Spared By The Gods: How Thoughtful Of Them To Send The Flash Flood BEFORE I Set My Tent Up

If the storm had arrived half an hour later, this would probably be a video of my tent getting washed down a drainage and torn to shreds, and me chasing after it soaking wet and swearing.

But, sometimes the gods smile upon you. Lucky me, the storm came when I was still driving out to find a campsite.

The rains came down so hard I had to pull over. Water rushed off the hills and quickly turned the road into a river. For a minute I thought my car might go into boat mode and just float off into the woods, but then I remembered—It's a Subaru, it'll be fine. And it was.

Hail accompanied the rain, and fortunately it wasn't large enough to do any real damage. I've seen cars get absolutely thrashed by sudden hailstorms around here. So that's another lucky break.

Sitting there in my car while shooting this quick video, I was feeling grateful that I had a dry place to wait the storm out, and that I hadn't already chosen a campsite. Losing my tent would have been a foolish mistake and an unnecessary expense, and I've been trying to cut back on mistakes and expenses these days.

Tentlife would be kinda silly without a tent.

Anyhow, when the storm finally passed, I started my car, picked my way through all the trash and branches and rocks the water dragged into the road, and pitched my tent on a high point between two gullies.

Moral of the story: If you want to survive a flash flood, always camp high.

Or something like that ;)