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It was a Dark and Stormy
Night
We
were 10 campers in five dome tents – seven men and three
women – out on a wilderness island in the Allegheny
River in Warren County, three miles upriver from Camp
F-Troop and several miles from anywhere else the evening
of June 5th, 2010, when a monster storm we’d been
tracking electronically all day veered north of its
probable path and slammed us.
From midnight until 8:00 a.m. – when we lucked into a
break in the weather and scrambled out of our tents and
into our canoes to head downstream to camp – we endured
monsoon rains, brilliant flashes of lightning,
thunderous thunder and bitter, high-pitched winds all
night long. Four of us were outdoors writers, one a
well-known naturalist and columnist for the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette, another a geologist and the rest competent
hikers, canoers and wilderness enthusiasts.
Yet none of us showed enough caution or foresight to
avoid the storm, and afterwards, we expressed new-found
confidence in our quality dome tents, outdoor equipment
and canoe gear and pride in our fortitude for toughing
out the night. Still, take my advice and don’t ever try
this at home.
~ Don Feigert, 06-15-10
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