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Soaring Mount Mitchell
South of Wamego across the flat flood plain of the Kaw river and short glacial moraine abruptly rise a series of bluffs that tower two to three hundred feet above the plain and continue then south as part of the Flint Hills. Closest to the highway and one of the tallest is an imposing bluff called Mt Mitchell named after Captain John Mitchell, who was part of the original band that started the Beecher Bible and Rifle church and the associated militia that took part in some of the pre Civil War action know as bleeding Kansas. On top of the mount is a marble monument in his honor. The land originally owned by the Mitchell family was given to the Kansas Historical Society who recently passed title to Audubon of Kansas, who along with the Mt Mitchell Prairie Guardians manage the property. The mount has a world class view of the Kaw valley extending from Manhattan to east of the Jeffery Energy Center and several bends of the river are clearly seen with the city of Wamego in the center of this vista. A lush tall grass native pasture of Indian grass and Big Blue Stem cover the hillside and in late fall is decorated with the bright yellow of Maxamillian Sunflower and tall Golden Rod. Monarch butterflies are swarming the Golden Rod and occasional Gold Finch are flitting among the seed heads of the sunflower. The sun is warm and with a mild wind from the north there is abundant lift for the half dozen red-tailed hawks patrolling the ridge. It was these soaring hawks that ealier had caught my eye and made me wonder if I could join them for a ride on the wind above the ridge. I belong to a group that enjoys radio-control flying with small airplanes. Several of us are glider enthusiast that launch our gliders on warm afternoons in search of lift, but my description of Mt Mitchell and its slope soaring possiblities provoked several of them to give it a try. The parking lot is at the base of the mount on its southern slope. It took us some minutes to unload the gliders, assembly them and begin the long truge up the trail to the summit. On the lee side of mount there was virtually no breeze, but once on the summit the wind was about ten miles an hour. A simple toss into the wind and my motorless plane began a steep upward climb of two or three hundred feet where it joined two other gliders enjoying the ample lift supplied by the gentle north breeze over the bluff and there were thermals further out arising off the dark cultivated fields on the plains below. When wind encounters a steep face, as on the bluff, it rises like a wave for many feet obove the bluff or obstruction and this lift is what is used both by hawks and gliders and is called slope soaring. Under the right conditions, usually in high winds on a steep mountain slope and a rigid airframe, doing what is called dynamic soaring, speeds in excess of four hundred miles an hour have been clocked. But today we are interested in only the simple pleasure of keeping our gliders aloft as long as we want , drifting back and forth across the face of the bluff with an occasional steep swift dive to eye level only to begin the climb back to altitude. A large Red Tail Hawk seems to take offense and aggressively approaches one of the gliders only to swiftly bank away after deciding the plane was neither a threat or edible. I make the mistake of letting my plane get too far down wind, losing too much altitude in trying to get back into the lift it crashes into a plumb bush on the back side of the hill. The glider is retrieved after a brief search,it is undamaged and soon flying again, the only injury is to my pride. Watching the gliders surfing on the wind so effortlessly is almost hypnotic and it is difficult yo bring them back to earth after a glorious afternoon. We hike back down the hill aware of the beauty of the site and its potential for soaring flight, we will not be long in returning. |
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