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Post by cweston on Jul 14, 2020 11:00:39 GMT -8
It's such a different experience than rain on a BPing trip.
There wasn't rain in the forecast. I headed out at about 6:00 (it's too hot for hiking here in the summer otherwise) and was surprised that it was drizzling. I took off anyway, hiked about 4 miles in gradually increasing rain. By the time I returned home, it was more than drizzle but not raining hard. The last 100 yards back to our yard is through a brushy path that was unpleasantly wet, but no big deal.
I really didn't care. It was around 70 degrees, and I knew that no matter how wet I got, there was coffee and a shower and dry clothes waiting for me at home, so who cares?
When BPing, I definitely experience some anxiety about rain. Will it rain all day? Multiple days? Will my sleeping gear get wet? Will there be a dangerous storm or flood? Will the weather keep me from going where I'm planning to go and/or having the experience I came here for? Will I get hypothermia? (All of these things HAVE happened to me at some point on BPing trips. I'm sure I'm not the only one.)
I don't think that I worry inordinately about any of these things, but it's really nice not to have to worry about them at all.
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gabby
Trail Wise!
Posts: 4,537 
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Post by gabby on Jul 14, 2020 11:20:24 GMT -8
You, mister, are a champ! (You were wearing a mask, weren't you? :^D) Wife and I went over to the park day before yesterday in a vain attempt to get a glimpse of NEOWISE. (Thank you again, swimswithtrout!) We'll drive to a nearby site on the lake and try again tonight or tomorrow night. This time I'll take my monocular and Nikon binos. I got on the web on my iPhone this morning after the wife said something about "when are you going to get out of the house again!?!" and found out that, like it or not, the state parks around here are OPEN. Who'd a thunk it? So I guess I could go somewhere close to Austin this fall/winter and get my tent(s) wet - providing, of course, that we don't have another "spurt" in the fall. W/O anything else to draw me outta the house, I guess I'm going to be forced to drive to Arkansas (or something). Desperate people gotta do whatever they can do. Hey, I've been pretty hebetudinous and sedentary lately, having taken off about 30 days from physical activity in the hope that my weak old 75-year-old knees would bounce back. I'm just now getting back to the stretching and exercise regimen, so maybe I'm not dead yet. I really like your story, cweston. Reminds me that, once upon a not-so-long-ago time, I used to run every day come hell or high water, and being out in the rain was really no big deal. It's kinda fun, actually. I think I'm not unusual in that I worry too much about everything already. Why worry about a little rain?
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Post by cweston on Jul 14, 2020 11:33:29 GMT -8
gabby: I live in the woods, on a large reservoir. It's a really good time to live in the sticks: I can easily hike woods and lakeshore where I virtually never encounter other humans, and if I do, it's easy enough to keep my distance. I'm really not such a trooper, but I'm going a BPing trip next week, so this is not the time to slack on daily hiking. I took yesterday off, so taking today off was really not a viable option. But... Why worry about a little rain? ...indeed. Sometimes you've just got to remind yourself that it's not that big a deal.
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desert dweller
Trail Wise!
Power to the Peaceful...Hate does not create.
Posts: 6,291
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Post by desert dweller on Jul 14, 2020 12:22:14 GMT -8
Hiking in the rain in the forest is such a treat.
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