065: When Thunder Roars!

Episode Transcript

[0:00:00 – 0:00:01] Erik: Who is that, honey?
[0:00:02 – 0:00:03] Adam: Jonas Miller.
[0:00:04 – 0:00:05] Adam: He’s a nightcrawler.
[0:00:06 – 0:00:10] Adam: We all started out in the same lab, but Jonas went out and got himself some corporate sponsors.
[0:00:12 – 0:00:14] Adam: Yeah, he’s in it for the money, not the science.
[0:00:14 – 0:00:17] Adam: He’s got a lot of high-tech gadgets, but he’s got no instincts.
[0:00:18 – 0:00:19] Adam: And he doesn’t have Dorothy.
[0:00:20 – 0:00:22] Erik: What drives me is the unknown.
[0:00:22 – 0:00:25] Erik: What if we could predict a tornado’s path?
[0:00:25 – 0:00:29] Erik: How many lives would be spared with the creation of an early warning system?
[0:00:31 – 0:00:35] Erik: And DOT-3 is the answer, the first digital orthographic telemeter.
[0:00:36 – 0:00:50] Erik: And inside, she holds hundreds of these little sensors, which, when released into the tornado, will transmit back data on wind speed, pressure, and dew point temperature, which will soon be the center of all study.
[0:00:52 – 0:00:56] Adam: Hey, hey, you stole my idea, you son of a… What do you think?
[0:00:57 – 0:00:58] Adam: I wasn’t going to find out about this.
[0:00:58 – 0:01:00] Adam: Hey, guys, can you get this loser off me?
[0:01:01 – 0:01:02] Adam: Back off!
[0:01:02 – 0:01:02] Adam: Back off!
[0:01:02 – 0:01:03] Adam: He’s not worth it!
[0:01:03 – 0:01:04] Adam: What is the matter with you?
[0:01:05 – 0:01:07] Adam: You stole my design, you son of a…
[0:01:07 – 0:01:08] Adam: Calm down!
[0:01:10 – 0:01:11] Adam: What the hell are you talking about?
[0:01:11 – 0:01:12] Adam: Dorothy!
[0:01:12 – 0:01:13] Adam: We’ve switched roles.
[0:01:13 – 0:01:14] Erik: You took her!
[0:01:14 – 0:01:15] Adam: You damn thief!
[0:01:16 – 0:01:17] Adam: Oh, I get it.
[0:01:17 – 0:01:19] Adam: You want to take credit for my design, is that it?
[0:01:20 – 0:01:20] Adam: You’re a liar.
[0:01:21 – 0:01:22] Adam: She was our idea and you know it.
[0:01:22 – 0:01:24] Adam: Unrealized idea.
[0:01:24 – 0:01:25] Adam: Unrealized.
[0:01:25 – 0:01:25] Adam: That ain’t worth sh…
[0:01:27 – 0:01:28] Adam: Hey, hey, hey, guys.
[0:01:28 – 0:01:29] Adam: Oh, guys, get a grip on yourselves.
[0:01:30 – 0:01:32] Adam: We both know he’ll never get that thing up in the air.
[0:01:32 – 0:01:33] Adam: That’s right.
[0:01:34 – 0:01:35] Adam: Well, let me enlighten you people.
[0:01:35 – 0:01:37] Adam: This baby has satellite comm link.
[0:01:38 – 0:01:42] Adam: We got onboard pulse Doppler, and we’ve got Nexrad real time.
[0:01:42 – 0:01:42] Adam: That’s right.
[0:01:43 – 0:01:46] Adam: Today, we’re going to make history, so stick around.
[0:01:48 – 0:01:57] Adam: right that’s the best line better than that what oh shoot because the days of sniffing the dirt are over
[0:01:59 – 0:02:01] Adam: Let me start over on that line again.
[0:02:01 – 0:02:03] Adam: Well, let me enlighten you people.
[0:02:03 – 0:02:05] Adam: This baby has satellite comm link.
[0:02:05 – 0:02:09] Adam: We’ve got onboard post Doppler and we’ve got next rad real time today.
[0:02:09 – 0:02:11] Adam: We’re going to make history.
[0:02:11 – 0:02:15] Adam: So stick around because the days of sniffing dirt are over.
