Makes me nervous and looking up to check the trees when we were tent camping in wooded sites. Five years or so, a little girl was killed in Wisconsin's Governor Dewey State Park when a large tree blew over on her family's tent. During one really bad middle of the night wind, rain and lightning show,---Bob and I, and the dogs vacated the tent and waited it out in the cab of the truck. Scariest part for me was seeing the lightning approach from the west. We always carry a weather radio.
I was doing some volunteer work in the Columbia Gorge. The Gorge is known for being windy, and is a windsurfing Mecca. I came back after a day's work, to find the awning tied to my trailer and the awning was on its side. A State Park worker had rescued it during the day. The awning had pulled out the short stakes and was on the move. I had mistakenly thought that I was in a sheltered spot.
Later, I camped in another spot famous for wind, and had no problems. I had long tent stakes that were beastly to pull back out. The teardrop did well in the winds. I'm not so sure about the A-frame trailer I have now. I try to park it so it will face into the wind and I also try to find sheltered spots. Pulling it in strong wind is no problem. The pickup blows around more than the trailer.
Dale M. wrote:Pretty much ignore it.... Its part of nature, learn to enjoy it....
Dale
While I try to deal with and appreciate most anything we get for weather... Just ignoring it isn't always the best option.
Our worst [that comes to mind] Was a kayak camping trip of a few years ago. [Sea Kayaking] We were camped on an Island a few miles from shore [not far] and had planned to circumnavigate a nearby bigger island [If I remember correctly it would have been a 27 mile paddle]. We rose early to clear sun and calm sky's. We had checked the weather the night before.. [but failed to recheck it in the morning] Later in the day the wind started kicking up. We were heading counter clockwise around the Island.. and were on the seaward side, heading roughly toward the north. The wind felt like it was coming from the north. It got worse as the day went on, but I figured once we got past the North end of the Island, we would have a nice tail wind back assisting us on our trip back to home base. Well the wind was not out of the North.. it was strong out of the west. We were now in a 40knot off shore gale. We were not able to get around the point.. it kept blowing us backward as we got closer to it. We would struggle inch by inch for what seemed like an hour.. just to get blown back.. we did that repeatedly. We did finally get close enough to the point that we could see that traveling back south on that side of the Island was not possible. The waves would have been at our side.. and way too steep. We ended up going to shore.. and being an inhabited Island.. we called for help. We found someone that gave us a ride back to the far end of the Island.. and with work we were able to make it from there back to "our" Island. The gale blew through the night.. and all the next day.
glenn
Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran
We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.
George Bernard Shaw
My thinking with the tarps on Compass Rose is that I can drop one end an wind rides up and over. One end is fixed to the tear by the Kedar rail and supported half way down with adjustable poles. most ezyups etc because of the curved upper surface form an airfoil and by nature will lift under a wind load. The tarps will not depending on how angled.
once we were camping at Great Basin National Park... all night there were huge blasts of wind, howling through the trees.
A constant wind would have been welcome... but these huge gusts would come ripping through randomly. One could hear them coming, but never knew how long they'd take to reach camp.
The trees are all hundreds of feet high. The lack of oxygen at high altitude (~9800ft) only added to the dreamy unreality.
In truth, we were never in any danger, but with the wind howling through those tall pines, hitting each other and dropping pine cone bombs... it made for an uncomfortable night.
The calm morning with a happy burbling brook 10' from camp helped erase the night's terrors.
I too was caught in a kayak in the wind. Mary and I were camping on a lake and got way to far out in the north wind. On the way back the waves were peaking at the points and we got rolled into the rocky beaches more than a few times. Spending the night on a rocky beach soaking wet in the wind was not an option. I had to rope Marys boat and pull us out into the water through the waves to get around the points so we could get back before dark. My right shoulder has never recovered. Lets just say it was a challenge.