Worse storm I've ever road out in a tent. And I did it with my wife.
Thursday a nephew came with me to Watauga lake to kayak camp and fish. We were close to where we parked so my wife sent us with a ton of gear to set up. She even has a battery operated sink.
Fishing was good Thursday night and Friday morning Then my nephew and I decided to set up camp better for my wife and her two friends from work that were coming out to spend the weekend with us. .. My nephew moved his tent to make room for all my wife's kitchen stuff. He set his tent up about 20' behind our tent. Later on in the afternoon he decided to pack up and head home. It was kinda odd but I helped he load up and then waited for my wife.
She showed up and paddled over to our spot. She did a little picking up around the place when I started hearing thunder in the distance. It started getting closer so I started putting stuff up before the storm hit. I made my way to our tent and kept telling Dawn she better get in here. It's about to hit hard. I remember the last time I yelled get in her. Get In Here Now!!
We were camped in a cove where we could look up on the ridge around Vanderventer shelter. The ridge line disappeared as we were zipping windows up in our huge 6 man tent. Then we saw it. A wall . A wall of water, rain, debris. It was coming at us at over 60 per hour. I'd been in bad storms in cheap tents a knew we needed to be ready to hold the wall back with everything we had. She didn't understand the seriousness of it until it hit. And it hit hard. As Trump would say, It was HUGE.we braced to wall and I started hearing branches break I told Dawn to lay on the floor. She wouldn't and kept holding the wall with me. Our 15 year old dog was scared worse than my wife. Dawn did great and didn't panic. But she also didn't understand the seriousness of it until it was all over.
Right where my nephew had his tent and decided to go home was a huge tree. 20' from our tent . If he'd stayed and been in his tent he wouldn't be here now. A little bit over, and we wouldn't either...
On the other side of the cove is a camping area where we put in. After it let up and we were checking out damage and counting our blessings we heard a lady yelling over to us to see if we were ok. I couldn't here everything she was saying so paddled over. She said another storm was on the way and was supposed to be worse. She begged us to leave.
In the camping area where we were parked had lots of damage too. Tree on a truck right be where we were parked. A tree was on a tent with no one inside. Tree fell on a horse trailer camper. Debris went though tent of a couple of tents in different camping spots. Downed trees everywhere, one blocking the road out. Which was quickly cleared by someone with chain saws. .. It was now dark.
We went to rat branch boat ramp to get cell service and check radar. EMS was set up there with different law enforcement agencies. The told us a tree fell on two campers in a tent one cove up from us. They didn't make it. He and and wife both passed away...
The rest of the weekend it was just me and my wife. Her friends decided to postpone to a different date.
We had a nice, rest of the weekend paddling around and sitting by a fire in the evenings. Only one other group stayed camping. Everyone else packed up gear and headed home. So I was able to paddle over and collect tons of home brought fire wood.
The fishing wasn't any good though after the storm. I think they got blown up into the mountains.
Hopefully no storms next weekend. Gonna try the hammock out for the first time on a hike from Carvers Gap to 19e with some buddies. New hikers on this hike with us this time so were gonna take two nights...
Thursday a nephew came with me to Watauga lake to kayak camp and fish. We were close to where we parked so my wife sent us with a ton of gear to set up. She even has a battery operated sink.
Fishing was good Thursday night and Friday morning Then my nephew and I decided to set up camp better for my wife and her two friends from work that were coming out to spend the weekend with us. .. My nephew moved his tent to make room for all my wife's kitchen stuff. He set his tent up about 20' behind our tent. Later on in the afternoon he decided to pack up and head home. It was kinda odd but I helped he load up and then waited for my wife.
She showed up and paddled over to our spot. She did a little picking up around the place when I started hearing thunder in the distance. It started getting closer so I started putting stuff up before the storm hit. I made my way to our tent and kept telling Dawn she better get in here. It's about to hit hard. I remember the last time I yelled get in her. Get In Here Now!!
We were camped in a cove where we could look up on the ridge around Vanderventer shelter. The ridge line disappeared as we were zipping windows up in our huge 6 man tent. Then we saw it. A wall . A wall of water, rain, debris. It was coming at us at over 60 per hour. I'd been in bad storms in cheap tents a knew we needed to be ready to hold the wall back with everything we had. She didn't understand the seriousness of it until it hit. And it hit hard. As Trump would say, It was HUGE.we braced to wall and I started hearing branches break I told Dawn to lay on the floor. She wouldn't and kept holding the wall with me. Our 15 year old dog was scared worse than my wife. Dawn did great and didn't panic. But she also didn't understand the seriousness of it until it was all over.
Right where my nephew had his tent and decided to go home was a huge tree. 20' from our tent . If he'd stayed and been in his tent he wouldn't be here now. A little bit over, and we wouldn't either...
On the other side of the cove is a camping area where we put in. After it let up and we were checking out damage and counting our blessings we heard a lady yelling over to us to see if we were ok. I couldn't here everything she was saying so paddled over. She said another storm was on the way and was supposed to be worse. She begged us to leave.
In the camping area where we were parked had lots of damage too. Tree on a truck right be where we were parked. A tree was on a tent with no one inside. Tree fell on a horse trailer camper. Debris went though tent of a couple of tents in different camping spots. Downed trees everywhere, one blocking the road out. Which was quickly cleared by someone with chain saws. .. It was now dark.
We went to rat branch boat ramp to get cell service and check radar. EMS was set up there with different law enforcement agencies. The told us a tree fell on two campers in a tent one cove up from us. They didn't make it. He and and wife both passed away...
The rest of the weekend it was just me and my wife. Her friends decided to postpone to a different date.
We had a nice, rest of the weekend paddling around and sitting by a fire in the evenings. Only one other group stayed camping. Everyone else packed up gear and headed home. So I was able to paddle over and collect tons of home brought fire wood.
The fishing wasn't any good though after the storm. I think they got blown up into the mountains.
Hopefully no storms next weekend. Gonna try the hammock out for the first time on a hike from Carvers Gap to 19e with some buddies. New hikers on this hike with us this time so were gonna take two nights...