[0:02:15 – 0:02:17] Erik: Do you want to try to do that one more time?
[0:02:17 – 0:02:18] Erik: It only took us two minutes.
[0:02:21 – 0:02:22] Adam: I think we nailed it.
[0:02:22 – 0:02:22] Adam: All right.
[0:02:23 – 0:02:25] Adam: Storms and twisters.
[0:02:25 – 0:02:26] Adam: They’re coming, baby.
[0:03:02 – 0:03:07] Adam: Welcome to Tumble Home, a Boundary Waters podcast.
[0:03:09 – 0:03:15] Adam: We are coming to you live today from Studio K here in northern Minnesota.
[0:03:15 – 0:03:19] Adam: This is episode 065 of Tumble Home.
[0:03:19 – 0:03:20] Adam: Thank you for being with us.
[0:03:20 – 0:03:22] Adam: My name is Adam and with me as always is my good friend Eric.
[0:03:23 – 0:03:23] Adam: Hello.
[0:03:23 – 0:03:23] Adam: Hello.
[0:03:24 – 0:03:28] Adam: This week, we are sponsored, as always, by our friends and listeners.
[0:03:29 – 0:03:32] Adam: Shout out to everybody out there on the Patreon.
[0:03:32 – 0:03:33] Adam: We appreciate you.
[0:03:33 – 0:03:35] Adam: We would not be doing this show without you.
[0:03:35 – 0:03:36] Erik: Thank you.
[0:03:37 – 0:03:41] Adam: And also, this week, our beer of the week.
[0:03:42 – 0:03:42] Adam: What do we got?
[0:03:43 – 0:03:44] Adam: Some big boys.
[0:03:44 – 0:03:45] Adam: You just surprised me with it.
[0:03:45 – 0:03:46] Adam: They’re big.
[0:03:46 – 0:03:47] Adam: They’re big.
[0:03:47 – 0:03:49] Adam: They’re hoppy, I’m sure.
[0:03:49 – 0:03:53] Adam: This is some sort of cheddar goblin on the front.
[0:03:53 – 0:03:54] Erik: It does look like a little bit of a cheddar goblin.
[0:03:54 – 0:03:56] Erik: Maybe it’s more of a beer goblin.
[0:03:56 – 0:04:00] Erik: This is Three Floyds Alpha King.
[0:04:06 – 0:04:06] Adam: Boom.
[0:04:07 – 0:04:08] Adam: Cheers.
[0:04:08 – 0:04:09] Adam: Cheers, friend.
[0:04:13 – 0:04:15] Adam: What’s the story with this king beer?
[0:04:15 – 0:04:15] Adam: Oh, boy.
[0:04:16 – 0:04:17] Adam: Alpha King.
[0:04:17 – 0:04:19] Adam: The Alpha of Kings.
[0:04:19 – 0:04:20] Erik: Yes.
[0:04:20 – 0:04:21] Erik: Redundant, no?
[0:04:21 – 0:04:22] Erik: A bit.
[0:04:23 – 0:04:24] Erik: Yeah, this is…
[0:04:24 – 0:04:25] Erik: Justified.
[0:04:25 – 0:04:26] Erik: From friend.
[0:04:26 – 0:04:27] Adam: I’ll allow it.
[0:04:28 – 0:04:28] Adam: Good.
[0:04:28 – 0:04:30] Adam: Objection denied.
[0:04:30 – 0:04:31] Adam: Denied.
[0:04:31 – 0:04:32] Adam: It is Alpha King.
[0:04:33 – 0:04:37] Erik: This was shipped to us from friend of the show.
[0:04:37 – 0:04:38] Adam: Art Supplies.
[0:04:38 – 0:04:40] Adam: Yes, these were Art Supplies.
[0:04:40 – 0:04:41] Erik: Thanks for the Art Supplies.
[0:04:41 – 0:04:43] Erik: Thank you for the Art Supplies, Steve.
[0:04:45 – 0:05:10] Erik: greatly appreciated we uh also received in the same box some uh toppling goliath pseudo sue which is right around the same time that we actually was sponsored by another friend and listener of the show who also mailed us some art supplies so um we’re going with the uh the beer that hasn’t been a sponsor and
[0:05:11 – 0:05:12] Erik: Three Floyds, Alpha King.
