http://sweepingthegarden.wordpress.com/2012/01/28/retreat-127-128-2012/

Wild wind in the canyons, a brief father/son adventure, and another opportunity to ponder the merits of freestanding, fully enclosed shelters.

...and preparing for the worst when initially staking a tent!!

Edited by xnomanx on 01/28/2012 22:02:14 MST.

Awesome post. What a wild night. Glad you both made it out OK.

Good report (as usual) Craig. I love that you're taking your boy along. He won't forget it, even if it was a bit tough. I had a few similar experiences with my little brother when I used to take him out. We never had to hike out but once we were close. We seriously underestimated how cold it was going to be, went too light and had an extremely cold night and were borderline hypothermic by morning. That was one of many trips my mom never heard the details of. Joseph was funny, he wanted to keep going on trips so he never told mom how bad things were lest she say no the next time.

Sounds like there's not much else you could have done for that tent to stay put.

Crazy story! Glad you made it out okay. The wind forecast was pretty extreme.

I was going to do a thru-hike of the Gene Marshall/Piedra Blanca trail up and over Pine Mtn Friday night but opted for alternate plans after considering the wind forecasts. The threat of giant trees or branches crashing down on us up on the ridge was pretty compelling.

We instead ended up farther out on Hwy 33 towards Cuyama and hiked into the Dick Smith Wilderness. It got a little breezy Friday evening but nothing like what you encountered.

Glad your boy was a trooper. What an adventure for him!

My father being a teacher, we spent our summers camping and canoeing. My favorite memories are of crazy storms and my dad trying not to let on that things were looking grim. I'm not a parent, but I'd bet this ends up as a fond memory for your boy.

"My father being a teacher, we spent our summers camping and canoeing. My favorite memories are of crazy storms and my dad trying not to let on that things were looking grim. I'm not a parent, but I'd bet this ends up as a fond memory for your boy."

I am a parent and my kids are grown. And yes, these kinds of trips are among those that become the most memorable and fun to reminisce about :)


Craig, as usual great writing.

Re: "opportunity to ponder the merits of freestanding, fully enclosed shelters."

Yes, that comes up a lot when the wind is an issue.

Two of us were camping near the AT in an area with lots of widowmakers in the area(some kind of tree plague). We didn't realize that a tropical storm was coming through the area untill it was too late.

We were forced to pitch camp in an open solid flat rock area to avoid the falling tress.
We both had floorless pyramids and had to use deadman anchors made of rocks and branches.
We knew the importance of having very solid anchor points when using mids in wind.

It was very difficult to pitch in a wind when you can barely stay on your feet and debris is flying everywhere.

We couldn't talk because of the noise and sleep was hard with the flapping walls and what sounded like a jet engine on top of you.

It was still going full force when we finally left in the morning.
We hiked by a camp a little further down the trail. All had heavy freestanding domes, collapsed on the occupants, with many broken poles and ripped fabric.

It looked like we did better than them, but we could have been worse off if we hadn't anchored with the 100 pounds of rock.

The others may have been fine if they had taken the time to add additional ties along the side of their domes.