I did a trip to OZ today. On the way in along the Bowen Ranch road I ran into rain and lightning around 12Pm. As I traveled the power line road the thunderstorm was coming quickly up behind me and went over me as I traveled. These storms move fast. Lightining was hitting all around me. I usually listen to music as I drive but being in a storm like today is a special thing so I turned off the music and just listened and watched the lighting. It kept hitting closer and closer. Now I love being in a thunderstorm but I have seen those programs on people who have been hit by lightning and those folks arn't the same once they get hit. Any way I traveled further up the road. When I passed right next to the big power lines, within 10 to 20 feet, I was a bit nervous. I saw the lightning today hit them twice just ahead of me. It was interesting because each bolt was getting closer. The last one was the closest being less than an eighth of a mile a way by my guess, very loud and bright since it was right in front of me. After that this storm moved off to the west and at this point I had reached route 3. I continued on and parked. I hiked down to a place on Deep Creek that I enjoy and took a dip and cooled off. The sky was cloudy from the recent storm and the air was full of moisture. Sweat poured off my body. There were little pools in differant place on the granite along the creek from the recent rain. After resting for a bit I hit the PCT and headed for DCHS. As I walked I saw that another storm was now building. As I walked I could hear the thunder and the sky was growing ever darker. Just when I reached DCHS a loud bolt cracked and I did my Coyote call for fun. I got down by the Arizona pool and put all my things in my pack and then put a black trash bag over everything. I swam out into the creek and got positioned to watch the coming storm. It swept in and there was lots of close lightning on the southeast side of the springs. In these storms many times the lightning comes first and then the rain. The rain began to fall hard for a time and I took three pictures. I would have taken more but I didn't have my umbrella to protect my camera. I remember sitting in the creek with the surface of the water at eye level and seeing thousands of little bubbles from the rain drops. I wish I had a picture of that! Also when the rain drops hit, the water springs back like a little geyser. Watching the bubbles and the little geysers was fantastic. To be in a thunderstorm at OZ is really something to experience. As these storms go it was over in about a half an hour. Since it was about 4PM I decided to leave since I wanted to get home to see my wife and kids. As I put my shoes on I smelled smoke in the air. I figured a fire must have started somewhere because of the storm. Once I reached the top of Mo Fo Hill I saw the smoke off to the east. I took a picture but since it was cloudy it may not have turned out very well. When I got back to my vehicle I could see where the fire was burning. It was off to the Southeast of the hotsprings, about 10 miles, just a guess. I could see the fire fighting planes going in to fight it. As I drove out at about 5:30 it was still burning far off in the hills. It was into country that had not burned in the Willow Fire. Hopefully they will get it out by morning. Anyway it was another fine adventure to OZ, I really love that place. All of you going to the meeting tommorrow have fun. I unfortunatly will not be able to join you. My wifes dad had an operation to remove about half of his liver because of cancer and ever since the operation, which was about 2 months ago he has been basically like some one with alzhimers. Before he went in he was coherent. We will be going down around San Diego tomorrow to see him. Hopefully he remembers who I am. All of you have fun and just maybe, you will have another lighting storm like today to make your day a bit more interesting :-)
