Getting Wet

The weather yesterday looked like rain so we took the campers out early to identify trees and birds hoping to beat the storm. There were a few rain drops toward the end of our hike, but nothing very serious. Later in the morning the weather cleared, and by 1pm when the kids went home the sun was shining. The kids had a great day. They especially like dissecting owl pellets, which are the masses of undigested bones and fur that owls regurgitate. Many of the kids were able to identify the animals the owls had been eating based on the bones they found in the pellet.

Rodent Skull

When I got back to the visitor's center (VC) I was exhausted but still had some work to do. I idly noticed that the sky was beginning to cloud over again. I wasn't particularly concerned since there seemed ample time for me to bike back to my quarters. I was working on internship paperwork around 2:15 when I noticed the sky getting positively dark and the wind beginning to pick up. I began to think about gathering up my things and biking like mad for home when the thunder started. Close behind the thunder came the hard cold rain. The wind blew the big 100ft loblolly pines until they were bent nearly double. The power went out in the VC and it was really dark for the middle of the afternoon. I kept working, thinking that the whole thing would soon blow over.... It didn't. It was 3:45 and the storm was still blowing hard.

Finally around 4:15 the rain started to let up and I thought this was the slackening of the rain I'd been waiting for. Surely the storm was close to wearing itself out. I jumped on my bike and started the three mile ride for home. By the time I reached the end of the VC parking lot I knew I'd been wrong. This was no break or dwindling of the storm. It was merely a brief lull. I wasn't even a quarter of the way before the wind grew so violent that branches were falling off the trees and into the road around me. The wind nearly knocked me off the bike twice. I reached the halfway point where I half to turn onto a forested bike trail only to find that the trail had become a stream.  Brown water raged down most of the width of the trail. Oddly enough it was easier to bike in the water rather than on the wet ground. Lightning was falling so closely that I couldn't count the seconds between the flash and the peal of thunder.

I eventually made it back to quarters in one piece even if I was soaked to the core. It took most of the night to dry everything completely. My shoes are still a big spongy. The whole experience was sort of exhilarating in a I-hope-I-don't-die sort of way.

Just after making back to quarters. Thankfully my camera was dry through my backpack was soaked.