Went camping one time in the hills of southern Ohio. The terrain was very hilly, and fairly dense with trees. Found a high spot between 2 trees that didn't have any widow makers and sat up a tarp shelter. Well about midnight it started thundering and lightning like crazy, the temperature dropped to what felt like 40 degrees, and it was just absolutely raining in sheets.
Luckily the back of the shelter was on the side the wind was coming from, and I was staying absolutely dry and warm! Then I got to thinking about lightning. I could see it flashing all around me and started wondering if I should stay in the shelter or leave and find a place safe from lightning strikes. I wasn't on top of a hill but I definitely not in a low place so I guess a strike was fairly possible where I was! There were no open spots where I could get away from trees!
So I thought well I could go run around in the rain, get wet and risk hypothermia, maybe find a safer place but probably wont, what should I do! Nothing made as much sense as just staying in my dry shelter and going back to sleep!
Sometimes you just get in a situation where you just say what the heck, and stay with what you have even though you feel like you are ignoring danger and common sense rules. Luckily I didn't get hit by lightning, but I did hear it hit about a quarter mile away and could hear the limbs cracking as they fell from the tree that took the strike! It was a crazy 2 or 3 hours indeed!
But after that I have always wondered if I should have left my shelter and looked for a safer place, what would you have done?
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