[0:05:13 – 0:05:16] Erik: And he sent it with a nice little note.
[0:05:16 – 0:05:17] Adam: Oh, boy.
[0:05:17 – 0:05:19] Erik: With some descriptions of…
[0:05:20 – 0:05:21] Adam: Correspondence stock.
[0:05:21 – 0:05:22] Erik: Yeah, of the beers.
[0:05:24 – 0:05:35] Erik: The funny part is that one of the beers that I really wanted to get was unfortunately lost in transit and was returned.
[0:05:36 – 0:05:39] Adam: And unfortunately… Confiscated by a junior intern.
[0:05:39 – 0:05:39] Adam: Yeah.
[0:05:40 – 0:05:43] Erik: It sounds like there was a little bit of a lecture at a FedEx store somewhere, which…
[0:05:44 – 0:05:45] Adam: It was worth it.
[0:05:45 – 0:05:46] Adam: Thanks, Steve, for putting up with that.
[0:05:46 – 0:05:50] Adam: I hope someday I get to be lectured by a FedEx store employee.
[0:05:50 – 0:05:52] Erik: Getting the finger wagged at you.
[0:05:53 – 0:05:56] Erik: Would have been nice to have gotten it because it does have a fun story about it.
[0:05:56 – 0:06:02] Erik: It was called an Idiot Farm Imperial IPA.
[0:06:03 – 0:06:07] Erik: And maybe if Steve is in the area, he can still drop this off.
[0:06:07 – 0:06:09] Erik: But he made a little note…
[0:06:09 – 0:06:16] Erik: and said that he wanted to send that one up and that it could hopefully be a sponsor for when we talk about Ensign Lake.
[0:06:17 – 0:06:17] Erik: Oh, yeah.
[0:06:17 – 0:06:17] Erik: We’re going.
[0:06:17 – 0:06:25] Erik: Because of the rage that I had been triggered by when we talk about that lake and all the bears and the over number of campsites.
[0:06:25 – 0:06:26] Erik: The redemption is coming.
[0:06:29 – 0:06:32] Erik: Long story short, we did receive some beers in the mail from Steve.
[0:06:33 – 0:06:35] Erik: Not all of them, but more than enough.
[0:06:36 – 0:06:38] Erik: And we thank you from the bottom of our heart again.
[0:06:39 – 0:06:39] Erik: Cheers, friend.
[0:06:39 – 0:06:41] Erik: Cheers to the Alpha King.
[0:06:43 – 0:06:44] Erik: Yes.
[0:06:47 – 0:06:59] Erik: So we’ve got a fun little side story to get to before we get to this week’s heart of the meat of the episode, which is a question of the month.
[0:06:59 – 0:07:01] Erik: It’s been out there hanging for a little bit longer.
[0:07:02 – 0:07:04] Erik: We’ve just been in the field so much this summer.
[0:07:04 – 0:07:06] Erik: It’s been hard to keep up with the questions of the week.
[0:07:06 – 0:07:08] Erik: Yeah, we’ve been blessed.
[0:07:08 – 0:07:09] Adam: We will get to the question.
[0:07:09 – 0:07:11] Adam: I think it’s more of a question of the month at this point.
[0:07:11 – 0:07:18] Erik: Yeah, and based on the title of the show, I think everybody knows we’re talking storms and what you do in the case of them.
[0:07:18 – 0:07:22] Erik: But before we get to that, this is just insane and fun and funny.
[0:07:22 – 0:07:24] Erik: Why don’t you tell us a little bit about this story?
[0:07:24 – 0:07:25] Erik: I’m sure some of you have heard.
[0:07:25 – 0:07:26] Adam: Maybe you’ve heard.
[0:07:26 – 0:07:32] Adam: It was July 18th when the news broke on this one, so…
[0:07:33 – 0:07:43] Adam: Definitely since our last studio session, apparently some bozo was rescued out of the middle of Lake Superior on a jet ski by a freighter.
[0:07:43 – 0:07:45] Erik: Yeah, that’s the best part.
[0:07:45 – 0:07:47] Adam: When I heard this, I was like, no way.
[0:07:47 – 0:07:52] Adam: And then, yeah, sure enough, some guy was picked up way out.
