Hiking into a Storm

     Jane, Scotty, and I had made plans to go hiking up the South Fork Trail to the South Fork "Slushy" Meadows, the headwaters of the Santa Ana River, in the San Gorgonio Wilderness.  The original plan was to hike on Thursday, August 29, but we were in the middle of monsoon season.  Massive thunderheads built up on top of Mount San Bernardino and San Gorgonio.  I knew that would be extremely unsafe, so I recommended that we postpone the hike until the next week.  Jane and Scotty tried to convince me to go on the hike anyway, for it will be a intense hike to deal with a storm, but I refused.  Instead, we hiked to Heart Rock (which was extremely disappointing because no water was flowing, and bugs everywhere) and then walked around Lake Gregory in Crestline.  
     
     A week later, on Thursday, September 5, we planned to hike if weather permitted.  We chose a Thursday because that is the only day of the week that Scotty has off from work.  The morning of the hike seemed perfect.  The sky was bright blue and clear, and the weather report showed a 10 % chance of rain in the area of the South Fork Trail.  Scotty had decided to bail on the hike, and call out an exterminator to his house to get rid of his cockroach program.  He would be disappointed a few hours after we left, for the bug guy was there for just a few moments to give an estimate and the type of bugs they would need to spray for.  In route to the trail head, we had to stop at the ranger station to pick up a wilderness permit and adventure pass.  They were open this time, unlike last time we went on this hike.   The ranger's knew we were headed out into the wilderness that day, and did not give any warning towards bad weather.  That was indicated as good news.  

     

     At the trail head, the sky was mostly blue, with one or two very small white clouds passing by.  Things looked good.  We began on our hike to Slushy Meadows.   The first mile of the hike can be discouraging.  You want to quite before you even make good distance up the trail.  It shows how I am out of shape, and I should work on that.  Jane had walked over a rock, then slipped, causing her to roll her ankle.  We stopped to give her a short break.  We discussed about turning around, and not continuing on the hike due to her ankle, but she choose to power through and continue on the hike.  We moved forward, and we got to the mile mark, at Horse Meadows.  We took a piss and rest break.  The sky began to fill with more clouds, but it was not anything that looked concerning.  It was still beautiful out, and the clouds were your standard white puffy clouds.  After enjoying a peaceful rest, we continued on the hike.

     

     It was quite beautiful.  Amazing views of Barton Flats with the blue sky and white clouds made the hike worth it.  It was in the mid 70's, which was perfect.  A nice break from the 100+ we were experiencing in the valley below.  We made it to the wilderness boundary 2 miles in, and took another break.  Jane began to not feel too well.  She began having cramps, and her ankle still bothering her.  I gave her the option to turn around.  I rather not have her hike further into the mountains and be in discomfort.  She debated turning around to herself, but decided to press forward like a trooper.  More clouds kept filling the sky, slowly changing from white to grey.  The bright blue sky slowly began to disappear, and the available light dimmed.  As we arrived at the 3 mile mark, the sky was covered in dark grey clouds.  I was expecting for us to run into rain.  I  just hoped it would be a light sprinkle like the last hike we made to Slushy Meadows.  Jane began to experience some harsh painful cramps.  We waited for a few moments to see if they would go away.  She had thought about it, and decided that she might just have to poo.  I stayed on the trail while she went about 100 feet over a pile of granite rocks to find a place to take a shit.  As I waited, I began to hear the gentle noise of water drops hit the forest floor.   Lasted for a few moments, then stopped.  I crossed my fingers that was all the rain we would come across.  Two mid-aged female hikes came by the trail headed down the mountain.  I talked to them for a few moments.  They had spent the night 2 miles north of Slushy, at Dry Lake.  They said a massive thunderstorm hit the day before around the same time.  They loved down the trail about 30 feet before they stopped.  Very light rain began to fall again.  I watched the two hikers as they put on yellow ponchos to prepare for a downpour, then they continued towards the trail head.  As the hikers left the area, Jane had returned.  She felt better, and was ready to get to the meadows.  The light rain lasted for about 5 minutes before it ended.  I personally enjoy a very light rain.  It cools you down, and the sound of the rain hitting the forest floor is relaxing.

