Re: [Paddlewise] BWCAW Storms and You

My husband and I were canoing in Algonquin Park over the Canada Day to July 4th
weekend. The storms we experienced weren't as bad as the Boundary Waters area,
but believe me they were bad enough for me.

On July 1st the weather forecast was calling for thunderstorms so the morons
that we are we decided to head in to our favorite lake and try to get camp set
up before the expected storm hit. The weather was terrific, slightly overcast,
a few showers to keep you cool while paddling, perfect. We got to our camp
site, set up quickly before the storm hit, and spent the afternoon comfy and
dry in the tent while the storm raged around us. I was feeling particularly
smug about my strategic placement of tarps and felt that we could
comfortably wait out the storm. I was wrong! The rain wasn't the problem, we
were in a reasonably high spot so we stayed perfectly dry, but that evening the
rain slowed down and the gale force winds started. We were prepared for a
thunder storm and torrential rain, but not for what seemed like a hurricane! I
don't know what the speed of the winds were, but we spent the entire night (a
full 14 hours!) holding onto the tent to keep it from being torn apart by the
force of the wind. Picture me, a considerably overweight 41 year old mother of
three, at one o'clock in the morning stark naked (to keep my clothes dry since
wearing my rain poncho was like wearing a sail!) out in this gale, clinging to
a tree overhanging the lake frantically retying the tarps in an attempt to make
a windbreak, while my husband Mike crouched inside the tent leaning into the
wind so that the poles wouldn't snap.We ended up piling everything we had with
us, all our gear pails etc., inside the tent against the wall facing the wind
and tried to sleep sitting up against it to help support the wall. The noise of
the wind and the tent and tarps flapping was deafening, sitting right next to
each other we had to shout to make ourselves heard. Not exactly a restful
sleep.

The wind died down considerably the following morning, not enough for us to
feel confident about heading out (we are not exactly whitewater enthusiasts!),
but enough for us to be able to take down the tent and move it into a hollow to
protect it from the wind if it started to kick up again. That worked out great,
for the next day and a half we fished from shore, snoozed, played cards, read,
etc. and generally had a great time while we waited for the weather to improve.
When it did, we headed out to explore another lake further in, and found the
most perfect campsite imaginable for our next trip.

Several hours (and several quarts of blueberries!) later we got back to
our camp just in time before another storm started up. In the middle
of the night I was wakened from a sound sleep by Mike shouting that he
was drowning in his sleeping bag. You know how you hate to get up out of
a toasty warm sleeping bag to go out into the rain when nature calls during the
night,
well Mike's first reaction when he woke up in a wet sleeping bag was to
wonder if he'd held out too long. But no, he hadn't peed the bed,
instead the torrential rains had filled in the hollow where our tent was
sitting and the one side of the tent was actually floating in about 6
inches of water. So we ended up spending the remainder of our last night
squished together on the one high spot in our tent eagerly waiting for dawn and

hoping that the weather conditions would allow us to leave.

Sunday morning arrived with beautiful blue skies so we loaded up our
soaken wet gear and headed out. A really good looking couple we were,
teeth yellowed from drinking the iodine treated lake water, lips and
fingers stained blue from eating oodles of wild blueberries. I had so
many bug bites that my shoulders were swollen up like the hunchback of
Notre Dame. Mike didn't exactly fit the image of a successful executive
with his 5 day growth of white stubble and blood shot eyes from lack of
sleep (the kids roared with laughter when they saw him, he looked like
their idea of Santa Claus after a drinking binge!)

What a sick, twisted pair we are. Even after all that, we barely had the
car loaded up heading home before we were planning next week's trip.
Mike is trying to see if he can get this Friday off . . . . . . . .
Irene McGarvie

Patrick Maun wrote:

> Hey all,
>
> many of you may have heard about the storms in the Boundary Waters
> this past weekend. If you haven't, well, they were pretty rough.
> Straight-line winds of 140MPH and trees flying everywhere. Here is a
> question I'd like to pose to the list:
>
> What would you do in a very bad storm situation?
>
>     Snuggle deeper in to your sleeping bag and hope the seams hold?
>
>     Tie yourself to a big tree (or perhaps Canadian Ballast Rocks)?
>
>     Hide under an overturned canoe?
>
>     Crawl into a kayak cockpit?
>
>     Tie a towrope to a tree and then to a canoe/kayak and set yourself
>     adrift on the water (avoiding falling but not airborne trees)?
>
>     Run screaming though the woods?
>
> -Patrick
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