[0:07:53 – 0:07:59] Adam: He was trying to go to Isle Royale on a jet ski.
[0:07:59 – 0:08:01] Adam: This gentleman was from…
[0:08:02 – 0:08:06] Adam: Alexandria, Virginia was the report I had heard, but definitely from out of state.
[0:08:07 – 0:08:15] Adam: I guess the story I have pulled up here says he was from a 42-year-old adventurer from the suburban Washington, D.C. area.
[0:08:16 – 0:08:17] Erik: Adventurer.
[0:08:17 – 0:08:18] Adam: Yeah, that’s one way to put it.
[0:08:19 – 0:08:27] Adam: Norma Roth recalled Dave Crevenson calling the Grand Portage Marina early in the afternoon of July 8th and explaining his ill-advised plan.
[0:08:28 – 0:08:30] Adam: I told him not to try it, Roth said.
[0:08:30 – 0:08:32] Adam: And of course, he did it anyways.
[0:08:33 – 0:08:33] UNKNOWN: Ha ha ha!
[0:08:34 – 0:08:55] Adam: yep that’s usually how it goes he said he had enough gas for at least a round trip so yeah that was funny very funny he was the the map is great there’s like there’s grand portage there’s isle royale and then the little red dot man on jet ski rescued middle of like you couldn’t be farther from any shoreline where you got picked up finally yeah crazy
[0:08:56 – 0:09:11] Adam: So yeah, roughly seven hours after and well after dark, the Canadian freighter Michaud Picotin was alerted by the U.S. Coast Guard of a disoriented personal watercraft user somewhere along its intended eastward path.
[0:09:11 – 0:09:14] Adam: They were on their way over to Sault Ste.
[0:09:14 – 0:09:17] Adam: Marie and they got the call and then apparently they sent a helicopter over.
[0:09:19 – 0:09:27] Adam: And he managed to lock onto a weak cell signal eventually and call his friend and passed on the GPS coordinates.
[0:09:27 – 0:09:29] Erik: He was able to pick up a cell phone signal in the middle of the lake?
[0:09:29 – 0:09:31] Adam: And he called his friend first.
[0:09:31 – 0:09:35] Adam: Instead of trying to call the sheriff or 911, he called his friend in Florida.
[0:09:36 – 0:09:42] Adam: And then he relayed his information and his GPS location somehow off his phone to his friend.
[0:09:42 – 0:09:44] Adam: And then the friend called it in, apparently.
[0:09:44 – 0:09:44] Adam: Wow.
[0:09:44 – 0:09:47] Adam: I mean, there’s no cell phone service here, right?
[0:09:48 – 0:09:50] Erik: How is the cell phone service in the middle of Lake Superior?
[0:09:50 – 0:09:51] Erik: Where’s the closest tower?
[0:09:51 – 0:09:56] Adam: Sound and cell phones travel well over water, I guess.
[0:09:56 – 0:09:56] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:09:56 – 0:09:58] Erik: That’s the funniest part.
[0:09:58 – 0:10:04] Adam: I always just pictured because he went out and essentially he got into a fog bank.
[0:10:04 – 0:10:05] Adam: So he made it to the island.
[0:10:05 – 0:10:11] Adam: But yeah, I thought at first he had just gotten lost in the fog and started drifting or driving his jet ski in the wrong direction.
[0:10:12 – 0:10:14] Adam: But apparently he did make it all the way to Isle Royale.
[0:10:14 – 0:10:19] Adam: He said he appreciated and saw the beautiful waters and shorelines.
[0:10:19 – 0:10:21] Adam: And then it was on his return trip…
[0:10:21 – 0:10:26] Adam: Back to Grand Portage, he ran into the fog and then got severely deviated to the south.
[0:10:27 – 0:10:27] Erik: Yeah.
[0:10:27 – 0:10:29] Adam: So he did actually make it.
[0:10:29 – 0:10:31] Adam: I wonder if they charged him, because that was the thing.
[0:10:31 – 0:10:36] Adam: You’re definitely not supposed to be on Iowa Royale on a 300-horsepower jet ski.
[0:10:37 – 0:10:40] Adam: Crevenson himself said it was described for going long distances.
