ONE DAY OF VACATION, AT LEAST.
Last Sunday, I hit the road and landed at Pillsbury State Park in Washington, NH. As I was driving, I observed the road had been wet so I made the silly assumption that the storm I thought was coming at 5 o clock had passed us early. I checked in at the ranger station and grabbed a couple bundles of firewood. As i made my way down the main road, I observed some clouds off in the distance across the pond. I pulled up to the small parking area for my site and grabbed my external frame pack & the two bundles of wood.
My site was about a 150 yard hike, just off the trailhead for balance rock. Two trips later, I worked up a hell of a sweat. I took a short break & turned on the radio to search for a forecast report. As i was tuning the dial, the sky began getting dark and I heard rain hitting the treetops. I let out an audible “SON OF A BI……” as i sprinted over to my bag. I ended up slashing the paracord that was holding my tent to the pack and quickly rolled it out. Luckily, my A-Frame from Seager is an absolute breeze to set up, and it takes about 30 seconds to get together. I got the rainfly on just enough to to cover the windows & i promptly tossed my deflated air mattress, and sleeping bag inside— for the most part, everything was relatively dry that i got inside the tent.
At this point, buckets are pouring from the sky. I covered my daypack outside the tent with my large external frame bag (note to self: pack a bag cover) crawled inside, and watched on as the rain poured. I got my mattress blown up, my sleeping bag laid out, and listened to the rain until it started to let up. Sadly, I left my radio outside so she was a goner. As it got lighter, I decided I’d make a run for my guitar that was sitting in the trunk of my car. About halfway down the trail, the rain that I though had let up came down again. My jog turned to a sprint and I finally got back to my tent about 10 lbs heavier. I played over the sound of rain for a couple hours before I decided it was lights out around 10 o clock.
I woke up the next morning at 8 o clock to the MOST beautiful overcast weather imaginable. It was sprinkling intermittently, just the way I like it. I assessed the damage the rain did to my bag & it soaked everything inside my large pack-- Luckily, it was mostly stuff that could get wet, but a pool of water piled up in the bottom pocket. I pulled out of my daypack that was sitting underneath it, and low & behold, the shield worked. My small bag with my change of clothes was dry as could be— I picked up the two salamanders that burrowed beneath THAT bag & brought them beside the creek about 40 yards away.
When I got back to my site, I cracked open the plastic wrap that held the two bundles of wood together— I quickly found that the wood was soaked on the ends, but the middle where the plastic was stayed dry. I knew it was going to be tough to dry these out & i only had so much dryer lint for kindling. I grabbed my hatchet and cut the wet ends off of about 4 logs. I got the fire lit after some trouble with my lighter and dried out the rest of the wood so that it would be good to burn within the hour— It worked out as planned. I got the radio going & heard about the hardcore rain that was going to be rolling through later in the day. I cooked myself couple of eggs over the butane stove & decided that I didn’t want to stick around for the even MORE severe weather that was on its way. I picked my guitar for a couple hours as the fire raged & some light showers came and went. i broke down camp, made the hike back to the car and called it a day.
I made the beautiful ride of back roads from Washington, NH to Worcester & enjoyed the week as it was— Now, It’s back to work.
