Storms and lessons learned

This past week hubby and I went to an adults only, burning man inspired, regional burn, (Interfuse).
This is not a post about drunken escapades or drug induced visions of utopia. (I say that because I have relatives who think that's the only thing we do at these events. Hi Grandma!) This is a post about lessons learned from an extended outdoor - no vending - no cabins - camping experience.

To set the stage for this tale, let's start at the beginning. We got to the campgrounds Weds afternoon. Immediately we realized the bag with the hand tools didn't get into the car. So, no mallet for the stakes, and no hatchet. We were coming in from out of state, so we didn't pack wood, our plan was to buy it once we got close to our destination. This didn't turn out as planned, either it was too early in the season or we were looking in the wrong places. So, we had no wood. (With no hand ax, it's probably best we didn't waste money on it.) Now, some of you are probably surprised we didn't turn around at this point and try again another weekend, but that's not how these events work. It's very communal. Both Dave and I were doing multiple volunteer shifts, so we knew we could easily skim wood from those. Also, at it's heart, the event is a burn, there's always lots of fires and lots of wood. We figured we could find a neighbor with fire and do our cooking with them, when we weren't being fed from the volunteer kitchen.
So, weds evening we were both fed from the volunteer kitchen, we got our camp set up and enjoyed a bit of sunlight and a pleasant evening. Thursday was the first official day of the event, and again we both had volunteer shifts, welcoming the new arrivals and making sure that infrastructure was in place to make the event go smoothly. We had cold breakfast, but a warm lunch from the volunteer kitchen and we scavenged wood to make a tasty taco dinner. Thursday evening started with some showers and drizzle, we cleaned up dinner, put out the fire and started to prep for an evening full of old friends and new friends and music and art. Most years the evening entertainment is best observed in wild skimpy outfits, (preferably homemade,) and cold beer in hand. As it was already cold and drizzly, we both opted instead for street clothes and jackets. We did get in some visiting and watched some fire spinners before things really got crazy.
We were halfway around the campground inner circle and the drizzle was picking up, so we cut across the burn space and started to head to our tent, thinking we'd take a break and evaluate whether we wanted to call an early night or find a cozy dome to party in for a little while longer. (Dome refers to the geodesic domes that are common at these types of events.) The decision was made for us when the storm slammed into the campground. We were still a ways away from our tent, but close enough that we kept to that heading instead of branching off to one of the more stable structures. We were both soaked in a couple of seconds. Still calm though, it was just a little wind and rain, right? We were almost to the tent when the worst hit. Crazy wind, almost knocked us off our feet. We were close enough to watch the wind snap poles on the carport that I had help erect for the gate greeters. These were not tent poles, these were aluminum poles a couple inches in diameter, with welded joints, fully staked down with ropes tied to rebar that had been pounded into the ground. The wind then picked up the fire, out of the burn barrel that was stationed at that greeter station, and sent the flaming wood and embers down the road, and straight towards Dave and I!! We turned our backs just in time and luckily escaped injury. We were less than a dozen yards from our tent then and we picked up the pace, passing by our neighbors who were desperately trying to keep their campsite together. We got back to our camp, we could barely see for the rain and wind, we grabbed our camp chairs and went to the tent, to find it had partially collapsed.
Of course, I had left my flashlight and headlamp in the tent, (I didn't want to get them wet) but Dave had his. So, I secured the camp chairs, while Dave went to look at the tent. After stowing them in a corner where they could drip safely, I went to help Dave. Basically, the side that was getting the brunt of the wind had collapsed. (In retrospect, after seeing the damage done to the carport, perhaps collapse was a better thing to do than breaking.) Dave took the lead, and re-staked things while I lent my weight to the lines to try and keep the walls upright while he staked. Teamwork prevailed and the tent was re-staked and held against the wind.
We then spent the next hour holding that side of the tent (from the inside) during strong gusts while simultaneously getting dry and warm and sopping up the puddles as best we could. We sleep on an air mattress, so most of the bedding stayed dry, except where leaks dripped down from the top of the tent. Those were easily dealt with, and we went to bed when the storm calmed, listening to the rain and wind, and relieved to have survived unscathed.
We woke the next morning, with new trouble. Most of our warm gear was soaking wet. We hung up everything in the eaves of the pop-up and put on layers of whatever was dry. Thankfully we had known the chance for rain was high and had packed 4 jackets between the two of us. It was barely adequate though and we resorted to draping our blankets over our shoulders to visit friends. We did make it through the day, although we lost a few of our neighbors who hadn't made it through the storm as well as we did. (Our corner got a lot of the wind as we were at the top of a hill with fewer trees between us and the storm due to the parking lot.) There were others who had to abandon their tents, and got adopted into other camps, because that's how burners roll.
The rest of the event passed without incident. Our soaked jackets eventually dried and we were nice and toasty warm for the effigy burn.


