Shelter in a storm

John and I planned to hike Mt. Taylor on Monday. What we didn’t plan for is rain! New Mexico gets most of its rain in July and August thunderstorms. Rain is rare in May. So neither of us had our rain gear with us. We were both wearing short sleeves and carrying a long sleeve shirt.

After seeing the rain clouds as we drove toward the mountain, I decided to buy an over-priced fleece sweater at a gas station, but they didn’t have rain ponchos. I usually carry one of those emergency rain ponchos in my day pack, because they are very lightweight and small. And we’ve definitely used them before. But neither of us had rain ponchos with us.

After getting closer to the mountain and confirming that the weather was really not good, we decided to just stop along the side of the road to let the dogs run around a bit.

We noticed an ATV trail, and despite increasing thunder, we thought we’d walk up it just a few minutes before heading home. But sure enough, the thunder got louder and rain started sprinkling. We knew what was coming. And the thundershower was between us and the car.

We spotted a little overhang.

Not very impressive, but anything is better than nothing when the lightening is striking all around and the hail is coming down.

Here’s John sweeping out the worst of the branches and debris. There’s soot on the underside of the overhang, showing that people have sheltered there before. Packrat poop indicated more recent usage.

Perfect timing: the downpour, including hail, started right after we got settled. We pulled out our lunches and watched the show.

Luckily our dogs are not at all afraid of thunder and lightening. They were much more interested in the prospect of lunch.