We arrived safely at Front Range, about 7 miles SE of DIA and in the center of the Class B veil. The flight was uneventful until we were about an hour southeast of Denver. We had to make our way through a stalled front and some rain showers. The temperature fell about 8 degrees C in about 10 seconds - gee I guess that was when we passed the front. At 12000 feet and 4 degrees C in the clouds, we asked for a lower altitude. That was a little too close to freezing for our comfort. Scott shot the ILS at Front Range, and we popped out of the clouds about 600 feet AGL. There is no way we would have made it in without the IFR ticket.
Gary met us at the airport and tucked away 4822C in a hangar he procured for us. Thanks for the space, Dennis! The hangars our there are amazing - thirty foot tall ceilings, fully insulated, and heated. They are big enough to fit 3 or 4 RVs in. And there are rows of them!
We started the trek to Gary’s house. He is up in the mountains tucked away in the pine trees. It seems like more of a vacation location than a home. The overcast skies gave us an amazing show as we traveled up to 8500 feet with the clouds tucked in and billowing up around the mountain ridges.
The weather didn’t exactly cooperate for our stay. It was overcast with low clouds, rain, mist, and a lot of mountain obscuration the entire time. Although the plan to see some of Colorado from the skies had to be tossed out the window, the Ziliks manged to keep us highly entertained. We woke up Friday morning and walked up from the house to take a peek at the peak you can see just a few blocks from the Zilik’s house, Mt. Evans. Gary offered to take us up to the top, even though it was a quite a drive. Mt. Evans stands at 14,264. For comparison, Pike’s Peak is 14,110 and the tallest in Colorado is Mt. Elbert at 14,433.
We made the drive up the mountain in Gary’s 1967 Mustang, and what a drive it was. Down through the valleys, across the green meadows, and up the insanely steep inclines. We passed about a dozen cyclists working their way up the mountain. I’m tired just thinking about it! The park service was unable to get the road plowed all the way to the top due to the snow the night before. We had to stop and enjoy the views at Summit Lake, 12800 feet. Gary and I climbed up the slick snow another 500 feet or so while Scott watched us struggle up the hill. You know that I had to see what was on the other side, and Gary couldn’t let a Texan get higher than him. The views up the other side were pretty impressive. The real Texan was stomping around in about 4 inches of snow, not much but fluffier and deeper than he has ever seen. The lack of oxygen up there was definitely affecting all of us. It was a useful experience to feel the affects as it made us all the more aware when flying at higher altitudes. As we were leaving, the sky started dropping a light layer of snow. I don’t think we could have ordered a better departure.
We made our way back down off the mountain, with Scott and I still in our state of awe. On the way back to the house, we made a quick pit stop at Red Rock. There was a high school graduation going on, apparently several were scheduled for the weekend, and a wedding on the back side. A beautiful scene with the great acoustics one would expect.
Scott and Deb Mills, RV9A, joined us for dinner. The dinner happened to be a recipe Carolyn borrowed from Paul Dye - a great pulled brisket sandwich brought us right back to Texas. We completed the evening swapping stories.
Since Saturday was another non-flying day, we went to the Bucksnort Restaurant for lunch. Gary took us down a very narrow mountain road with the mountains rising several hundred feet straight up on both sides. As we arrived, Scott started humming the theme from Deliverance, and boy did it fit! The “bridge” was the bottom of a railroad car. The place would certainly not pass a building inspection, but it was another unique experience.
The afternoon brought a few sunny patches and the rain stopped, so we walked up to the top of the hill on which Gary and Carolyn live. It was some great exercise, and once again, the views were incredible. I sure like springtime in Colorado, even if the weather wasn’t so nice to us this year. We’ll be back.
The trip home made for a long day. Half of Texas was covered with scattered thunderstorms, and Austin was smothered with storms as we started the day. We made our way almost straight south from Denver to Dalhart, TX for gas and then continued down to Midland to avoid most of the convective activity. From there, we headed east and were greeted by a light tailwind. We dodged a few more thunderstorms, headed for our fuel stop to discover it, as well as most other attended locations in the area, were under some heavy rain. We were within 50 miles of another small strip that had a “number to call for fuel on weekends” and I decided to take a long shot and try to reach unicom. Lady luck was with us, and unicom answered to say they were called out by a jet and would wait for us. As we took off from our last fuel stop, we were pleasantly surprised to see the cloud tops low enough that we could go over the top and a nearly clear path home. Just one problem, north of home about 30 miles was covered with red and purple. Only one thing to do, fly on and hope it didn’t move south! Fortunately, it didn’t, and what we expected to be the toughest leg turned out to be the easiest.
A bit hard to see, but it is Mt. Evans in the background.
Mt. Evans on the from a viewing area on the drive up.
We always wondered what a Moutain Obscruation SIGMET looked like in person.
These trees can live up to 2,000 years. No wonder they are wrinkled.
Gary, please don't move to the right AT ALL!
The view from the other side.
Part of the accoustic formation at Red Rocks. And yes, the camera was level when we took the picture.
Down in the valley.
The view about 30 miles out from Georgetown.
I can't post a picture like that with the accompanying radar images.
Denver Under Overcast
. Those came out of a couple of 12MP cameras. I'll work on user training remediation.
and made an ILS approach to FTG's RNY 35. Way to go Scott! Did I mention that this was the Card's first real IFR XC with real IFR weather! I have to get me one of those IFR tickets.
Linear Mode
