So we were rained out...

May 26, 2008

And so it rained in Southern California this weekend.

Thursday afternoon we packed our gear and headed south and up into the mountains in the face of a less than stellar forecast and massive dark gray clouds creeping down from the mountains letting forth the occasional lightning strike. Thunderstorms were predicted for Friday and Saturday, clearing Sunday and cloudy Monday across the whole of Southern California. Thursday afternoon about 3:30 we were at the campsite - and it was a balmy 32 degrees. That's 32 fahrenheit or 0 degrees celcius - so not balmy at all! Was it wet also? Of course it was wet already - switching between sleet and rain with the odd hail and snow thrown in for good measure everything was well drenched with quite a bit of water, scattered hailstones, and snow patches. Quite a bit too much water actually - not to mention that it was cold already. So after mulling it over we drove north to Julian where we bought an apple boysenberry crumb pie and drove off home to eat it where we would be warm and dry.

Since our camping trip this weekend went south I thought a little reflection on a past trip far far worse with far more rain than I could ever have imagined is in order:

December 2000, and Nick and I were on our way to climb Mt Tutoko in the Darren Mountains, Fiordland, New Zealand. Our campsite on a sandy patch under a huge rock next to a dry creek bed up from a small stream seemed idyllic. It was not. Awoken in the early hours of the morning to what sounded exactly like a 747 taking off - we found ourselves putting childhood skills in sandcastle building to good use to keep the now very swollen river and the not so dry creek bed near our rock from flooding the only dry ground for miles around. Just as we were considering retreating to the top of the rock the rain subsided. Now that was rain.

Naturally there is a whole lot more to the expedition than just a swollen river - for starters there was an insane swollen river crossing involving being swept down rapids - but that's another story for another day.