During the night, an intense cold front came through. We awakened to extremely fierce winds that were tearing through the campground. Later, we learned that the winds hit hurricane force and exceeded 70 mph. As we lay in the Casita listening to the sounds of the wind, there was a sudden smashing noise and a vibration ran up the ground, and into the trailer. I jumped up and opened the door to see what it was.
A large pine tree near the trailer had snapped off almost at the base and had missed us by only a few feet. As I stood there looking at it, I realized that if I’d parked where I was supposed to have, the tree would have bisected my trailer. We were very happy that we had gotten such a late start and hadn’t had enough light to back into our proper space.
This is the tree what almost got us!Later, touring the campground, we noted that another large white pine had fallen on the bathhouse, penetrating the roof and causing quite a bit of damage there. Fortunately, the windstorm was short-lived and passed through in quick order.
But we had a very close call.
The rest of our trip was great. I got in a lot of hiking, bagged a few peaks, and we had a wonderful time walking around Asheville during a snow flurry that made the visit a lot more memorable.
This is the beer that helped me forget about the tree what almost got us. (At the Mellow Mushroom in Asheville--highly recommended!)
2 comments:
Once upon a time, I was on the Illinois River with my dad and a few uncles when a tornado went by along the shore, this too in the middle of the night. We were in a houseboat. Mother Nature is amazing.
I've never been on the water during a really bad storm. I have been uncomfortably close to a tornado. My dad and I rounded a curve in the road on our way home from Chattanooga to see a house with its roof torn off and the cloud retreating to our right. If we'd been ten seconds earlier, we'd have been *in* the tornado.
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