Saturday April 16th looked to be a nice day so I rode out to the North Fork for a walk.
After walking a couple miles out the Bowman Lake road, I returned to the Polebridge Mercantile to eat my dinner sandwich.
As I was eating I noticed some folks breaking out a hot air balloon.
And so I hung out as the balloon owner took it up on a "tether" checking it out and giving some visitors short rides.
There's a 15 minute video uploading now. YouTube is busy Sunday mornings so it'll be an half hour or more uploading
Here's some snaps for now
They fill the balloon with a big blower fan first. The lady keeps tension on a line hooked to the top of the balloon to keep in stretched out for filling
After the balloon is pretty much filled with air while lying down, the pilot will light off the burner intermittently to get it to rise and remain upright. The video shows this process much better.
Then it it's "Up, Up and Away" He took it up and down several times on the tether. As you will see in the video, the balloon owner/pilot was VERY nice. He gave rides to some of the people who just happened to be around, including small children. I thought that was very cool. I bet those kids, fearless lil buggers, won't ever forget their hot air balloon ride
Later
pete