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I was finally pulling ahead at work and I knew the weekend was supposed to be nice. It was gonna cool off by Sunday afternoon. So I decided I would leave at noon on Friday and go camping. Next time, I will plan that a little better. As by the time I got packed and stopped off for supplies, I got to the site about an hour before dark. I went ahead and setup the tent with the fading sunlight and made the rest of camp in the dark. Friday night was pretty good, not to chilly. When I woke up Saturday morning, I fired up the stove and made breakfast. There was a little cloud cover, but it burned off really quick. Around noon, I headed into town to pick up my daughter. She had a good time. She climbed tree's, went on walks, rode her bike, went fishing (or as I call it, throwing rocks and sticks into the lake). We saw Rainbow trout, geese, deer and elk (more on those later) on our trip. Best part about it, was it was just me and her without any distractions. After dusk, we made a fire to make smores and tell/make up stories. Then things started to get bad.
Here in CO we are almost in a drought. At the lower elevations, we just haven't had the moisture. We have had 4 or 5 fires this year already. While the resorts are having record amounts of snow, the foothills are way behind. While we were making smores and telling stories the wind picked up. I decided I would wet the fire, as I didn't want to be the one starting another forest fire. We went inside the tent and got ready for bed. The wind continued to get worse and worse. Around 11, I realized I would not be getting any sleep. Around 12:30 That tent was shaking "like a leaf on a tree". I didn't know if the tent would blow away or come crashing down. I did realize there was no way I could save a 12x14 canvas wall tent and protect/calm down a 4 year old if something did happen. At 1am, I decided enough was enough and decided to head to the house (about 25 minutes away). What really surprised me on the drive away, was that even though I was leaving over $1000 on the mountain side, my daughter's safety was well worth it. I just hoped it would still be there when I returned.
I returned around 10am on Sunday. I was relieved when I saw that the tent was still setup and in the same place. The wind had only pulled 2 stakes loose. I talked to another camper and they said it blew their pop up off the leveling plates and that they had to hook the pop up to the truck in the middle of the night. I later saw on the news that there were 92mph wind gusts reported for that area. I was very impressed with that tent.
As I drove away, I saw a rather large harem of cow elk. I lost count at 120. I had to take video, cause with a story like that, you need proof. All in all, I had a great time. My daughter wants to camp again, just not with the wind. I think the sighting of the herd was a sign of good things to come.
I hope you enjoy the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwMeHl3WuNw
Here in CO we are almost in a drought. At the lower elevations, we just haven't had the moisture. We have had 4 or 5 fires this year already. While the resorts are having record amounts of snow, the foothills are way behind. While we were making smores and telling stories the wind picked up. I decided I would wet the fire, as I didn't want to be the one starting another forest fire. We went inside the tent and got ready for bed. The wind continued to get worse and worse. Around 11, I realized I would not be getting any sleep. Around 12:30 That tent was shaking "like a leaf on a tree". I didn't know if the tent would blow away or come crashing down. I did realize there was no way I could save a 12x14 canvas wall tent and protect/calm down a 4 year old if something did happen. At 1am, I decided enough was enough and decided to head to the house (about 25 minutes away). What really surprised me on the drive away, was that even though I was leaving over $1000 on the mountain side, my daughter's safety was well worth it. I just hoped it would still be there when I returned.
I returned around 10am on Sunday. I was relieved when I saw that the tent was still setup and in the same place. The wind had only pulled 2 stakes loose. I talked to another camper and they said it blew their pop up off the leveling plates and that they had to hook the pop up to the truck in the middle of the night. I later saw on the news that there were 92mph wind gusts reported for that area. I was very impressed with that tent.
As I drove away, I saw a rather large harem of cow elk. I lost count at 120. I had to take video, cause with a story like that, you need proof. All in all, I had a great time. My daughter wants to camp again, just not with the wind. I think the sighting of the herd was a sign of good things to come.
I hope you enjoy the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwMeHl3WuNw