     

     We hiked another mile.  We had no rain since we left the 3rd mile marker.  As we arrived at Slushy Meadows, the rain returned.  We were excited to be at Slushy Meadows.  The water was flowing.  It was very lush green.  It was beautiful!  We started to take a rest, take in all the scenery, and take photographs.  We had little concern for the very light rain that was more like just a drop here and there.  5 minutes into being at Slushy Meadows, the rain began to fall more as a gentle rain.  A light rumble of thunder began to echo through the mountains.  The standard type of thunder we are used to in southern California.  A few moments after the thunder began, the rain began more intense to a steady rain.  At this point, we had decided that was our cue to head back.  We were afraid that our phones were going to get wet, so we placed them in a zip lock bag that held my sandwich I ate earlier in the hike.  We stayed as long as we could before the rain began to be a steady good rainfall.  I talked to take more photos, and Jane started yelling at me to start leaving.  Before we headed down, I quickly took a piss (which was interesting in the rain), and we began on our hike back to the car.  Only 15 feet down the trail, Jane tried to yell at me about something, but I could not hear because she was a few feet ahead.  All of the sudden, I felt something hit the back of my neck, and leave a stinging feeling.  A few moments later, same thing, but on my head, then my arm.  I had realized that it was hail.  

     

     As I realized we were getting hit by hail, the sky let loose.  The air around us filled with pea sized hail.  So much so, it looked as if we were in the middle of a white haze.  The hail was pea sized, which is not the usual hail we get in California.  They sting and hurt when you get a few dozen hitting you every few seconds.  I took my backpack, put it over my head, and yelled at Jane to follow me.  I took us about 15 feet off the trail, to seek cover under a pine tree.  Pine tree's are not much cover, but it is better than being in the open trail.  Once under the tree, we were able to look around.  Hail was falling like crazy.  The clouds have only let loose moments ago, and the ground began to change from the dirt brown to the white ice.  The gentle rumbles of thunder began to get more intense, and more loud.  All you can hear is the tons of pea sized ice pebbles hitting the trees and the thunder roaring in the clouds above.  The hail made just a loud noise, Jane and I had to yell in order to talk to each other.  At first, seeing the hail was amazing!  I was excited, and was enjoying seeing this.  I believed that this hail would only last for a few moments, as it normally does.  After a few minutes, the joy of the hail wore off.  The temperature began to drop.  It got cold enough that we were able to see our breath as we talked (roughly 50-45 degrees).  We discussed our options.  We had two.  We stay where we are, and wait it out.  Or we begin heading down the mountain.  The sky began flashing with a lightning bolt every once in awhile.  I realized we could be in danger if we wait it out.  After all, we are 8,200 feet high, almost touching the clouds.   I was crossing my fingers that the hail would stop, but it kept coming down.  We had enough waiting.  We left the tree, and braved the hail.  We got back to the trail, but did not recognize it.  The trail was gushing with water rushing downhill.  This gave a new danger.  A danger where we could miss the trail and get lost.  We walked along side the trail to not walk through the mud.  Eventually, we did not care and walked ankle deep in the water/mud of the trail.  We just wanted to get out of the rain as soon as possible.  

