Weathering the Storm
Written in Locking, New York on August 22, 2018
We arrived in camp, about 30 miles East of Niagara Falls, around 6pm. It was a long day of driving from Cleveland, Ohio. Although very scenic, it was extra long because we had set the truck’s navigation to avoid tolls. We were tired, hungry, and starting to suffer from a bad case of the Hangries*. It didn’t help that our expected campsite, a beautiful spot on the Eerie Canal in a rustic New York town, was a no-go as they just changed the rules to only allow walk-in tent camping only.
Which was why, after just starting to set camp, we were dismayed to hear the local camp host greet us with, “Hi folks. Just so you know, there’s a potential storm headed our way in the next hour. You are welcome to use the greeting hall as a shelter if need be; the doors will be open.”
Great, I thought. Just what we need: a storm coming in as we make dinner. I asked the host, “How strong will the winds be?”
“Oh, I don’t really know. I just want you to know there’s a shelter here if the storm gets bad.”
Which is about as ominous sounding as a hangry imagination lets it be! We had to make a judgement call as to whether to set up camp, or wait out the storm. The weather report Leah last saw called for rain all night. We didn’t like the idea of waiting until midnight only to still set up camp in the rain and dark, so we decided to set up camp now, while it was dry, despite the apparent risk.
Hangries aside, we quickly set to the task of setting camp. Of course, we had to wait until this moment to test a new tarp system, which we created last week to try & stop rain from leaking through the awning and into the kitchen. Cheap $20 tarps aren’t exactly known for their robustness, which is why we were even more anxious about setting up before a storm warranting the need for a concrete shelter.
A quick side note about camp setup: we have deviated significantly from our trailer-build goal of 5-minute set up. Our recently added awning walls, and new tarp experiment increases our unoptimized staging time to be about an hour. Which is especially fun when you add in hunger and a camp site that puts you smack dab in the middle of the entire campground, much to the delight of the many campsite spectators near by.
We managed to get the last stake in the ground just as rain drops started to come down. Leah started cooking some delicious spaghetti as we waited for impending doom to arrive. The sound of the tarps flapping in the wind alerted us to the beginning of the storm just before the sound of droplets cascading on the tent filled our ears.
Fortunately, it wasn’t nearly as ominous as our imaginations had conjured after the host’s warning. At the start of the storm, we did see a section of the storm cloud that certainly looked like it deserved our dire thoughts, but it fortunately missed us by about 10 miles. We probably ended up with the remnants, which made for a nice barrage of rain and light wind. It was a great test for our new tarp, and made for an enjoyable evening of lightning watching and champagne drinking while listening to the soothing sounds of rain falling onto the tent.
The winds did finally arrive around 2am. We are guessing the gusts met the later-discovered forecast of ~30 mph. The tarp and awning walls survived well, although the blustery evening and flapping tarp anxiety did lead to a somewhat rested sleep.
