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@Woodland,
CTR 2012, first day, after having been pinned-down on the Kenosha side of Georgia Pass for about an hour, I finally make it over Georgia and descend down below treeline, just in time to setup my tarp before another round of storms comes rolling thru. Long story short, I've never had lightning strike that close to me. Usually it's flash-bang, between the light and sound. That time the sound came before the "L" in "flash". The lightning seemed brighter than daylight and for a surprisingly long time. Nothing like lying under a tarp, getting pelted by hail and rain, having never felt that helpless and wanting to just snap my fingers and transport the hell out of there. I had three series of storms roll thru that night, about every 90 minutes, and the last one was the crescendo which I will never forget. What topped off the evening was while pretending to sleep for a couple hours, after the storms quit rolling thru, it was oh so quiet by then, I was startled by the sound of a tree snapping and then the slow-motion snap, crackle, pop of many limbs as it crashed into other trees on the way to the ground, what felt like less than a hundred feet away. No wind when it happened. Gravity? The causality of the lightning strike? A sign to get the flip out of there? My palms sweat just thinking about that night...
-B
I was out there that night too. It was my only attempt of CTR thus far...and that night was legendary. I may try again someday...I made it to mile 288 before pulling the plug. But yes, that night was MEAN.CTR 2012, first day, after having been pinned-down on the Kenosha side of Georgia Pass for about an hour, I finally make it over Georgia and descend down below treeline, just in time to setup my tarp before another round of storms comes rolling thru. Long story short, I've never had lightning strike that close to me. Usually it's flash-bang, between the light and sound. That time the sound came before the "L" in "flash". The lightning seemed brighter than daylight and for a surprisingly long time. Nothing like lying under a tarp, getting pelted by hail and rain, having never felt that helpless and wanting to just snap my fingers and transport the hell out of there. I had three series of storms roll thru that night, about every 90 minutes, and the last one was the crescendo which I will never forget. What topped off the evening was while pretending to sleep for a couple hours, after the storms quit rolling thru, it was oh so quiet by then, I was startled by the sound of a tree snapping and then the slow-motion snap, crackle, pop of many limbs as it crashed into other trees on the way to the ground, what felt like less than a hundred feet away. No wind when it happened. Gravity? The causality of the lightning strike? A sign to get the flip out of there? My palms sweat just thinking about that night...
-B