading open the wings on each side of the post and strapping the rigging wires to the top of the king post.

Taking out the battens which are of different sizes, one set being marked black and the other being white to signify which wing it is on,

the battens are then slit into slots on the wing

and strapped down to form its skeleton,

the longest one being the closest to the center, naturally.

The rigging wires are then secured to the keel.

With the gliders all set and ready to go, it is time to perform an inspection on the gliders to ensure there is no damage to it or potential for collapse during flight.

After ensuring that the probability of me dying during this experience was minimized, it was time to go get our helmets and harnesses.

Before putting the harness on, our instructor showed us what was the proper way to hold the glider on our shoulders,

and how to pick it up.

This I found pretty hard to do, especially getting the poles onto the right positions on my shoulders and balancing the glider properly.

Then came our first run flight on level ground, without being attached to the glider, where we start running with the glider to give it thrust with the glider being at ~12 degrees above the direction of the wind, keeping constant eye contact with our target destination, then we change our hold on the glider when we feel it start to fly, holding the bars close to our chest and continuing to run even though our feet might leave the ground, then finally push the bars away to slow down and land.

My first attempt went well enough, but I was so eager to go airborne that when I felt the glider lifting, I decided to lift my legs as well instead of continuing to run, so I got my jeans soiled instead.

After the first trial run, we put on the harnesses,

then strapped ourselves to the glider itself.

Besides repeating the first run, we also learnt how to change directions, by looking at our new destination and shifting our entire body in that direction.

After we were deemed to be successful, we moved slightly up the hill, and I managed to carry the glider all the way up.

From here on, it was practice run after practice run. On the last one, I managed to get at least 4 feet above the ground, so I guess that was pretty good for a first time. Apparently it takes tons of tries to finally go higher, when the instructors think that we are good and safe enough to progress to the next stage.

It was cool to see other hang gliders and paragliders in action today as well.

I definitely a long way to go to become this guy.

If you thought that was the end, you thought wrong. There always is the cleanup phase, which involves doing the reverse of assembling the glider.

After putting the gliders back in storage, it was time to call it a day. The day was still young for me though, so I decided to drive back to Massachusetts, and the rest of my Columbus Day can be found here.

August 10th 2013: Waterfall Rappelling in the White Mountains

I woke up really early today to go waterfall rappelling with Northeast Mountaineering on the Ripley Falls in Hart's Location NH. After arriving at the Bunkhouse in Bartlett NH and signing a few forms, we waited for everyone to arrive before the initial lesson started on how to attach the rope to the harness, and how to rappel properly by always leaning backwards.

After the briefing, we followed the instructor to the trailhead close to the Ripley Falls in Hart's Location NH,

then hiked in full gear

along the Ripley Falls Trail

to get to the beautiful waterfall that we were going to climb down. The path we took to get to the waterfall is shown below in pink.

The waterfall itself is beautiful.

After we climbed to the top of the falls, we waited while the instructors set stuff up, so  I took the opportunity to take more pictures of the beautiful scenery from up here.

When my turn came, I became a little apprehensive, having a fear of heights. Climbing down the waterfall was pretty slow and arduous, as leaning back made my back tire and hurt after a while, forcing me to take frequent breaks, with the instructor constantly yelling at me to lean back, which was the one thing I did not want to do.

Getting drenched by the cold water from the falls, which was more intense today because of the rains yesterday, was pretty refreshing though. Looking down to my final destination from the top was not as fun though. I was just glad when I finally reached the end of my journey. Because of my injured wrist, I decided to not take any more risks and waited while my friends tried rappelling a few more times before we finally headed back to our cars for the day. After our rappelling adventure, my friend and I decided to grab some chow at Bart's Deli and General Store nearby, with me getting the Black Russian Panini (Turkey, Pastrami, Swiss, Russian Dressing),

while my friend got the Loaded Steak and Cheese Sandwich,

which were both pretty good, if not for the peppers and onions on my friend's sandwich.

After lunch, we decided to go visit the Arethusa Falls, parking below near the trailhead below the Frankenstein Cliffs.

From here, the path we walked to get to the falls and the Frankenstein Cliff Overlook along the Arethusa Falls Trail is shown below in pink.

The Arethusa Falls themselves were pretty impressive, much better than the Ripley Falls. I'm glad we did not rappel down this one though.

The views from the overlook were pretty awesome as well, even though we had to walk a long arduous journey to get there,

and we were able to spot our car parked in the lot far below from there as well.

The only way from here was down, and it was really tiring for me, especially on my knees. Thankfully, the constant going up and down allowed me to rest different parts of my legs while going uphill or downhill, so it made it a little easier, although I did have to stop a few times along the way to rest them so I did not injure myself. Some pictures I took along the way here follow.

We were just extremely exhausted and happy when we finally got back to the car after a long day of fun hiking and rappelling. I'm just disappointed that even after all our efforts, we missed out on the Bemis Brook Falls, the Coliseum Falls, and the Falcon Cliff Overlook. Oh well, guess I'll come back again sometime in future.

July 6th 2013: Hiking at Mount Agamenticus, York ME

After a day of hiking in Massachusetts, it was time for more at Mount Agamenticus in York, ME, passing by Chase's Pond in town along the way.

Unlike my other hikes, we started off at the top instead of at the bottom of the mountain, as that was where we were able to park. The views from the top were excellent though.

When everyone finally arrived, it was time to set off. The path we took today walking through the woods is shown below in pink.

We headed down Witch Hazel path to get to the major intersection, going to the Goosefoot Trail to start off the Bear Loop. Next, we turned onto the Cedar Trail, following it until it intersects with the Porcupine Trail, whereupon we turned right onto it. One of my friends had brought her dog along, and it made the hike all the more fun, with the dog constantly running around, laying down tired, or heading into any puddle of water it saw to drink and cool down.

As we neared the Second Hill, I decided to take the group on a detour to see what was there at the top. Unfortunately, there was nothing much to see, although we could see our start point from here.

From here, we headed back to the Porcupine Trail and resumed our hike of the Bear Loop, going into the Chestnut Oak Trail to get back to the initial intersection. This time, we chose to go back up to the top using the Sweet Fern Trail, which was pretty steep, but we still managed to make it back in good time.

Finally done with our hike, a bunch of us decided to head into the York Beach area for dinner.

After finding parking, we had a hard time finding places to eat for a large group of people, so some of us decided to just go to the beach first, while a few of us headed to a small seafood takeout place called the Surfside Restaurant at County Street near Beach Street, located right next to the beach, where the fried dough and Clam Bellies I got were pretty good, although the fried dough was a little too big for me to finish.

After my quick dinner, I decided to head to the small but scenic beach to find everyone else.

From here, we decided to grab some ice cream at Sweet Josie's Candy Shoppe at 7 Railroad Avenue, where I got a cup of Maple Walnut ice cream, which wasn't too bad at all on a hot day like today.

After chatting for a bit longer, with people getting lobster to eat, it was finally time to head home. I had a great time meeting friends, and glad for such an opportunity to get out to Maine for a day.