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Thread: What would you do?

  1. #1
    Resident Wildman Wildthang's Avatar
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    Default What would you do?

    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?


  2. #2

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    I do the best I can with camp placement and ride it out.

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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    I agree......I'm a rider outer.....
    But how lucky are you?...I mean in general?

    Get a kick out of people saying, Your chances of winning the lottery is as good as getting struck by lightening.....?
    What up with that....? ...I want to win the lottery, but don't want to get struck by lightening.

    BTW good to see you WT....been a while
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    Senior Member kyratshooter's Avatar
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    In TN and KY we refer to this as a "hunker down and pray for daylight" situation.

    I get caught in one just about every year.

    About 10 years ago, at the Southeastern Rondy in TN, we had hail the size of baseballs punching holes through the canvas. That was very interesting!

    it is even more interesting at reenactments, where the amount of gunpowder per tent can be 4-5 pounds, and lightening and all.
    If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?

  5. #5

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    Had a spear from a tree spike through our tent during a storm.

    Not good.

  6. #6
    Senior Member DSJohnson's Avatar
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    For me it would depend on how close I was to the ridge-line/crest of the elevation. If I had picked a spot that was below the ridge line but still high enough to drain well and not be a pond during a heavy rain I would have rolled over and grinned about what a good job I had done of picking the right spot to set up as I drifted back off to sleep. So I bet I would have done exactly what you did. By the way, "getting to a clear spot" may not really be the best choice. Google lightning and look at all the information (some of it conflicting, I know that will surprise y'all) before you make any hard and fast policies about what you should do when there is a lightning threat or just go here www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/ and this is kind of interesting but it does not address protection while outdoors. http://thunder.msfc.nasa.gov/primer/index.html

  7. #7
    Senior Member DSJohnson's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by madmax View Post
    Had a spear from a tree spike through our tent during a storm.

    Not good.
    I hope no one was hurt bad. I saw a big limb fall out of a Cottonwood one time on a 18" Tipi at a Rondyvoo Fortunately, even thought it broke three of the poles no one was injured. They just did not "look up", when the put their lodge up, with the thought of "What if a bad storm comes though"

  8. #8

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    Had a newb call his wife and say goodbye in the middle of the night. Bad storm.

  9. #9

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    From about April till early November lightning storms are a reality. If you can make the truck you do. But, you end up where running is not even an option. Then you just have no choice but to suck it up. Florida is flat and the places we go are from 65,000 acres up. You might not even be able to make it forward in a storm. We know the trails. But, with the way the South Florida Water Management holds the water there is little to predict. You might have 7 miles of complete under water.

    But, if your an outdoors-man in South Florida your in a thunderstorm weekly during archery and gator season, black powder and most of general gun. You'll have to deal with it. It's humbling easy.

    https://youtu.be/y4TDgcOlkq8

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    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    Ride it out. I don't camp on ridge lines and I don't camp in valleys just to stay away from weather (cold, lightening, flash flood). The time to decide whether you should move your camp is before you set it up.

  11. #11
    Resident Wildman Wildthang's Avatar
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    Well luckily I wasn't on the top of the hill, just well the below the top. And I try to never set up camp in low places. I kind of figured that if I stayed in my sleeping bag and on the ground pad, I might have been well insulated enough to survive a strike on one of those trees I was camped under. Would not want to try that theory but I guess that was the way I justified just hunkerin down!

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    Senior Member xjosh40x's Avatar
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    I think toughin it out was your best situation. For starters you could have developed hyperthermia which is bad news. And second you could have slipped it the slick mud and tumbled down the hill likely causing injury. Both of those, to me, are more likely to happen than a lightning strike.

  13. #13
    Resident Wildman Wildthang's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by xjosh40x View Post
    I think toughin it out was your best situation. For starters you could have developed hyperthermia which is bad news. And second you could have slipped it the slick mud and tumbled down the hill likely causing injury. Both of those, to me, are more likely to happen than a lightning strike.
    Yes indeed brother! I would love to say that I thought of that but it was mostly just, " I aint getting cold and wet " kind of reasoning! It just felt so good in my dry shelter that I couldn't force myself to leave it........LOL

  14. #14
    Senior Member xjosh40x's Avatar
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    Well that just says you got a good gut feeling. If you weren't afraid of the weather enough to leave then, to me, shows you have good common sense. And a lot of guys say just pick a better spot which is true in many cases but not always. For all you know that was the safest place in a half mile. I know in Mississippi you'll be hard to find a place that won't flood in a storm. Just gotta pray your sleeping bag will magically fill with air and float.

  15. #15
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Note, bubble gum will not, and repeat will not stop leaks in a old milsup pup tent.....

    All this storm talk bring back memories of a younger time, in a place far, far, away....when young men were bullet proof.......and didn't melt in the rain....LOL
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  16. #16

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    OK. Another storm story.

    I like taking long walks predawn. I was maybe 45 min in. My headlamp died. Overcast, no stars, no moon. I sat under a palm and began waiting it out. The rain came in and I got my dog close for warmth. It sucked.

  17. #17
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    I'll bet the dog is still ticked at you over that. They hold grudges you know.

  18. #18

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    Quote Originally Posted by Rick View Post
    I'll bet the dog is still ticked at you over that. They hold grudges you know.
    LOL. Have I told the tale of him and me in a swamp, soaking wet, dark thirty, can't get to hardground, spending the night on an SUP?

  19. #19
    Administrator Rick's Avatar
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    And the dog was thinkin', "I got your sup right here, bucko."

    They are really sneaky about things. You think they've long forgotten that trip or stepping on a tail. They are all happy and cool and glad to see you then one day WHAM you come home and the sofa cushion is in shreds. Don't get ticked. Just realize it was payback time.

  20. #20

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    LOL. I did get the stink eye a few times from Max.

    Oddly Crash seemed to connect very quickly. Maybe he's just nicer than me.

    What was the original OP about?

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