Tom Huff and I set off for Lakeview on Tuesday evening. The fly-in proper started on Thursday morning, but the forecast for Wednesday midday looked promising and, as it's a seven hour drive, we decided to sleep out at Pine Mtn to break the journey. Pine and Lakeview are out in the high desert and, for someone brought up in Scotland, deserts are the most fascinating landscapes in America.
I slept out under the desert stars, listening to distant coyotes. The moment the morning sun hit my sleeping bag I got up before I baked. Brothers is a really small town / village / hamlet (around here, there are one building 'towns') but it has a shop / saloon / post-office / restaurant and we headed there for breakfast. I'm sure it used to be more lively (the school closed down a couple of years ago) but all the tables were busy for breakfast with a mixture of locals and tourists. It's hard not to think of immigrants arriving a hundred years ago and struggling to survive in the harsh environment. And I know it sounds condescending, but it felt good to support this little business in Brothers.
Suitably stuffed, we headed onto Lakeview. We had hoped to fly Black Cap, but it was pretty hopeless. Initially, the wind was over the back. Then, as huge clouds built from the S, the direction sorted itself out, but the sky was too threatening to launch. We met up with Dan and Mary Beth and some other pilots and explored a launch for Abert's Rim used by hang pilots as thunder grumbled and lightning flashed.
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