PHOTOS & TEXT BY ALLANNA JACKSON

The sixth annual White Mountains Balloon Festival was held June 23rd through the 25th, 2023, in Pinetop-Lakeside. Friday morning, June 23rd, the winds were too strong for the balloons to fly. At dusk the wind calmed down enough that the balloons glowed Friday evening as planned.

Saturday morning, June 24, dawned with perfect weather. At 5:45 am the pilots and their crews began preparing to fly. Humpty Dumpty, a balloon from Glendale, Missouri, flown by pilot Rich Lawhorn, participated in the event. When inflated, Humpty Dumpty is over 7 stories tall, holds 104,500 cubic feet of air, and can lift 1,600 lbs. This balloon was created in England. Humpty Dumpty has flown in Australia, New Zealand, the People’s Republic of China, and all around the USA. Humpty Dumpty lifted off with the mayor of Pinetop-Lakeside and her daughter as passengers.

Hot air balloons seldom land where they started so somebody needs to go wherever the balloon lands to take it down and pack it up. This is the job of the chase crew. While the general equipment and procedures are the same for all balloons, the details differ as each pilot and crew have their own preference for how they pack and transport the balloon and its equipment.

While the balloons float gracefully through the air, the chase crew finds the road routes that will take them to where it lands. The destination changes during the flight so the pilot and chase crew communicate with each other, and the other pilots and crews, via walkie talkie.

Humpty Dumpty’s chase crew identifies itself as “Egg Crate” on the radio. The Egg Crate crew recruited two of us to help the people who came with Humpty Dumpty. As soon as the balloon was aloft, we climbed into the Egg Crate van and drove north up Woodland Road, the closest earth-bound approximation of Humpty Dumpty’s flight path to Rainbow Lake. We couldn’t see the balloon through the trees. The pilot radioed that it would be a short flight and he was looking at landing west of Rainbow Lake. We turned around to take Homestead Road around to the west side of the lake. When the pilot radioed that he was going west of the Pinetop-Lakeside Sanitary District instead we turned around again and went northwest on White Mountain Blvd toward Hansen Lane. We turned around yet again to go north out Porter Mountain Road when Humpty Dumpty flew northeast, aiming for the meadows between Jacques Marsh and Timber Mesa.

We arrived at the junction of Porter Mountain Road and Penrod Road to find several other chase vehicles there. Three Pinetop-Lakeside police units were poised to direct traffic if needed. One balloon touched down in the southwest corner of the meadow on the east side of Penrod Road. It bounced twice before stopping near the barbed wire fence. The pilot was able to keep the balloon upright until its chase crew arrived to pull it safely down into the meadow. Once it was clear the balloons were not obstructing traffic, the police officers departed.

Meanwhile, Humpty Dumpty and another balloon were landing in the field south of Jacques Marsh on the west side of Penrod Road. The Egg Crate stopped at the corner of Porter Mountain Road. The crew jumped out and ran to Humpty Dumpty while the driver turned the van around. As we ran, someone asked about gates in the barbed wire fence. I remembered that a gate that had been at the corner of the pasture for decades was gone. I crossed that fence recently while out walking and thought I’d found all the gates on the east side wired shut. The road to Jacques March offered a possible route to the balloon from the west side of the meadow. While the rest of the crew helped control Humpty Dumpty, the van driver and I went looking for access. We found a road that stopped too far short of where the balloon was, so we backtracked.

A third balloon landed southwest of Jacques Marsh in a spot that was easy for its chase crew to reach, but the Egg Crate driver commented it was uncomfortably close to the power line. Another chase vehicle was blocking the road in the process of backing up a trailer to turn around. While we waited, the Egg Crate driver jumped out to look for the cause of a rattle at the back of his van.

We returned to Porter Mountain Road in time to see a truck driving down the steep shoulder of Penrod Road into the meadow. Someone had discovered a gate in that east fence near both balloons was openable. When the truck got safely down into the meadow the Egg Crate driver decided his van could do it too, so we did. The driver turned off the van so the catalytic converter wouldn’t set fire to the grass.

One crew member took control of Humpty Dumpty’s top line while the crew chief gave the rest of us instructions about spreading out a very large tarp that had sandbags sewn into each corner. After the tarp was positioned, Humpty Dumpty’s envelope was laid down on it. As the envelope came down the crew chief asked me to catch Humpty Dumpty’s left arm and take it across to the right side. Someone else brought his right arm across to the left side, crossing his arms to secure them in the middle. The passengers joined the crew in squeezing the air out of the envelope by rolling the edges inward from both sides. The crew chief wrapped straps around the envelope every 10 feet or so to keep it bundled together and straight. A special strap secured Humpty Dumpty’s arms.

The bag for the balloon envelope was in a wheeled cart, but the meadow is so rocky it wouldn’t roll. We picked up the envelope and made ourselves into a human caterpillar as we stacked Humpty Dumpty into its sack. One man enjoyed the task of lying on the sack to squeeze the rest of the air out of the envelope. The driver backed the van as close as possible to the bag and we shoved it onto the hydraulic lift, then from there into the van. When that was done the driver backed the van as close as possible to the basket and burner rack. We slid them onto the lift. When the basket was securely strapped to the lift it was raised to its up position. Humpty Dumpty was in his Egg Crate ready for transport.

The van spun when trying to drive at an angle up the steep shoulder onto Penrod Road. The driver backed down and tried a straighter approach up the slope. When the roads were clear the driver made a short run and this time the van scrambled up onto the pavement. Then everyone, pilot, passengers, and crew, squeezed into the van for the drive back to Mountain Meadow Recreation Complex where we had the traditional post-flight ceremony.

Fourteen balloons flew Saturday morning. A few stayed behind to give free tethered rides. An estimated 9,000 people attended the evening shows. We are already anticipating the 7th Annual White Mountain Balloon Festival in June 2024.