[0:10:41 – 0:10:41] Adam: The jet ski?
[0:10:42 – 0:10:42] Erik: Yeah.
[0:10:43 – 0:10:45] Adam: He had plenty of gas, but not a GPS, apparently.
[0:10:46 – 0:10:52] Adam: And he was wearing a wetsuit, and then the captain of the freighter said it looked like he had fallen in the lake several times that day.
[0:10:53 – 0:10:53] Erik: What?
[0:10:53 – 0:10:57] Adam: Yeah, so he was, I guess, you know, he had taken safety.
[0:10:57 – 0:11:05] Adam: There was one point where they said he, like, climbed into the little, like, nook in the nose of the, you know, like, big jet skis have, like, that storage compartment up front.
[0:11:06 – 0:11:07] Adam: He climbed in there to, like, wait it out.
[0:11:08 – 0:11:08] Adam: Jeez.
[0:11:08 – 0:11:10] Adam: Just drifting in the fog out in the middle.
[0:11:10 – 0:11:12] Adam: Like, what kind of depths…
[0:11:12 – 0:11:13] Adam: Was that thing floating over?
[0:11:13 – 0:11:14] Adam: Oh, 1,000 feet?
[0:11:15 – 0:11:16] Erik: I mean, I can’t even imagine.
[0:11:16 – 0:11:18] Erik: At least he was in a wetsuit.
[0:11:18 – 0:11:21] Erik: It’d be hilarious if they just pulled up and he’s in jeans and a Hawaiian shirt or something.
[0:11:21 – 0:11:22] Erik: Yeah, yeah.
[0:11:22 – 0:11:23] Erik: That would be…
[0:11:23 – 0:11:34] Erik: Okay, dude, you at least took a couple of steps of precaution, but the fact that he didn’t have GPS, to me, I think is maybe the greatest error in his ways.
[0:11:34 – 0:11:36] Erik: I mean, yeah, you start out and you’re like, there it is.
[0:11:36 – 0:11:38] Erik: I’m just going to head straight towards it.
[0:11:38 – 0:11:39] Adam: Yeah, here we go.
[0:11:39 – 0:11:40] Adam: I’ll just read this part of the story.
[0:11:40 – 0:11:41] Adam: This is off Star Tribune.
[0:11:42 – 0:11:42] Adam: Jesus.
[0:12:05 – 0:12:05] Adam: Yes.
[0:12:05 – 0:12:13] Adam: He said he was thrilled to see the freighter and didn’t hesitate when he was instructed to make what he described as a climb 30 or so feet up a tiny ladder.
[0:12:14 – 0:12:18] Adam: The crew then attached straps to the jet ski and brought it aboard as well.
[0:12:21 – 0:12:26] Adam: In the newspaper, the Herald article is just laying on the table at work, and I picked it up and read that.
[0:12:26 – 0:12:31] Adam: And then the end of the article is like, and so the crew picked him up and continued on their way to Sault Ste.
[0:12:31 – 0:12:33] Adam: Marie with their new passenger.
[0:12:33 – 0:12:35] Erik: Yeah, which is very far away.
[0:12:35 – 0:12:36] Adam: That must have been awkward.
[0:12:36 – 0:12:36] Erik: Yeah.
[0:12:37 – 0:12:38] Erik: And then so you’re in Sault Ste.
[0:12:38 – 0:12:39] Erik: Marie with a jet ski.
[0:12:40 – 0:12:42] Adam: It took him 16 more hours to reach Sault Ste.
[0:12:42 – 0:12:43] Adam: Marie.
[0:12:43 – 0:12:44] Adam: Oh, my God.
[0:12:44 – 0:12:50] Adam: And after being dropped off, Cravenson took a flight east of Toronto, then flew back to Thunder Bay.
[0:12:51 – 0:12:55] Adam: And from there, he paid a $160 cab ride to get back to the marina.
[0:12:56 – 0:12:56] Adam: God.
[0:12:56 – 0:12:59] Adam: Quote, I’m embarrassed this happened, he said.
[0:12:59 – 0:13:01] Adam: I have experience exploring lakes.
[0:13:01 – 0:13:04] Adam: The fog came in, and I became disoriented, end quote.
[0:13:05 – 0:13:06] Adam: Sure, I guess.
