Overcast Skies Produce Shower of Balloons in Santa Clarita Valley

Complying with the old law that what goes up must come down, hot-air balloonists plunked out of the sky all over the Santa Clarita Valley on Sunday, in yards and streets, beside a freeway and in a tree. Some went to jail the easy way--from above.

About 50 balloons went aloft from a field beside Magic Mountain in Valencia in the second and final day of the Valencia/Greater Los Angeles Balloon Race Spectacular, rising about 8 a.m., before occasional rain showers swept the valley.

Jackie Lapin, one of the race organizers, said haphazard landings are typical for a balloon race. “That’s the nature of balloons,” she said. “People land all over the place all the time. They go wherever the wind takes them.”

And so they did.

After cruising over a county jail facility, amusing inmates and deputies alike, one balloon landed on the center divider of California 126, a two-lane road, and several others landed alongside the Golden State Freeway near Hasley Canyon Road. One of those coming down near the freeway landed in a tree.

“There were no accidents caused by the balloons, but they were visual hazards,” said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Craig Klein. “People stopped on the freeway and we had to go up and down and tell people to keep moving on. It was just basically looky-loos.”

Paul Javier, 40, who lives atop a hill in Castaic, nearly had a balloon pilot as a breakfast guest.

“I was having breakfast in my kitchen, which has an expansive window, and I saw these balloons out there,” Javier said. “I went outside and saw this balloon coming in towards the house. I waved at them, they waved at me. They asked me what was for breakfast. I said, ‘ham and eggs.’ They said ‘can we stop by?’

“I said sure. They were right above the garage.”

But Javier said the balloon landed on the street in front of his house, and a ground crew whisked away the balloon and its pilot.

All the balloons had landed by 9:30 a.m. and rain began shortly after. When the day’s racing began at 8 a.m., however, the weather was fine, Lapin said. “There was not too much wind, and the pilots could maneuver.”

The race was a “hare and hound” event, in which the first balloon, designated the “hare,” took off and landed. The others followed, trying to drop a sandbag where the first balloon landed.

Wind blew the lead balloon to the dry bed of the Santa Clara River on the 2,500-acre Peter J. Pitchess Honor Rancho, a jail farm in Saugus.

Race organizers sought permission from the Sheriff’s Department to use the spot as their target. “We said ‘sure, fine’ because it was at least a mile and a half from where the inmates are,” said Sgt. David Taplin. “There was no hazard, no danger.”

Shortly after the request was granted, sheriff’s deputies and inmates were treated to the sight of dozens of balloons above the jail. Inmates stood outside watching as balloonists maneuvered toward the target and tried to toss beanbags onto a white chalked “X” marking the spot. Two more balloons landed on the jail grounds.

“It was very pretty, like giant colored dewdrops in the sky,” Taplin said.

The race winner was Jay Kimball, 40, of Del Mar, who tossed his beanbag 18 feet, 3 inches from the target. Runners-up, in order, were Steve Wilkinson, Palm Springs; Ray Shady, Lake Tahoe; Gay Jensen, Napa Valley, and Bruce Vrinkerhoff, Burbank.