Song: Above All
Artist: Helen Jane Long
The day had started out with beautiful clouds in the sky.
In but a few hours time...
the weather would take a drastic turn...
just when I summited the mountain later that evening.
Near the top...
the skies to the East were clear...
with just some scattered clouds.
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To the Southwest...
all was clear.
And then directly to the West...
there were some dark clouds gathering.
When I looked behind me...
I saw some dark clouds creeping in.
As I waited for the sun to set...
I saw that it was raining in the distance to the West.
I then saw some lightning flashes...
and I heard the delayed thunder coming from the Northwest.
Behind me...
the dark clouds kept advancing.
The mood was eerily surreal.
I could hear the low frequency rumble of distant thunder...
and I could see rain falling to the West.
I was then in a race for the sun to set...
before the thunderstorm reached me.
However...
I was thinking that the storm moved to the North of me.
And so...
I waited for the sun to completely set.
This was the last photo I took.
Within a few moments...
rain started coming down.
The dark clouds to the North had advanced towards me.
I quickly got on the trike and Bandi and I made our way down the mountain.
However...
within moments of leaving...
the rain picked up strength...
and a short while later...
it began to hail.
At first...
the hail was just pea sized.
But within a minute...
not only did the hail dramatically increase in volume...
but in size...
to the size of ball bearings.
The temperature had also suddenly decreased to near freezing...
a drop of some thirty degrees.
I put my camera inside my light jacket to protect it.
At first...
I had found a tree that had branches which extended out over the road some...
and I had briefly stopped under them for shelter...
but I then saw quick flashes of lightning...
and then heard thunder a few seconds later.
The storm was advancing quickly behind me.
I decided that I would rather get pelted with the hail
than risk getting hit by lightning.
And so...
Bandi and I quickly made our way down the mountain.
Bandi didn't want to rest...
as she didn't like the sound of the thunder.
She just lowered her head some...
and kept running.
I had placed my hood over my head to cushion the blows of the hail...
but I didn't want to stop to put on gloves or my balaclava...
as the storm had increased to such an extent that any delay
might have cost me valuable time to keep the lightning far enough behind me.
And so...
I kept peddling and Bandi kept pace the whole way.
Once we reached home...
my clothes were halfway soaked and I had to shake off the
pellets of ice which had accumulated on my clothes.
Bandi's outer fur was wet...
but her inner fur was still dry.
Once we got inside...
Bandi went straight to my bed and began rolling around
and rubbing herself on my comforter as she dried herself on it.
I didn't mind...
as I had caused her to get wet in the first place.
I took a long hot shower...
and I then proceeded up to the loft to type up this article.
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Even as I sit up in the loft...
I can see lightning strikes every few seconds to the East as they light up the sky.
I looked up a weather reading before coming up to the loft.
The storm cell looked to be at least forty miles long and ten miles wide...
and it passed right over my location.
At my altitude...
the weather can change suddenly...
especially at the top of the mountain.
As the Northwest is occluded by the mountain...
I will have to ensure there are no storm cells nearby in the future before leaving...
by checking the weather report...
as I don't have direct sight of the Northwestern skies.
My hands are still puffy from my oversight.
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Although I will be more careful in the future...
it was still worth it.
As I have said before...
heaven lies on the other side of hell
(metaphorically speaking).
