[at-l] The sky is falling! The sky is falling!...

[KarenS62@aol.com (KarenS62@aol.com)]

In a message dated 11/18/2001 11:10:16 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
daveh@psknet.com writes:


> The
> thing that I saw repeatedly (which I had never noticed before) was what
> appeared to be a very bright thin line broaden to a wide fuzzy line go back
> to a thin line then broaden to a wide fuzzy line, again.

We saw that too!  I picked Bubinga (Dee) up after work yesterday evening and 
we drove to Wayah Bald. The plan was to drive west until we found a mountain 
top that wasn't being affected by forestfire smoke. Wayah Bald was definitely 
that place.  We got to the bald at about 11pm.  There were only a few cars in 
the parking lot and as we walked into the observation tower area, there was 
no one else there. Boy, was that deceiving!  We unrolled our bags, took off 
our heavy outerwear and crawled in to settle down for an evening of star 
gazing. Even at that hour, there were meteors streaming through the skies. 
About 1am, I (we) saw something I  had never seen before and I am not sure I 
can expect to see it again. A HUGE streak came down the western edge of the 
sky and it changed all colors of the prism as it burned. The streak it left 
was in the sky for over 10 minutes before it totally dissipated!  I could 
have gone home right then and been satisfied, but the show continued. To pass 
the time,  we named everyone we knew that had hiked over that very spot. Boy 
that was a long list!   We dozed and gazed for a few hours until the 
spectacular show mentioned by everyone else happened at 4am.  

The show on the ground was almost as fun as the show in the sky. We startled 
quite a number of people who obviously didn't expect to find two people in 
sleeping bags lying on the ground. But we were toasty while they were all 
dressed in heavy coats, boots, hats and mittens.   At one point, Bubinga 
looked over at me and said "Do you feel a bit underdressed?"  (Maybe you had 
to be there...)  Probably a dozen people came and went with kids, dogs, 
cameras, etc. so we didn't have the crowds other places did, but the flow of 
people was constant all night.  The sunrise breakfast this morning from the 
top of the observation tower was the  perfect way to end a perfect night. 

Gear Note:   Both our bags had the outer shells soaked with dewdrops but we 
stayed warm and dry. The Pertec coating TNF puts on their down bags seems to 
work very well.


POG 
           
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Work like you don't need money, Love like you've never been hurt, And dance 
like no one's watching. - unknown

                                                              


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