It was an unplanned destination, we were going to be camping in Wisconsin but since the campgrounds were full in the area we planned, we decided to head to the Upper Peninsula. I'll cover that part of the adventure some other time. We arrived at the campground early afternoon, we set up camp and did some exploring of the campground. The campground was a primitive campground, meaning there were no electric or water hookups. That never bothered us because we were tent camping, we didn't need hookups.
The campground is located on Lake Superior and has great hiking and waterfalls in the area. Our first night we built a campfire as we usually do and as we were sitting by the campfire, the wind kept blowing smoke and embers toward the tent. Cherrie was poking at the fire and I decided to move the tent up wind of the fire, not a big deal with a backpacking tent. The rest of the night was relaxing and we later turned in for the night.
The next day we set off to do some exploring, Cherrie being the planner as she is, had some suggestions and we were off. Later in the afternoon we returned to camp and relaxed until dinner. The skies were getting dark and it started to rain, so we secured the tent and headed to the picnic area to cook and eat dinner under the shelters that were there.
We never got a chance to get out of the car when the skies opened up and just poured. We sat in the car hoping it would let up, it didn't, so we decided to make a run for the shelter. The shelter was probably 50 feet from the car, sooo.... we ran for it and got soaked in the process.
At the time it seemed like a good idea, because it was getting hot in the car and where else were we going to go, back to camp and try and get in the tent, maybe..... The wind started blowing and the rain was horizontal now and we were getting wet again, we were standing on a picnic table in the center of the shelter looking like we were on this tiny island. By now it was a full fledged bad ass storm with thunder and lightning strikes close, too close. While standing there we heard this loud crack that came from the direction of our camp. Cherrie said, "Did you hear that?" We thought it was just thunder that was close.
We realized there wasn't going to be any dinner and we needed to do something besides holed up under a picnic shelter. The plan was to go back to camp and wait out the storm in the tent, so back to the car. We got back to camp and all was not good, the whole camp was flooded and the tent sat in six inches of water. We then noticed the source of that loud crack we had heard, as we looked at a huge tree branch that had snapped and landed right where our tent had originally been pitched and where we had been parking the car.
If we wouldn't have moved the tent the night before and we had been in it during the storm, well..... I wouldn't be telling you about it now and at the very least that would have been the end of the car. That definitely would have been a bad thing. After seeing all this, Cherrie was scared and I sure the hell was just a bit anxious, So we grabbed our things from the tent and got the hell out of Dodge.
By this time the sky was black as if it were midnight and the rain continued to pour along with the thunder and lightning, that seemed to be right above us. We headed out of the campground and stated down county road 519 toward Wakefield, luckily we've been down this road a few times so I knew the lay of the road and landmarks to know where I was. Wakefield was 18 miles in front of us, the windshield wipers didn't make a difference, we could only see a few feet in front of the car, the windows kept steaming up because we both soaked and the defroster had little affect.
The sky to the west was a haze gray and where we were it was pitch black, it looked as if someone had painted half the sky black, it was a sharp separation, straight and sharp. Cherrie was scared spit-less and was bracing herself for the inevitable accident, I was trying to concentrate on proving her wrong, but I was having difficulty doing that because of the ringing in my ears and my head throbbing, but that went away after I told Cherrie, "Sit back and shut up." If you know Cherrie the ringing in my ears returned shortly.
We made it safely to Wakefield and the plan was to find a motel for the night, that shouldn't too hard. Right? I'll let you know in my next post.
TO BE CONTINUED.......................
"Happy Trails"
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