Marks Kitfox Adventures: First Snow

It's been a very tiresome week. I've worked a lot of hours and most days started around 4 a.m. with a couple days earlier than that. In short: I'm exhausted. I had to work Saturday as well, so Sunday was sleep-in day. Just so you know, I fell asleep around 10:30 p.m. Saturday night. I woke up around 6 a.m., noticed that it wasn't light out yet, so turned over in bed and fell right back asleep. I woke up having had several dreams (that I can still remember) around 11 a.m. That's right 12+ hours. Told ya I was exhausted.

Anyway, I look around the room as I am debating getting out of bed (anybody feel like that during the winter time?) and I notice a very white light coming in the window of my room. I get up and look out: SNOW! It snowed about 2 inches. I know that's not a whole lot, but this is the first snow of the season, so...

Well, I got up and did some things around the house. Then I wanted to go out and play (I know I'm a kid at heart). So what's a grown kid going to take to play in the snow?... You guessed it: It is time for the FOX! So off we went to the hanger. Got out there and did a engine preheat for the first time ever. In case you don't know what that is, I'll explain: Unlike a car, aircraft engines are very important in that your very life can depend on it performing perfectly. With that in mind, we want to treat it the best we can. So in the winter time, that means warming it up BEFORE we start it! If I were rich, I would simply just heat my hanger all the time. However, I'm not rich so I must go out there and do what I can to get the engine warm and happy. There isn't any electricity out there, but Dave's got a portable generator so I could utilize my high tech heating device. Bet you'll never guess what my heating device is... so I'll tell you. It's very technical and very expensive device for heating hair... I mean air... I mean... crap! Okay it's a hair dryer. Laugh all you want, but it actually works. I take and old sleeping bag and (still laughing, right?) put it over the cowl of the engine. Then I take the hair dry... I mean heating device and stick it in an air intake. Then I start the generator and turn on the hair... heat device and let her warm up. Piece of cake.

So anyway, who cares right? That's my life. Pretty incredible, I know. Actually, now that we have the engine warmed up, let's hop in the plane and actually do something incredible. Here we go, starting to play in some snow. Fun, but let's go somewhere cool... How about landing by a lake, just north of town.

That was fun. But the flying was good, so I took off again. I decided to go to a fave (but secret) place not too far away. Very cool place (especially this time of year... burrrrrr!). I fly over to make sure nothing has changed. Satisfied, I then turn around and make my approach. Now, having landed here successfully before, does not mean I will be successful this time around (and also the fact that there's 3 inches of snow - AND I've never landed on snow before). So here I go. I lightly touch down... tickling the tires with the soft snow "runway". I allow the tires to lower until there are touching the actual ground. I then "feel it out" and drag the runway (it's really a sandbar along the Green River). Everything feels good, but I'm out of runway so I power up and go around for another attempt. This time, I'm almost certain I'm going to land. So I slow her up and decend down to about 30 feet above the river. As I come around the corner I'm about 10 feet AGL (abover ground level) and doing about 45 mph. The FOX stalls at 40, so I'm getting close. I start to level out and see my tracks from the previous attempt. They look a little deep... huh. So I cautiously touch down again. Once settled, I then look down at the tire plowing through the snow. It feels firm and there doesn't seem like much drag, so I commit to land by pulling the power off to idle. I then get on the brakes as this "airstrip" isn't much more than 700 feet in length. I slow down with actually plenty of runway left and turn around. I taxi back to where I touched down. I only used about 300 feet. Pretty cool to be taxiing on snow (I think I might need to get skis for the FOX). Having got to the end, I turn around and shut down the engine. When the propellers come to a stop, everything turns silent. Ever been up in the mountains in the winter time with snow on the ground? Well I guess it's the snow that absorbs all the sound and makes things real quiet. Whatever the reason, there is absolutely NO sound. Hope I can get back out of here, is my first thought. Anyway, it is simply an amazing place. I get out of the FOX and take it all in. Man I love the places I end up! Truly amazing.

I decide to go for a hike. I notice some tracks in the snow and decide to follow them. They led me up on the bench and follow the river upstream for a bit. Then, I notice a cool slot canyon opening up to my right. I decide to take it. So I start hiking up it. It is so neat as the canyon walls go straight up (or even over your head) a long ways up, probably 4-500 feet. Cool place! It is so neat with all the snow there as well. I hike for a ways then I am shut down (stopped) by a dry waterfall. I can tell that it isn't very "dry" in the spring, but now it's just a frozen pool with a big drop-off. I try, unsuccessfully, to find a way up it. Once I start something, it's hard to accept defeat, so I try a different way. Doesn't work. I finally do a 180 and start back down. As I start to exit the canyon, I remembered those tracks that I had followed. The tracks went by the canyon and that's were I left them. I decided to follow the tracks further. Glad I did! I found that they went up a hill and led me to a trail that went back into the slot canyon. This time however, I was up about 80 feet along the canyon wall. The trail kept going and took me right past the dry waterfall! Sweet, I thought, I found a way past it. So I continued on, but then I started to notice that the day was coming to an end (don't you just love the 5 hours of daylight in the winter time!). So I headed back out. I guess I'll have to come back to see the rest of the canyon some day. Pretty neat though to find such a cool spot to fly in to.