My recent weekend, camping at Lake Ouachita State Park, taught me valuable lessons about weather preparedness related to pitching my tent. Further reflection on that night also led me to consider how I would keep up with weather forecasts on the trail. When possible, I probably would opt to stay in a shelter instead of my tent during a thunderstorm, just so I don't have to worry about my tent collapsing on me.
I have mentioned in a previous post that I have a Garmin InReach Mini 2 GPS device. The InReach Mini 2 allows me to communicate with friends and family when I don't have a cell signal in remote areas, it has GPS tracking so my wife can follow my movements while I am backpacking, and it has an SOS feature in case I get in trouble and cannot evacuate myself. All great features, but it also has a weather forecast feature. Before this incident, I had never bothered to try it out. I don't need to be in the backcountry to test out that feature, so a week or so ago, I powered on my device and downloaded a current weather forecast for my location. Here is a screenshot of what I got.
Not bad. This weather report showed temperatures and precipitation for a 24 hour period in detail (hourly) and a couple of days with highs and lows and summary conditions. That evening and the next day looked to be clear and mild, if a little hot. It was July 31st in Arkansas, so that's to be expected.However, sleeping in my bed in the house that same night, I was awakened by ...not clear skies, but a thunderstorm. At first I wondered if this was just a tiny pop up summer storm cell. They are often difficult for weather forecasters to predict. Here is what the radar and weather app showed when I woke up to lightning and thunder.
That's more than a small storm and it's hours of rain as opposed to the clear skies predicted by the Garmin weather service. That's a considerable miss from the Garmin forecast. I have not repeated my testing with that feature, because that was such a big miss, I don't have confidence in the Garmin. Here is my plan.
Check weather on my phone when I'm on ridge tops
Even when I'm in the mountains in remote areas in Arkansas, there is usually a mobile signal on the tops of the mountain ridges. If I can try to remember to use those opportunities when I do have a phone signal in the afternoons before I choose a camp location for the night, I think the weather app I use on my phone on a daily basis will provide me with a more accurate forecast.
Ask wife to keep an eye on weather and message me if storms are likely
In addition to using my phone weather app, I may have my wife keep an eye on the weather from home and message me if she sees the weather turning bad. One thing the Garmin does well is facilitate text based messaging.
Opt to stay in or near shelter if chance of storms
If there is any chance of storms at all, I will try to spend the night either in a shelter or near enough that I can shelter there for the night if my tent fails.
Pitch my tent better, even if I don't think it will storm
One of the big takeaways from my recent trip to Lake Ouachita State Park was that my Durston tent will not remain standing if stakes are not secure. I don't anticipate that I will encounter anything quite as loose as the gravel tent pad where I pitched my tent at the state park, but I will at least give me tent stakes a tug to make sure they don't just pull out. And if they are a bit loose, I will work to secure them using rocks as I detailed in the Lake Ouachita post.
All of these plans are aimed at reducing risk of exposure. My trip will be in the late fall, and getting wet in the night could be dangerous if temperatures are cool. Temperatures don't have to dip to freezing before there is risk for hypothermia. Hopefully, I will have some opportunities soon to put some of these plans into practice. One of my tendencies on the trail is to just forge ahead and not stop to do much of anything. This is a habit that could lead to mistakes. It will take time to stop and check my phone for a signal. It will take time to check the weather and also to look ahead on the trail to make a decision about the best place to stop for the night. But being intentional about those things will help me stay out of risky situations.
I am getting excited about my trip. The dates are on my calendar now. I think it's going to be challenging, but fun. I need to begin working out some of the finer details. I also need to do some additional trips. The heat and bugs have been so bad that I have not been overly eager to venture out to the deep woods. A YouTube vlogger I follow went on a recent trip in July. She was hot and plagued by bugs the whole time she was on the trail, and she ended up ending her trip before she planned to. I can wait a little while longer to get back on the trails. But I would really like to get a couple of multi-night trips under my belt sometime before my thru hike.
When I do, I will share my experiences and reflections here.
Thanks for stopping by,
Gavagai
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