Sailing the skies

From 800 feet up, Katie Griggs watches the fog fracture and dissolve among the hotels and office buildings of downtown Reno on Thursday morning. She inhales as her altitude drops nearly 100 feet in a matter of minutes, and the sea of houses below her grows larger.

People emerge from their homes to begin the day only to find her 93,000- cubic-foot hot air balloon scraping treetops less than 100 feet off the ground.

Her balloon, named Sushi, stands out among the dozens of dots spattered across the skyline with its huge blue eyes, orange fins, and, what she calls "Marilyn Monroe" lips. Sushi is one of 13 special-shaped balloons taking part in the 25th annual Great Reno Balloon Race this weekend at Rancho San Rafael Regional Park.

With a flick of her hand, a stream of heat erupts upward, propelling her 36 foot-tall fish in search of higher wind currents.

"It's an adrenaline rush. It's exciting, it never gets old, and you never fly the same flight twice because the winds are different and the terrain is different," Griggs said.

More than 100 total balloons are expected to participate in the three-day event with Sushi being joined by the Wells Fargo bees, Hazelnut the squirrel, a bald eagle, Bud E. Beaver and the Energizer Bunny.

"Where else can you look up and see flying cows, soaring homes, giant bumblebees and a bunny taller than the Statue of Liberty dancing across the sky," said Marlene Olsen, executive director of the races.

Katie and her husband Forrest, who is also her crew chief, have participated in the event since 1993, but this is the first year they brought Sushi. Traditionally, Katie pilots her other balloon, the multi-colored 105,000-cubic-foot Tahoe Star. Katie lives in Incline Village most of the year, except when she is traveling.

As Katie surveys the horizon looking for a strong wind current, Forrest is hundreds of feet below, snaking his way through the morning rush hour trying to tail the balloon as best he can.

"We chase the balloon either by sight or by radio. She can tell us where she is in relation to landmarks so we can get to her," Forrest said. "Most of the areas where we fly are not rural settings, they are urban areas."

In the darkness more than two hours before, Forrest and the rest of the crew were already hard at work setting up a huge tarp called The Pond that serves as the home on the ground for Sushi, and checking out the balloon for preflight.

At 6:15 a.m. Katie - dressed in several warm layers - wandered to the mandatory pilot's briefing, where organizers, tower control and the Federal Aviation Administration officials advised them about restrictions and precautions.

As Griggs returned to her takeoff site, a giant fan was started to inflate the balloon. In an instant, the pilot light ignited the 19-million Btu heater awakening the giant fish and inflating it to life.

By comparison, the burner that provides heat to residential buildings usually produces 250,000 Btu.

Katie and Forrest spend their summers traveling to balloon events. While they try to hit new ones every year, there are a few staples - like the Great Reno Balloon Race - that they hit every year.

After almost an hour in the air, Katie begins looking for a landing spot, which should consist of a flat, open piece of ground. Her first choice for this flight is a road, but a large tree impedes her decent.

"We have more control than people think. We have a lot of control up and down, we can go down really fast and stop it very quickly with a lot of accuracy. We can also go up very fast and stop where want to," she said. "We go with the wind sideways so we have no control over that, but it's like sailing, you learn to read the winds and watch where the other balloons are going at different altitudes and you go where you want."

Next she spots the baseball fields of a school and sends her crew ahead to ask permission and try to get access. As she prepares for landing, the wind shifts and she drifts away from the school.

Finally, Katie spots a house with open pasture less than a mile from her launch site, and the ground crew again scrambles to find the homeowner and ask permission.

Forrest said, "99.8 percent of landowners are happy to have us and very cooperative, but we always try to get permission before we land on private property."

Slowly Katie lets gravity take over, watching over the side as the ground rises until the jarring stop as the basket touches down.

Just over 30 minutes after Katie and Sushi touch down, the 395-pound balloon is deflated and stored, ready for its flight.

"It's a great sport to be involved in because it gives us the opportunity to go different places and practice something we just love to do," Forrest said.

• Contact reporter Jarid Shipley at jshipley@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.