     We were cold, soaked from head to toe, and hiked quietly as hundreds of different thoughts raced through our minds.  Thoughts of hope that the rain and lightning would stop.  That we would turn the corner to see the empty buildings of Horse Meadows.  Thoughts of fear that one of us will get injured and have to leave them alone on the trail while the other person gets help.  That one of us could get hit by lightning.  Fear that we would wander off the trail and get lost.  Fear of hypothermia.   Our hearts were racing the entire time, and we refused to take any breaks.  We hiked single file, with me as the leader.  Jane feel behind by as much as 5 feet since she has shorter legs that I do.  We hopped the storm would let up at any minute, but it got far worse before it got better.  The biggest danger we faced was the lightning.  The lightning began hitting the tops of the ridges on both sides of the canyon every 30 seconds or so.  The thunder was deafening.   The flashes of light from the lightning became so bright, we would get a split second of blindness.  The thunder roared over our heads, and all around us.  It was so loud, that even if Jane and I were yelling at the top of our lungs to each other, we would not be able to hear our own voices.  The lightning intensified even more after it began hitting the ridges.  Constant crackling, claps, booms, bangs, eta of thunder occurred right over our heads.  For the most bright flashes, and the loud thunder, Jane would jump in fear, and let out a small scream of panic.  I kept telling myself to stay calm, for panicing would do no good in this type of situation.  I kept paying attention to my surroundings, listening for a hum of the ground around us that would signal we were about to get hit with lightning, and constantly looking back to ensure Jane was alright.  In front of me, and most likely all around us, thick horizontal lightning bolts went flying through the sky, and looked as if the bolts were barely missing the tops of the trees.  I knew we could be in extreme danger.  Jane freaked out quite for many of the lightning bolts/thunder that hit around us.  I kept going, and could just close my eyes while walking.  For the first time, I became quite scared that we were not going to make it out of the wilderness.  There were two lightning bolts that I froze when they hit.  When they hit, it felt as if my heart stopped, and I could not move.  Only lasting a second, I would keep going and work towards getting out of this situation.  For one of these instances, we received an extremely bright flash of light.  Before our eyes can recover from the flash, the ear drop popping thunder hit.  After the hike, I did research.  To roughly determine how far lighting is from your location, you count the seconds between the flash of lightning and the thunder.  For ever second, the lightning bolt is 1/4 a mile away.  For this bolt, the flash was not even completely over when the thunder hit.  This means were were closer than 1/4 of a mile from this lightning bolt.  From this, I determined we were more close to danger than I think we were were at the time this was happening.

     

     The trail seemed to take forever.  We were walking machines.  Every turn and tree we passed, we hoped to see markers of where we were located.  We seconded guessed ourselfs, thinking we passed certain markers, making ourselves closer to shelter that we really were.  The extremely intense and danger lightning strikes lasted for roughly 30 to 45 minutes.  As they began to become less intense, we were extremely happy.   The lightning disappeared in the clouds, and we just heard a low rumble of lightning.  The extremely hard rain with the large rain drops began to transform into a standard rainfall.  It was a major relief that the worst part of the storm was over.  We did not talk at all.  All you hear was our feet swashing through the flooded trail, and the rain falling.  We were physically and mentally exhausted.  Our hearts began to calm, and we just wanted the hike to be over.  As we began to arrive at Horse Meadows, 3 miles down trail, the rain began to stop, and sunlight began to peak out of the clouds.  I stopped to let Jane catch up, and asked if we should stop.  We decided to just push through the last mile, and get to the car.  The warm sun felt great.  About half a mile before we got to the car, we spotted three deer.  We stopped for a few moments to look, before continuing on.  We ran into a mid aged guy with his dog going up the trail.  We warned him about the rain, but he felt the rain was over.  I looked back up towards Mt. San Gorgonio, and you can see nothing but thick black clouds covering the summit.  A great feeling began to take over.  A feeling that we had survived, and that we passed one of the biggest tests that mother nature had given us.  Finally!  We got back to the car.  Before heading back home, I took my clothes off to try to ring them out.  Barely any water was releasing from my clothes, and Jane had the same results.  We drove home soaked, and with the heater blasting.  We got back down into the San Bernardino Basin, and it was in the low 100's, and we still had my car's heater on.

     This will be a hiking trip that I will never forget.  I don't think I have ever been that close to danger in my life, and I am glad that we got out of there without any major issues.  After the fact, I have to say the lightning was amazing!  If I was in a cabin up there when that lightning it, I knew I would have been super excited, and cheer for more.