Traveler II
The weekend started with a NC/SC Southeast Meet up at the U.S. White Water Center just west of Charlotte, NC. For a cold and rainy Saturday morning, we had a great turn out of about 12-14 rigs and it was awesome to meet some new people, see some new rigs and talk all things overlanding.
After the meet up, 4 of us were headed up to the Old NC 105 route along the Linville Gorge. I've done a trip up here in July when everything was green, so I was excited to see it a little less green and more open with less leaves on the trees.
As we arrived at the beginning of the trail, the rain was still falling hard as it had all day so far. The trail was in great shape for the amount of rain that had fallen, was other campers were very sparce, which was good. We got to camp around 4 and the rain continued to fall, so we set up our 3 EZ-Ups for some shelter, opened some beers and started cooking.
The rain finally stopped around 9pm, and a breeze started to kick up, but we had no idea what that breeze would turn into over night. We decided to stake down the EZ-Ups just to be safe. Around 11pm, I was woke up by what sounded like a jet engine coming over the ridge, with what turned out to be so of the fiercest winds I've ever camped in. Throughout the night, we had sustained winds between 20-30 MPH with gusts well over 40-45 MPH all night. We had 2 people sleeping in their jeeps, a group in their ground tent and me in my new Hardshell RTT. I think I was at the perfect height for the brunt of the wind as it was a sleepless night.
We woke up to a bitter 28 degree morning with winds still gusting a bit and 3 EZ-Ups completely destroyed.
Thanks to @Apdski @ajbell & @Graham1298 for a great trip to the Linville Gorge!
After the meet up, 4 of us were headed up to the Old NC 105 route along the Linville Gorge. I've done a trip up here in July when everything was green, so I was excited to see it a little less green and more open with less leaves on the trees.
As we arrived at the beginning of the trail, the rain was still falling hard as it had all day so far. The trail was in great shape for the amount of rain that had fallen, was other campers were very sparce, which was good. We got to camp around 4 and the rain continued to fall, so we set up our 3 EZ-Ups for some shelter, opened some beers and started cooking.
The rain finally stopped around 9pm, and a breeze started to kick up, but we had no idea what that breeze would turn into over night. We decided to stake down the EZ-Ups just to be safe. Around 11pm, I was woke up by what sounded like a jet engine coming over the ridge, with what turned out to be so of the fiercest winds I've ever camped in. Throughout the night, we had sustained winds between 20-30 MPH with gusts well over 40-45 MPH all night. We had 2 people sleeping in their jeeps, a group in their ground tent and me in my new Hardshell RTT. I think I was at the perfect height for the brunt of the wind as it was a sleepless night.
We woke up to a bitter 28 degree morning with winds still gusting a bit and 3 EZ-Ups completely destroyed.
Thanks to @Apdski @ajbell & @Graham1298 for a great trip to the Linville Gorge!
