[at-l] Stormy weather

[shellydhale at earthlink.net (Shelly Hale)]

Paul,

My daughter and I stayed not too far from you at Miss Janet's in Erwin and
hiked the Spivey Gap to Erwin section for the AT photo project.  We were
asleep in the van Sunday night when the storms hit.  The wind was whipping
the rain in through the windows we had left cracked and was rocking the
van...but this was not a gentle soothing motion, but rather a quick jerk to
one side and then back to the other.  We started to go into the house but it
slacked off by then.  When we got up later on, Alabama was moving a huge
limb out of the other driveway.  That's when noticed the circumference of
the limbs that were hanging just above my van.  Cold chills went down my
spine.

When we were hiking on Sunday, it came a real gully washer for over a half
hour.  Blondie was only 5' in front of me, but it still hard to see her
through the sheeting rain.  As we had already passed the shelter some time
before, we decided to keep moving.  We got slightly chilled during rest
stops, but once we started moving again we were sweltering in our jackets.
We finally decided to take off our jackets and enjoy the rain.  It was more
comfortable to just keep moving at a steadier pace to keep our body temps
up.  Plus, we had a dry layer in our packs if need be.

During that storm and walking through some of the downed trees across the
trail, I wondered the same things.  What is it like to camp in severe
weather such as this?  How does one pick the best camp site during such
weather when visibility is down and it's hard to judge what is above and
around you?  What's it like to set up a tent in pouring rain?  How will I
feel after a week of wearing soggy to slightly damp clothing day after day
after day?   How does one survive emotionally through that?

Shelly Hale
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Young" <pd.young@comcast.net>
To: <at-l@backcountry.net>
Sent: Monday, May 31, 2004 10:02 PM
Subject: [at-l] Stormy weather


> Last nite, my wife and I stayed in Morristown TN. We watched as
> thunderstorms were moving across the mountains and wondered about the
hikers
> up there.  I'm curious as to how people handle the really severe weather
> that seemed to move through there last night.  After watching all that, I
> was also wondering how I was going to handle it.  I haven't been on the AT
> yet and everytime I've gone camping it has always been nice.  Sometime
soon
> I will make the plunge and start walking, but last nite I did have an
awful
> lot of doubt in my head.  I've never heard you guys talk about it any (the
> rain).  How do you handle it?  Do people ever get to the point where they
> lose control from being cold and wet for days at a time?
>
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