Crestline Soaring Society

Arrived at Marshall around 14:15 and saw two PGs launch and sled. The top of the murk was eye-level, SW wind gusting to 5 MPH. A third one launched and got a few hundred over, so I set up the Falcon 3 170. The final PG had launched and I lost sight of him. While prepping my harness I heard my glider rustling and turned to see a very small dust devil leaving the left (north) wingtip. Got a little excited. Launched at 15:20 and worked a rowdy little core just high enough to go back and buzz the couple of carloads of hikers who'd watched me launch. Then I was scratching between 3600 and 3950 for a while. Found 600 FPM down while heading for the area above the 750. Scratched the bluffs valiantly for a while, but the weak cores were drifting fast to the east - following them would have meant being way downwind of the LZ and low in the very likely event of losing them before getting up. Dove in to the LZ to catch the McBus and retrieve my truck when I realized it was nearly 1600. Got about 20 minutes of airtime with only that one initial gain to speak of.