A Shocking Experience
I am back from camp, and it was very memorable! The first 24 hours were actually unforgettable, and we spent the rest of our time recovering from them.
Being strong paddlers, my brother and I were asked to go out with the canoeing day trip on Wednesday. There were 5 canoes, 7 girls, 4 camp staff and us. The plan was to paddle across the lake, down the channel to a bigger lake, and stop for lunch on a rocky point about a 45 minute paddle away. Everything went according to plan; we paddled along, spotting herons and cows and lily pads, avoiding the stinky weedy areas.
swimming in PFDs at our lunch site
We got to our lunch site, beached the canoes and after a quick expedition to explore the immediate area, went for a swim in our PFDs before having our sandwiches. Eating a picnic away from camp was very exciting for the girls. We had another swim after lunch and then as we were getting ready to leave, we heard a distant rumble of thunder. Clouds were piling up on the horizon looking anvil shaped and ominous.
ominous clouds
The girls had been wanting to build a fort, so we played “fort”, building a shelter out of canoes that could be used if the storm came our way. We waited about half an hour, and the storm appeared to be breaking up. There had been no more thunder, so we took down our fort and set off to paddle back to the camp.
our fort
Of course, the swimming, and paddling and fort excitement had left the girls reluctant to paddle, so the staff were working double time to paddle ourselves back to camp. We didn’t want to be late for afternoon activities.
Halfway back, we heard a nearby clap of thunder, so we hauled the 5 canoes up on a sloped rock at the edge of a cow field. There was no rain, so we sat on the rock and played some “I spy”, and watched the cows and horses across the channel. With lighter sky in the distance, we felt that the storm would be short lived. The rain came, but the thunder was gone, so we sheltered under a nearby cedar shrub until the thunder came back. We had distant but continuous thunder and lightning, and we were sitting on our PFDs on the rock, looking at the approaching clear sky and yelling the “one Mississippi” counts between lightning and thunder.
We knew we were in trouble when the cows across the channel took off running at high speed. The clear distant sky was suddenly gone, and the wind picked up. My brother and another staff member went off running to the distant farm house to see if we could shelter there, because this storm was more severe than anyone had guessed. As they ran, the wind started whipping hail at us almost horizontally, and the sky was illuminated with much closer lightning. With our belongings all gathered, and the canoes hauled up even farther, we huddled with the now cold and very scared little girls until given the go-ahead to head for the farmer’s barn.
Much of the run to the barn is jumbled in my mind. I remember feeling lightning shocks and tingles up to my shoulder. Other staff remember the smell of smoldering hay, and the girls dropped their belongings and ran with us, staying as low as possible, to the barn. We sheltered there for about 45 minutes, waiting out the worst of the storm. The farmer was very kind and brought out the bunny rabbit that lives in the barn, and his barn kittens which soothed the scared children. He let us know that we had been very lucky–there was a bull that ran with the cows in his field, but thankfully he didn’t make an appearance. We used the barn phone once the storm had passed, and got all the kids back to the camp by car so they could get warm and dry and eat dinner.
water in the canoe
The storm was gone as fast as it arrived. My brother and I returned to the scene of the chaos, dumped the water from the canoes, piled our belongings, paddles, PFDs and remnants of lunch back into the boats, lashed them together and set off for camp under clear skies. It is exhausting to paddle with children who are tired. It is even more exhausting to paddle 5 boats tied together.
safe on solid ground!
That was by far the most dangerous situation I’ve ever been in. It could have been our last.
Sad to say, my camera and watch did not survive the trip, but both are very replaceable.
