The Storm

The storm was coming, of that there was no doubt. The hurricane winds coming in off the coast were being funneled into the valley and the rains would surely follow. The leading edge of the storm was still nearly thirty-miles away and yet we could feel the winds careening down the valley. In two hours the rains will reach the valley and start to over-fill the lake. The spring thaw had already filled the lake to capacity, and the stream that normally flowed from it was close to becoming a river again, as it did every spring; the hurricane rains will make it a torrent. If we don’t cross the valley in the next three-hours, we won’t cross at all for several days.

I would have preferred snow. You can walk on snow; use it as an insulator for your tents and as a source of fresh water. Rain, well rain is just wet, it doesn’t’ help anything; a valley full of snow can be crossed and won’t wash you away. Rain turns ground into mud, and if you don’t capture it, you can’t drink it. Rain makes you wet and steals your body heat. Mud sticks to your boots when you try and walk in it and take all of your energy to move a few feet. And mud will not hold the stakes and supports needed for a tent. Rain is good for farmers, not hunters. Hunters hate rain.

Day would become night when the storm moved through, so we needed to do something soon. We needed to be someplace to weather the storm in relative safety. Ned’s ankle wasn’t going to let us move fast, so trying to cross the valley was going to be dangerous. We didn’t know when the lake would crest and start to flood the valley. We needed to get to higher ground and find a cave on the leeward side of the mountain. It sounded easier than it was. Four men with gear, food and weapons for a two-day hunting trip, one had a nearly broken ankle and one is trying to carry him while the other two carried the gear and weapons for all four. With more than our body-weight in our packs we weren’t going to move fast anyway, add to that the ground was still soft from the spring thaw and we need to move up-hill and you get a pace that was barely a crawl.

We carried an emergency beacon so we could call for help if we really needed it. Our families would notify the ranger’s station that we were late after the storm passed and wait a couple more days before requesting search and rescue. We had no life threatening or life altering injuries, so we didn’t use the beacon. We had food, water, experience and too much pride to ask for help. Besides, this wasn’t our first two-day trip that turned into a week long adventure. We knew that if we spent that much time out there, we had better kill something to put in the freezer.