[Bipolarbears]

I hope I’m not posting this in the wrong section of the forums. But I feel as though this may be a good topic of making a rather terrible mistake. Firstly I am no stranger to the wild ,wether it be hiking many miles into the wild or driving off-road vehicle s deep into places few are (respectfully and legally of course). Recently I have decided to get my backpacking legs back in gear ( they’re realistically quite well already as I walk 10 miles a day quite often at work regularly). Anyhow I live quite close to lord hilll which has many off little hiking trails and covers 1400 acres of forest. Definitely has been a fun little place to explore with minimal commute. Last Saturday I made a rather large mistake that I can’t help but drill into my brain CHECK THE WEATHER AND NOT JUST YOUR APP WEATHER!! As someone who has jumped from hundreds of planes and done long expeditions I got lazy with my little quick 8 mile hike at a place 15 min from my houses. I hiked most the midway trail to the river trail, the weather was pretty calm a couple gust that had me alert but nothing crazy. After coming back from the river trail connecting with the main I noticed something was changing dramatically, I could hear the load rumble of what sounded like a jet, smell the rain and hail coming and see it. Whithin a minute the wind was blowing a constant of over 35mph (Guessing but it was bad) I was in a bad spot no cover or open area/ rock walls. I put on rain gear quickly and started moving forward back to my truck (3.2 miles away). I’ve never seen so many trees fall in short time. The whole forest seemed to be coming down on me. As I went forward I heard load cracks and had to turn back avoiding trees falling as I went back I saw trees falling. Branches falling everywhere more trees falling and I had to just finally say one way and go. Narrowly missed quite a few whole trees. Ended up running the whole 3+ miles to my truck. Definitely some sort of thunderstorm/ down burst but I honestly couldn’t believe that I was so dumb not to check the radar or a more reliable weather source such as us airnet. I suppose we all make a mistake once in a while but this was truly terrible and something I’d say to not mess around. Wrong place wrong time, I knew being keen looking up and fast to react was the best I could do.

[ZenithZephyr]

Wow, intense! It's crazy how quickly the weather can turn, even in familiar spots. Glad you made it back safely though. Checking multiple weather sources is definitely key, especially when you're out in the wild. Stay safe out there and keep enjoying those adventures.

[snowmonkey]

Was driving south on Hwy 9 near Lord Hill at that time and encountered the same freak wind/hail plus…two huge firs flying through the air Hollywood style and landing across the Hwy. luckily missing cars. I know there was thunder in the forecast for that time but this was for sure an anomaly! Glad you weren’t pinned in the forest.