Monday morning I get a call. Brandon: “Are you in for a plane adventure?” Me: “Like most of life’s adventures, I’m in”

I then began to pack my bags for a quick flight up to Seattle. I made it there in time to meet up with Brandon Tuesday morning at 6am to pickup his new plane. I got the “green light” feeling when we were strapping in and double-checking everything on the runway right before our full day trip. Brandon said to me, “I got the plane checked out a week ago, so we’re good.”

We made several fuel, coffee and taco stops along the way.  This was my first time in a small plane that wasn’t his Yak, so it was especially nice to sit next to someone and actually be able to hold a conversation rather than looking at the back of a helmet. It was also much less freighting since we wouldn’t be pulling + G’s… which I’ll talk about in another post.

Here is a little photo gallery of our trip down. I’m no pilot – but I’ve now flown over 800 miles!

This is Mt Shasta. This was especially important to me on the trip because I spend a few weeks here every spring. Right about where the snow line and clouds sit is 7,500 feet. That’s where the trail-head starts to climb the mountain. The top sits at 14,180. We’re flying at 7,500 feet in these photos. I’ve stood on the top, and I plan to every year until I can’t snowboard down it anymore.

Magic backpacks..

These clouds were a solid hour highlight of our trip. The sensation of flying in between, around and through all of these clouds is honestly beyond words. Brandon and I both agreed that its very similar to that “dropping in” feeling one can get from surfing a wave, dropping a line on a snowboard or skis, or any other similar gravity-based, adrenaline-pumping sport. The amount of people that actually ever get to experience this? I haven’t a clue, but I’m very grateful that I’m one of them.

Here’s an iPhone video of us flying through the clouds:

Hope you enjoy, let me know if you’d like to see more of this type of content and I’ll take a bit of time to post stuff up.