The bald eagle off my right shoulder is giving me the squinty eye, gazing over its wing with

a mixture of mistrust and disbelief. For just a moment, my imagination takes over and the birds sharp hooked beak, giant talons and predatory glare look ready made to sli!e ripstop nylon and !ut dental floss thin suspension lines. Theres a nest around here somewhere in the trees below, but "m desperate to find a !limb and #r. $agle is going up, so hes just going to have to share the air with me. %e !ir!le together in the early spring air, gaining altitude with ea!h turn, ea!h eyeing the other. The eagles wings are stret!hed long and flat, tail feathers twit!h with ea!h adjustment to the birds angle of bank. The master pra!ti!es his art effortlessly, a lesson in effi!ien!y. " try to mat!h the eagles turn radius, a gentle lean into my re!liner like harness and a slight tug on my right brake toggle sets the turn. &azing past my nylon wingtip a!ross to the eagles !o!ked head, we ride the rising air upwards in silen!e, a human thrilling with the purity of unpowered flight and a for!e of nature simply living, both now at ease with our !ompanionship. Together we !limb out over 'lan!hard #ountain, the pat!hwork farmland of the (kagit flats stret!hes south in shades of green and brown, sparkling water !radles the (an )uan "slands to the west. *ltimately, human engineering and knowledge is no mat!h for feathers, bone, and millennia of soaring pra!ti!e, so the bird easily out !limbs me and glides off, tired of sharing the rising air with su!h an obviously unpra!ti!ed flier. " whisper a word of thanks to the eagle, grateful for the lesson. +n the summit, three hundred feet below, " !an see other wings being stret!hed out on the south laun!h. " wont be alone for long. $arlier in the day " shouldered my pa!k at the ,a!ifi! -orthwest trailhead off .hu!kanut /rive and started hiking. The morning started !alm and !risp with bright sunlight streaming through the evergreens as " puffed up the hill along with runners, walkers, and 0abradors. The fore!ast had looked good for flying, typi!al spring post frontal instability, a !old sky and the promise of a sunny spring day to heat the ground and send warm air up and away. (mall wisps of !loud began to form atop the rising air, marking lift, and spurred me to walk faster. 1iking in the .hu!kanuts with a giant ba!kpa!k always draws !omments. .amping2 Training2 Through 1iking2 .limbing $verest2 +nly a few lo!als re!ognize the red and bla!k expedition sized ba!kpa!k for a flying ma!hine. (till fewer identify it !orre!tly. "ts not a '.3.(.$. jumping rig. Thats for skydiving from bridges and !liffs. "t is most !ertainly not a ,arasail. "m not interested in getting towed around .an!un by boat while sipping !o!ktails. (ome guess hang glider. .lose, but this ma!hine !ontains no rigid tubes, !an be !arried by one person, and fits in the trunk of a ,rius. The !onfusion is understandable. ,aragliding, while an established sport in $urope, is obs!ure and mysterious here in its birthpla!e. 1owever, if you s!an the skies !arefully in the ,a!ifi! -orthwest youll find funny !res!ent shaped *F+s soaring above many of our mountains. 3 !loser look will reveal a human, often grinning euphori!ally, dangling below in a lay z boy type seat.

,aragliders are designed to go up by flying in !olumns of rising air. %hile some hang glider pilots !redit wit!h!raft, a paraglider wing is formed by air inflating the spa!e between a top and bottom skin of nylon to form a ram airfoil. %hen !onditions are right, they !an gently boat around for hours over a laun!h site, !limb in strong thermals above 45,666 feet, perform a!robati! flips, spins and spirals, as well as travel long distan!es !ross !ountry. The state distan!e re!ord, set in $astern %ashington at .helan 'utte, !urrently stands at 476 miles. *nlike rigid hang gliders though, a !ross !ountry paraglider pilot !an pa!k up the wing, sti!k out a thumb and hit!hhike home. -ot bad for a 89 pound wad of nylon sail!loth and dyneema lines. 3 few days later, there is whitewater in the air. 3lthough no one !an see it, everyone agrees it has to be there. 3s six of us bump along the steep logging road towards the top of 'la!k #ountain the thought dampens everyones enthusiasm. 3ll the weather data has been !he!ked and re!he!ked, the lo!al weather guru has !himed in and my amateur fore!asting skills whisper :!aution;. There will be lift today, the puffy flat bottomed !louds sprinkled above the -ooksa!k <alley and ringing #t. 'aker speak to that fa!t. 'ut the shredded tops of the !louds and the aviation fore!asts all point to wind thrown into the mix and wind means turbulen!e. %hen youre flying an air!raft that only weighs 766 pounds in!luding the pilot, a little turbulen!e !an go a long way. .aution and :bump toleran!e; is what is needed today. (till, a !han!e to fly 'la!k #ountain is not to be passed up. The peak squats astride the *(=.anadian border north of #aple Falls and has the greatest verti!al relief of all the -orthern %ashington drive up sites. (tanding on laun!h at 'la!k always puts a small lump in my throat as " stare down over 8966 to the landing zone next to (ilver 0ake. (pring !omes late to 'la!k, with a laun!h elevation of >>66 the lo!als often have to wait until )uly to drive to the top. Fortunately, the road melts out earlier than the rest of the mountain allowing for long flights over the still snow !overed forest floor. ,iling out of the suburban at the top of the hill my novi!e assessment boils down to, :0ooks good?you go first.; The whitewater is out there in the sky, roiling invisibly. "n our small group are sky gods who have been flying sin!e sex was safe and paragliding was dangerous, so " defer to their greater skill, better judgment and larger huevos, assisting with getting wings spread out on laun!h. +ne by one we laun!h from the ben!h !reated by the narrow logging road above a steep !lear!ut full of stumps and slash. 0ater the !ut will be thi!k with pink fireweed blossoms, but for now it is mostly under snow. The tooth like peaks of .anada glint in the sun to the north. 3 smooth pull on the glider lines brings my wing overhead. Then it is only a few short, strong steps to the edge of the road and the drop towards the valley, some 8966 below. .ommitment and more than a little faith sees me off the ground, skimming the stumps, and qui!kly !lear of the terrain, dangling under my magi! !res!ent of blue and orange. 3 !a!kle of glee and then the dan!e begins.