Lessons learned:
-Don't leave all the packing to someone who is also wrangling a 2 year old. This is not to put blame on Dave, this is to say that it's too much to ask of someone, especially when it all has to fit in a tiny car and demands a few repacks to get it all to fit. Another pair of hands and another pair of eyes would probably have caught things like the hand tools.
-Stake down everything. We would have been a lot worse off if we hadn't taken the time to stake down our tent, our rainflap and our pop-up. The carport that collapsed at the gate would have been a bigger disaster if we hadn't secured it to rebar stakes.
- Bring more blankets than you think you'll need.
- Be cautious of fires during a really windy storm. Even if the fire is a dozen yards away.
- Know your gear. Can you put it up in the dark? In the wind? With rain in your eyes? :-D Is your tent better in summer or does it work best in blustery spring and fall? We have a tent that's great in summer, but it leaks a little in heavy rain and doesn't hold in enough heat when it's cold out. We work around those things with layers and blankets and the air mattress to keep us out of drip puddles.
-Know who you're camping with. We would have been a lot more miserable, (and home early) if we hadn't been camping with a group of people who consider us family. Whether it was fire, wood, beer or a warm place to hangout for a few hours, it was awesome to know that our burner family had our back.

Wild Women Weekend 2

Saturday was the second in the outdoor series at the local state park. The weather was a little cloudy, but it was not too windy and a nice 25 degrees.
We met at 10 at the park office. (Well ladies who were on time were there at 10, I was fashionably tardy...) There were a lot more women this time. Instead of 8 there were more than two dozen of us. This necessitated splitting the group into two. My group went cross country skiing first. The other half was snowshoeing first.
We got all the skis and boots and poles organized and into the van, then we walked to the start of the trail, where the van met us. Amid much laughter, we all managed to get clicked into the skis and down the first couple of hills. In spite of a couple of falls, I ended up close to the front, with some of the ladies who had cross country skied before. The 5 of us soon pulled away from the others, and we went quite a long ways before turning back to head back to the van and lunch.
I have to say, I really liked the skiing. The skis attach to the boots under the ball of the foot. This meant that a lot of the muscles in use are the ones that I exercise when I salsa dance. It was also the beginning of the day, and I was fresh and excited to be out. So, I caught on to the motion pretty quickly and was able to keep a good pace for most of the hour. Tricky parts included learning how to get back up after falling, learning how to get up hills and learning how to slow down. I'm still not really good at most of those, but by the end I was getting better. I think I fell down 6 times on the way out and only once on the way back in.

So, after an hour of skiing, we were all very ready for lunch, me included. Victoria, the conservationist, had once again made us a dutch oven feast. Last time was the dutch oven pizza, which was delicious, and she didn't disappoint with the Hungarian Goulash this time.

After lunch we spent some time learning about dog sledding, from a couple that do it for fun. They have a few Siberian Huskies and a little sled, which they brought to show us. After a discussion about safety and the realities of the sport and the dogs, they hooked the huskys to the sled and a few ladies got to try it out.

Fully rested, we split up again and I got my chance to try snowshoeing. Now, I don't know about you, but when I think snowshoeing, I think this:

But in reality, modern snowshoes have evolved a bit. They look a bit more like this:
I got really tired, really quick. :-) The snowshoes were great, don't get me wrong. I liked them. It was fun and pretty easy. I was at the end of my stamina though, having spent all week down with a cold, and all month hiding in the house to stay warm.
I pushed through for most of the hour, lagging a bit, huffing and puffing a bit, but still having too much fun to stop.

I called it a day after the snowshoeing. There was another hour scheduled of winter shelter building but I was done in. I didn't want to risk relapsing back into sick, so I bowed out of shelter making.

With both the skiing and the shoeing I couldn't help but think about how much harder it would be with 40 pounds of gear on my back. Or a gun on my shoulder or anything else really. Much more practice would be necessary to be able to do feats like that I think. Mad respect for those that can.


Gear Report: I invested in some long underwear for this event. Justin Charles merino wool pants to be specific. They come in men's sizes, but I found that a small fit me really well. (For the record ladies, I'm a curvy size 12.) If you're a smaller woman, and looking for wool base layer, this maker won't work for you, because Small is as small as they go. Which is too bad, because I really liked them. They fit well, they feel GREAT, and temperature regulation has been wonderful from the first day outside, through a week sitting at the office. (Yes, I've been wearing them every day since buying them. I have a 30 minute drive to and from work on a country highway, I prefer to wear clothing that will handle any kind of emergency, and with -30 windchills this week, I wasn't messing around.) I got them on sale for 40$, down from the original 120$ the big box store wanted. They are definitely worth the 40, I'm not sure I would say they are worth 120. The manufacturer sells them for 60 online, I would say yes to that too.

I realized I need some sunglasses. I like the sun, I've never felt the need to own sunglasses, but even with the cloudy day we had Saturday, I was still dealing with a bit of snow-glare and I would have really had trouble on a sunny day.

All in all, a great weekend. I'll be doing more of those sports I bet.