[pct-l] Thunder Storms

[Jeffrey Olson]

Back in 1971 I was hiking the Muir Trail and was heading out of the 
trees above Tyndall Creek on my way over Forester Pass.  A thunderstorm 
moved in from the northwest.  I didn't have sense enough to stop hiking 
and blithely continued on.  Lightening was hitting within a quarter mile 
of me and I still hiked on.  Finally, a bolt hit a 5'  high boulder 
about 40' in front of me.  In that instant there was so much sound I was 
enveloped in silence that lasted for four or five seconds - an 
eternity.  That's the best way I can describe it.  I felt electricity 
flowing through my aluminum pack frame.

Stupidly I panicked and ran madly past the still smoking granite boulder 
to an even taller boulder.  The guy I was with took off our packs and 
crouched down.  Lightening was still hitting all around - within a 
quarter mile and the rumbling and roaring was almost continuous.  Within 
a couple minutes the storm center passed and we heard a kind of low 
pitched mewing.  I got up and there were three young persons - a man and 
two women, on their knees, crying and praying, keening and swaying, 
tears indistiguishable from the rain.

This freaked us out even more than the lightening and we threw on our 
packs and headed up towards Forester, spooked and breathing shallowly.

I was on Snow Mesa on the CDT just south of the road to Lake City during 
a thunderstorm.  I found a three foot deep swale and put my butt pad on 
the ground and despite complaining knees, crouched there as lightening 
hit the rounded peaks above me.  I crouched there for 10 minutes or so 
until I noticed a sheep herder riding his horse at a slow walk.  
Lightening was hitting within a quarter mile and he just rode on.

Jeffrey Olson
Martin, SD, where it's -3 degrees with a -25 degree windchill.  Last 
night the wind chill was -45 degrees.  The death zone...

On 2/1/2011 2:07 PM, Brick Robbins wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 6:47 AM, Brandon McGinnity<bmcginnity at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> Well, going under a lone tree is bad, but if you're in a large clump of
>> trees it's not so bad. Just stay near the smaller ones. If you stay out in
>> the open, YOU are the highest thing in the landscape, and that's even more
>> dangerous.
> I remember passing the meadow 2.9 miles (according to the WP
> guidebook) north of Glen Aulin (Section I) and seeing the big boulder
> with the overhanging sides in the "soggy meadow."
>
> It was raining and windy, and I looked at it longingly but the
> guidebook pointed out it was a prime lightning target, so I passed on
> a sheltered lunch...
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