Wild, Wonderful, Wet West Virginia Part Two

 

On day 3 (Saturday) in the morning the effects of the hurricane were felt. What I did not know at the time but these 20-25 mph sustained winds would turn into 35-45 mph winds with 60 mph gusts thrown in overnight with hard rain.

I had hoped that the hurricane had enough energy to climb out of the Ohio River Valley and continue northerly.  As, it would work out it followed the Ohio River Valley instead because it lost a lot of energy.

I decided to travel to some other forest roads today to mix it up.  I hope you enjoy the artwork.

I returned and was thankful I took down the tarp awning. The tarp would have been torn by the nasty winds.

I wanted to eat a hot meal tonight. I dug out an old fire pit and that did not work. I piled up the dirt nearly 20” high and it still did not do the trick.

I then thought ok Bess “my Outback” lets put your hood into the wind and open the tailgate to cook! It worked like a charm!

I stayed up as long as I could before I hit the rack. I knew once I was in that tent I was not coming out.  I moved Bess so no tree would hit her overnight if one came down.

I need to digress here for a moment. I knew the risks in choosing to camp at this location. I take full responsibility for myself and acknowledge that the weather is one of a camper’s best friends and worst enemies.

While in my tent you could hear the wind howling. You could watch the sides of my tent get punched repeatedly as the light dances in the video! My tent is a 3 season MSR Hubba Bubba 2-person tent.

I finally fell asleep after I didn’t know after an hour of listening to the wind howling.

I then woke up on Sunday, and the winds were not as bad, but they still had a lot of punches left in them. I am going to assume they were 20-25 mph winds with some gusts well above that.

I woke up and it was finally Sunday. I outstretched my arm and let it lay on top of my Marmot 15-degree bag, and I lined it with a military grade poncho liner. When I did this my arm got cold and I thought “that’s strange”.

I realized it was cold because my sleeping bag was wet. I sat up and turned on the little flashlight that I hung from the canopy in the tent. I could see water everywhere.

It was not standing water, but rain had blown in between the rain fly and the ground. The winds were brutal up on that exposed face of the mountain.

I know if I did not break camp quickly, being cold and wet could be a real issue. The other issue could also be hypothermia! With wind speed of 25 and the air temperature being 48 that would make the wind chill temperature 40 degrees!!!

https://www.calculator.net/wind-chill-calculator.html?windspeed=25&windspeedunit=mph&airtemperature=48&airtemperatureunit=fahrenheit&x=Calculate

 I got up and put on my nano-puff that was in a dry bag. I then raced to put my boots on and then trying to stay calm I got all the camping gear accounted for.

I then puy all the stuff in dry bags so it would not soak the inside of Bess. I also purchased 3 mil contractor trash bags from Walmart. These bags would be stuff with other wet items.

This felt like it took an eternity to get all the gear back in the vehicle as organized as I could.

I chose the high ground for the tent site, and you could tell because all other areas had inches of standing water in them.

My nano puff was wet all the way through as I finally put the last bit of gear and trash into Bess.

I headed out to get changed somewhere and get out of these wet clothes!!