08-11-2019, 09:43 PM
I was camping at Strawberry for a few days last week, and had the pleasure of being there for the two ridiculous storms we had on Thursday evening and Friday evening.
Thursday's storm hit so hard and fast, we could see the dark clouds rolling in and the lightning cracking all around -- we barely got the boat on the trailer as the very heavy rain turned to hail -- pebble sized at first but quickly advancing to marble-sized. Before we got the half-mile to the campground the road was covered in hail - also known as ICE -- and slipped and slided our way to our spot. The floor of the boat was covered in hail, and there was so much hail at the campsite that we could have made a small snowman. We refilled the coolers (free ice!) and waited for the rain to clear.
Friday was a beautiful day, and I convinced my 11 year old son that Thursday's storm was unusual and wouldn't happen to us again. Weather looked to be relatively nice so I didn't even take the boat top with me (left it at camp). Calm waters in the late afternoon, and fishing was okay -- but over the course of about ten minutes we noticed clouds turning dark and approaching from the south -- already dumping on the campground and our loading ramp -- so we scurried around the lake to find some area that might not get as slammed. A quick review of the radar path on a phone revealed that we were going to get nailed no matter where we went -- the orange center of the weather radar passed right over the entire end of Soldier Creek! Luckily we could see it was relatively small, so we buckled down turned the boat into the waves, and rode it out.
I'm pretty sure my son now believes that Strawberry does that every day. It'll be a while before I convince him otherwise.
We saw a few canoes out near the middle earlier in the day. You wouldn't want to be anywhere near that place in a boat any smaller than mine (17.5 ft) in a storm like those.
Here's a quick phone video of the aftermath after we'd gone through the "eye" and were just trying to get back to the ramp. Video never does justice to the intensity of the situation.
https://youtu.be/M5Ai1q3Fra0
(picture attached is of the storm coming at us).
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Thursday's storm hit so hard and fast, we could see the dark clouds rolling in and the lightning cracking all around -- we barely got the boat on the trailer as the very heavy rain turned to hail -- pebble sized at first but quickly advancing to marble-sized. Before we got the half-mile to the campground the road was covered in hail - also known as ICE -- and slipped and slided our way to our spot. The floor of the boat was covered in hail, and there was so much hail at the campsite that we could have made a small snowman. We refilled the coolers (free ice!) and waited for the rain to clear.
Friday was a beautiful day, and I convinced my 11 year old son that Thursday's storm was unusual and wouldn't happen to us again. Weather looked to be relatively nice so I didn't even take the boat top with me (left it at camp). Calm waters in the late afternoon, and fishing was okay -- but over the course of about ten minutes we noticed clouds turning dark and approaching from the south -- already dumping on the campground and our loading ramp -- so we scurried around the lake to find some area that might not get as slammed. A quick review of the radar path on a phone revealed that we were going to get nailed no matter where we went -- the orange center of the weather radar passed right over the entire end of Soldier Creek! Luckily we could see it was relatively small, so we buckled down turned the boat into the waves, and rode it out.
I'm pretty sure my son now believes that Strawberry does that every day. It'll be a while before I convince him otherwise.
We saw a few canoes out near the middle earlier in the day. You wouldn't want to be anywhere near that place in a boat any smaller than mine (17.5 ft) in a storm like those.
Here's a quick phone video of the aftermath after we'd gone through the "eye" and were just trying to get back to the ramp. Video never does justice to the intensity of the situation.
https://youtu.be/M5Ai1q3Fra0
(picture attached is of the storm coming at us).
[signature]
. Thank you for the reminder.