The Winter of 1977 brought a record low snowpack to the Cascades. The 6000' level of Mount Hood which normally saw 140" collected a grand total of just 21" of snow. Skiing was non-existent to miserable, but we were able to access high mountain launches all winter that would normally have been snowed in until April or May.
In January Gerry Watson and Bob Stadshaugh were driving home
through the Stillaguamish Valley after a day of "Winter" flying at
4300' Sauk Mtn. when they spotted the freshly logged south facing slopes of Frailey
Mtn. Curious, they searched for a road
to the top and found it with ease. The
logging road climbed through the lower forest, then switchbacked across the cleared
slope to a small, brush-choked clearing atop the 2600' ridge, at the edge of a
50-foot vertical cliff, where a fire lookout tower had once stood. Understanding the potential they started doing
some rough clearing of brush.
A couple of days later (Jan 13, 1977) Bob, Gerry, Chuck
Drake and I went back and cleared enough to make the cliff launchable. The shape of the top of the cliff was awkward
for launching and we had left a lot more Oregon Grape stems and roots sticking
up than was ideal but, launch we did.
A light 5mph breeze was trickling up the face. Chuck Drake launched first in his Dragonfly
followed by Bob, Gerry and I on our Wind Gypsy Mk IV's. I was last off and my launch was BAD. The awkward shape of the cliff edge tripped
me up and my base tube caught on a root we hadn't cut short enough. As my nose rotated down the root let go and I
barely cleared the edge of the cliff, with zero airspeed and pointed straight
down. Good thing I had 50 feet to get
that Gypsy flying. We all had fly downs.
We kept Frailey mostly to ourselves and did a bit of
clearing and shaping of the launch with each visit. We made a point not to land next to the
highway where we were certain to be seen.
Many times, we would see glider rigs racing to or from Sauk Mtn flydowns
on Highway 530 while we circled above them.
Frailey became famous for cow pie thermals where you could detect lift
by scent from a few thousand feet. My
third flight at Frailey was my very first trip to cloudbase.
When word got out and the site became popular, access
started to become more tenuous. Property
owners who didn't mind a few pilots landing on their property changed their
attitudes towards free flyers as crowds increased. This forced us to become adept at building temporary
bridges over washouts, building sections of roads when another section had disappeared
and picking locked gates. Savvy flyers without
gate keys obtained from owners always had a piece of welding rod or a 60 penny
nail (Fox Key) in their glovebox that would allow the opening of most
"modified" logging road gates.
I stopped flying one day while there with Steven Holte and
Mike Daily. I was finding myself with
less and less time to keep my skills up but still wanted to fly in the adventurous
fashion that my soul required. Tricky
launches and landings in rowdy conditions were becoming "more
exciting" and more frequent than they should have been. More practice was what I needed but time wasn't
going to allow that, so it was time to go. I packed up my K2, laid down on the launch
that I had cleared nearly a quarter century before and watched Mike and Steve circle
up above Frailey and disappear.