Truly skilled paraglider pilots make navigating turbulent air look de!eptively easy. 3 good pilot !an dampen most of the pit!hing and rolling motions !aused by turbulen!e with minute brake inputs and subtle weight shift in the harness. To those on the ground they appear to be gra!efully floating through the sky. +n this day, my glider looked more like a bron!o, bu!king and tossing me around underneath. #y te!hnique was a !ombination of over rea!tion and poorly timed inputs. 'ut modern paragliders are forgiving and after an hour of battle " had settled down and learned to work the strong lift while !ompensating for the holes in the air. (ilver 0ake glimmered in the valley bottom and .ultus 0ake in .anada be!koned like a siren. " imagined #ounties down there eyeing us suspi!iously through their bino!ulars daring us to !ross the border and land. 3fter the rodeo fest at 'la!k " was looking forward to some mellow flying and a mid week !all to fly Fort $bey was a wel!ome !hange. The !ell phone tree was in full effe!t this day and " re!eived a se!ond hand report that $beys 466 !oastal bluff was working. +ne hundred feet is not mu!h height to work with, but $bey is spe!ial. (itting on the point of %hidbey "slands elbow, the %%"" gun empla!ement turned state park stares straight down the barrel of the (trait of )uan de Fu!a and embra!es the westerlies that tear through the strait. These steady o!ean breezes !ompress against the bluff and are for!ed upwards !reating a band of lifting air in front of the hill. $agles, seagulls, and radio !ontrolled airplanes now days share the butter smooth, !onsistent lift with paragliders. $bey however, is notoriously fi!kle. "n a sport more !ondition dependent than surfing and more unforgiving than bullfighting, if the wind speed isnt &oldilo!ks perfe!t, sometimes its best to stay on the ground. " throw my !ross bike and surfboard in the van just in !ase. &azing out from the grassy laun!h plateau at Fort $bey reminds me of all the reasons " love the ,a!ifi! -orthwest. The fort !ommands a 766 degree view of the (trait, 3dmiralty "nlet, and a!ross to the !loud veiled +lympi! #ountains. (mith "sland lies north, a desolate orphan adrift, and the sea off ,oint ,artridge is rolling and breaking in a steel blue tide rip. Today the drama is enhan!ed by a single blue and red paraglider expertly !ranking steep, banked s turns in front of the bluff. #y windmeter reads 7@ knots. Today, " wont fly. .onditions are just a little too strong. Today " will huddle in the breeze and wat!h that single glider swoop and dive along the bluff fa!e, sharing the sky with the gulls and a lone eagle. "ll sit on the edge of the bluff until the sky turns red and the sun slips below the water to the west, the wind dies and the first star !omes out. Then "ll remember my early spring flight with the eagle at 'lan!hard. That magi!al first !limb with the eagle allowed me to stay aloft most of the afternoon, !ir!ling over the hill, never quite making it ba!k to +yster /ome, but trying mightily. $ventually, the sky !louded over, the lift turned off, and those of us still in the air glided down to the hay field landing zone on .hu!kanut /rive. The day !on!luded, as !ustom di!tates, at the 0onghorn Tavern in $dison, where a home inspe!tor, an author, a botanist, a repairman, a pipefitter, a dairy farmer, a professor, a !on!rete artist, a letter !arrier, an

exe!utive assistant, a park ranger, and a !arpenter all toasted to the day they wouldnt have to drive to the bar. (omeday, they would fly.