Overcoming Adversity: (Part I)
Recently I was fortunate enough to go on an amazing trip with my oldest daughter, who had just graduated high school and is preparing for the next phase and adventure of her life.
What better way to prepare, than to take her on my annual hike/backpack through the Presidential White mountains of New Hampshire. I have grown to love this area of the country and have been hiking Mt Washington and the surrounding mountains for approx. 10 years. It has become something I really look forward to every year and I was thrilled to be able to share it with my oldest, this year.
We had planned to Summit Mt Washington, then continue along the ridge line to Mt Clay, Mt Jefferson, past Mt Adams and then stay on the mountain in a lean to and then hike down to another trail head the next day. Ambitious day of 12 miles backpacking but definitely doable.
Now, anyone who has hiked Mt Washington, knows that the weather can be very unpredictable, at best. In fact, it is known as; “Home To The World’s Worst Weather”!
Up to this year I have been what many would say as, lucky with the weather and have had amazing views with normal conditions. Normal; with winds from 20-50 mph, light rain and cloud cover here and there, Tuckerman’s Ravine trail blocked by snow which is, believe it or not , normal for Mt Washington, even in the summer. What many would call an amazing run of good weather for my trips up to this point. You could say; “I was due”.
Well our trip started out well, with beautiful, warm weather and light winds when we got above the tree line. Views were amazing! The hike is very challenging and exhausting but that is part of the lure of the trip.
We summited Mt Washington by about 1:00pm where the clouds were rolling in which is normal. we snapped pictures, took a rest, hydrated and ate for energy. We had seen at the weather observatory that possible thunderstorms were moving through but they thought they would dissipate or move around the mountain. With this info, we decided to continue on past Mt Washington, towards our goal of the lean to another 5.5 miles away.
Well we were about an hour and a half past Mt Washington and almost at the top of Mt Clay when the thunder storm started to roll in. We heard the rolling thunder, saw lightning in the distance and it started to rain. In my head, I started to get a little nervous, not for myself, but for my daughter’s safety and how she would do in this situation.
At this point we are above the tree line with no protection from the elements. It started to rain harder and the thunder and lightning were getting much closer. The rain was now teaming and we were quickly getting drenched.
We pulled out the waterproof topographical map together and quickly realized that there was no way would could reach the tree line… and protection, by the time the brunt of the storm was on top of us. We quickly realized we had to do the best we could at finding shelter, close to where we were.
Sometimes, the mountain’s boulders can create large overhangs, or almost caves to seek shelter in. We were in no such luck! It is now, a torrential downpour with cracking thunder, and lightning not too far away. I must say I was impressed by the calm, my daughter displayed during the “flash” storm. While we were both nervous, we seemed to work very well together, making each decision calmly but quickly in the midst of the sever weather.
Just then we spotted a sizable boulder about the size of an SUV, about 75 feet off the trail. It had one sloped edge that had about a 30 degree angle. It wouldn’t completely cover us but it was the best we could do with the storm, now, about on top of us, with thunder and lightning all around.
We proceeded off the trail to the boulder, promptly threw our metal hiking stick away from us to removed any potential for attracting the lightning and tried to use the boulder for protection. We tried to partially protect ourselves from the elements and to keep us from being struck. We pushed our 40lb backpacks into the crux of the boulder, wedged ourselves as close together, and huddled as far under the ledge as we could but half our our bodies were still exposed.
Luckily, I had an emergency mylar blanket that we pulled out and used as a make-shift tarp. We pulled it over the two of us and rode out the flash storm for, what seemed like a long time, but in reality was about 15-20 minutes. The water was aggressively pelting the tarp and pouring off the mylar in sheets down either side. We did all we could to keep all of our body parts under the tarp. We were already soaked to the bone by this point but it prevented us and our backpacks from getting even more saturated.
When the sound of the rain stopped, we emerged from our cocoon to a clear sky and an amazing thunderstorm cloud moving past us. WOW! That was something else. No injuries…Not hit by lightning…and ready to move on. A little soaked but none the worse for wear.
We were delayed for about 30 minutes by this but figured we were still fine to make our Goal of the lean-to by then end of the day.
It was nice to realized that we could hit an obstacle like this, make adjustments through this adversity and continue to move on towards our end-goal.
Now we could make through the rest of the challenging hike smoothly and reach our goal of sleeping in the lean-to tonight… At least, that’s what we thought!
To be continued…!!!
Look for my next post, Overcoming Adversity (Part II) to find out what happens to us!
Be Positive, Be Motivated, Be Focused & Be Well
Mark
