Ken, We just missed eachother. I hit the Bowen Ranch Road at around 11:15 Friday and got a good downpour as I drove along a power line maintenance road that connects to open route 4. I could see the rain that was falling toward the Bowen Ranch trail area. The lightning was hitting very close as I drove the powerline road and as much as I love lightning storms I was glad when the one I was in headed off to the west away from me. When the second one hit down at Deep Creek I was more comfortable with it since there are many trees around and that canyon has high hills all around it. Of course with lightning, you never know for sure where its going to hit. Regarding the story of the man you encoutered having trouble, I hiked in to Deep Creek Last Tuesday with a friend. He has not hiked much in a while and has been living up near Morro Bay on the coast so he is not used to summer heat. On Tuesday of last week there were numerous record high temps in the So Cal area. My friend arrived in the afternoon on Tuesday so he wanted to take a quick hike to Deep Creek. We started hiking from the car around 3:30. The temperature that day was around 110 in Victorville. As we hiked down through the canyons I could see my friends face was getting very red and he was complaining of fatigue. It was very hot in the canyon with little wind. I am used to the desert heat and do a lot of hiking but my friend was having some real trouble. He finally stopped under a burnt pinion pine and said he had to stop for a while. He had classic syptoms of heat exhaustion, fatigue, sick to his stomach. He had plenty of water fortunately. When we finally reached the creek and cooled off in the creek he regained his strength. That man you saw could have been in a real serious situation if it had not been cloudy that day. He could have passed out and laid in the sun and died if his friends were not around and it was sunny out. Some people just don't realize how fast someone can succumb to the heat under certain conditions. Glad you were considerate and helped this man. I hope he thanked you.
