I have to drive by the turn off to PU the trailer.

I will drive to the North Site first and give it an eye.

I will call back to the wife with the poop, and she will post it
here.

If it is too bad I will still PU the trailer for Friday morning
or when ever.

My van is only two wheel drive, so the poop will be based on two
wheel perspective.

thanks mike

My van is only two wheel drive, so the poop will be based on two
wheel perspective.

thanks mike

Mike - have to work most of Thursday, but can break loose by about 3 or so. If it's just a matter of a little traction, my Tacoma is 4WD and I've weighted up the bed. I can meet you out there about 4 or 4:30. As Joe said - don't want to tear up any grassland or anyone's yard. I was going to drive out and eyeball it myself on Thursday night anyway, giving up the idea of towing my trailer out until I'd had a chance to evaluate the mud factor. If conditions are OK, I'll wait until Friday earliest to take my trailer out.

Well, soup beats fire ban!

I don't think soup beats fire ban when you get stuck in it 🙂

Edward

All things considered, we are going to wait until Friday morning to show up with the trailer and campers and to start flying. Let's give the roads and prairie the benefit of doubt and a better chance to dry out a little. Thanks.

Should a shovel and tow strap be in our range box this time 😀

Edward

Good call, if it takes a 4X4 to get there we should not be there.

Was at the site for a few hours this morning.

Not sure how much snow....would guess four to five inches.

Slight drifting, dug out the gate and a couple spot on the road.

Drove around two places. Places where vehicles have had
problems in the past. (Motorhome Stuck Site). A combination
of mud and the slope of the road makes it difficult.

Made it all the way to the area with a two wheel drive van.

I hope by seeing my tracks , the four wheelers out having fun
will see it has been used and not be spinning all over the place.

The main roads are very good but wet and slushy. DO NOT WASH
ANYTHING BEFORE GOING.

If we are careful and slow everything will be just fine. For cars, motor
homes and the such.

If I had a motor home I would probably show up early while it is still
somewhat frozen to keep my rig clean.

It is melting quick. A noticeable difference just from the time I was there.

I would bet that 80% of the road will be melted by tomorrow. Most of the
road only had one or two inches on it.

Hope to see all there.

I have the trailer parked at my work. I will show up at eightish.

See ya

We appreciate your Recon work. It seems we get all extremes, drought, lush green, and mud. We might get a green prairie this summer after all. Though, we need a few years of greenery to offset the last few years.

Anyhow as I babble on, thanks for the heads up.

Steve

Mike,

Thank you for the report! Now I'm just worried about August - a lot of grass and then it cures. Now we need some hungry cattle!

Edward

Hope we gona have some pepes with kick a@# cameras!

I just talked to Joe Hinton. He said it is still quite muddy but drying out. Should be much better by this afternoon. We have decided not to bring the motorhome today.

Dennis B

Just talked to Dennis and he said that it is worse then he had thought. 4wd is not needed but would help, you do need to be careful. The snow seemed to drift into the low spots. The road to the site is very muddy. We do not need to tear up the road and we do not want people to get stuck so be careful.

They are expecting the ground to dry up some as the day goes on and should get better through the weekend as long as we do no get any more moisture. The crowd is slowly building, the club trailer and couple of small trailers and a camper made it in but the bigger trailers and RV's might be a little harder to get in and out if not staying for the weekend might be a challenge as well.

They are flying rockets, looks like it still will be a great weekend!

Just to follow up here, I hope most if not all of you made it out. The flying conditions while I was there, Friday afternoon through Saturday, were the best I can remember in years. Light and variable winds on the ground for the most part, temps in the mid to high 50's. The ground was plenty wet but not muddy at all once you got in past the main road. It was fantastic.

Whitney and I made a bunch of flights, 3 of which simmed between 5K and 7K feet, all apogee deploy, and the furthest walk for retrieve was not more than a few hundred yards.

Not sure about the rest of you but after last years dry weather and subsequent lack of flying, I was really struggling to get excited again. Mini Mayhem fixed all that right up. As always, I enjoyed the people, the prarie, and the great launches. Thanks to all who made it happen.

Okay, I'm sorry, working on catching up but it's already a week later and most of the launch logs are almost all posted. Friday and Saturday are anyway. Looking like the weather has finally turned the corner and winter is behind us meaning the prairie will green up quickly and then dry out quicker. Next big launch event will be the NAR National Sport Launch in Pueblo - definately worth the drive south if the weather holds. Otherwise, Tripoli Colorado is flying on Sunday, May 19th (Research rules apply) and NCR will be back out at the North Site for the "It's June So Soon" launch, Saturday and Sunday, June 1st and 2nd.