[0:13:06 – 0:13:11] Adam: Then I did take the time to stalk this gentleman on Facebook.
[0:13:11 – 0:13:16] Adam: There is only one Dave Crevenson on Facebook, and you can go look at his picture.
[0:13:16 – 0:13:21] Adam: His profile is private, I guess, but you can see his profile picture.
[0:13:21 – 0:13:23] Adam: It’s really, really tasty.
[0:13:24 – 0:13:25] Erik: I can’t believe that.
[0:13:25 – 0:13:26] Erik: I mean, fine.
[0:13:26 – 0:13:34] Erik: You want to be an explorer, an adventurer out on the lakes with your jet ski, your wave runner, your whatever.
[0:13:35 – 0:13:37] Erik: I don’t understand how you could do it without a GPS.
[0:13:38 – 0:13:39] Erik: I just don’t.
[0:13:39 – 0:13:39] Erik: Like.
[0:13:41 – 0:13:43] Erik: you’re going to lose sight of the shoreline.
[0:13:43 – 0:13:44] Adam: He left at 4 p.m. too.
[0:13:44 – 0:13:45] Adam: That was the other good part.
[0:13:46 – 0:13:46] Erik: Oh, my.
[0:13:46 – 0:13:48] Erik: How many more details can you provide me?
[0:13:48 – 0:13:55] Adam: The marina worker said he was somewhat prepared, wearing a wetsuit and packing a life jacket when he departed at about 4 p.m. 4 p.m.?
[0:13:55 – 0:13:59] Adam: Roughly seven hours later and well after dark, the freighter was alerted.
[0:13:59 – 0:14:02] Erik: So that was a long time to be floating around.
[0:14:02 – 0:14:03] Erik: Jeez.
[0:14:03 – 0:14:03] Erik: Okay.
[0:14:03 – 0:14:05] Erik: So you’re going to take a jet ski out to Isle Royale.
[0:14:05 – 0:14:07] Erik: That’s kind of dumb, but…
[0:14:08 – 0:14:08] Erik: Take a map.
[0:14:09 – 0:14:10] Erik: Take a GPS.
[0:14:12 – 0:14:13] Erik: Start in the morning.
[0:14:15 – 0:14:16] Erik: And maybe bring some food and water.
[0:14:17 – 0:14:18] Erik: Maybe not water, I guess.
[0:14:19 – 0:14:21] Erik: He’d just take a suckle off of the lake, really.
[0:14:21 – 0:14:32] Erik: But, man, good thing he got that borderline insufficient cell phone coverage to call his buddy down in Florida, who then had to call back up here.
[0:14:33 – 0:14:34] Erik: That’s crazy.
[0:14:36 – 0:14:39] Adam: The article on the tip was pretty funny, too.
[0:14:40 – 0:14:49] Adam: Witnesses say the man left the Grand Portage Marina on a borrowed jet ski despite warnings that was not legal to operate that sort of watercraft at Isle Royale National Park.
[0:14:49 – 0:14:56] Adam: Bystanders at the marina also cautioned the man that it would not be safe to take the small craft that far out onto Lake Superior.
[0:14:57 – 0:15:03] Adam: Fog rolled in, and the man ended up about 20 miles south of Isle Royale’s Washington Harbor, where he ran out of gas.
[0:15:03 – 0:15:03] Erik: Jeez.
[0:15:04 – 0:15:06] Erik: What day was this?
[0:15:06 – 0:15:07] Adam: This was the 18th?
[0:15:07 – 0:15:08] Adam: No, that was when the story came out.
[0:15:08 – 0:15:10] Adam: I think it was like the 8th.
[0:15:10 – 0:15:10] Adam: It was earlier.
[0:15:10 – 0:15:17] Adam: It was like right after 4th of July when this happened, and then eventually the story came out later, and that’s when they found him.
[0:15:17 – 0:15:17] Adam: So, yeah.
[0:15:18 – 0:15:18] Adam: There’s this picture.
[0:15:18 – 0:15:24] Adam: He’s posed wearing really dumb-looking sunglasses in front of a cruise ship.
[0:15:24 – 0:15:27] Adam: I assume this is somewhere on the East Coast.
[0:15:27 – 0:15:29] Erik: That was from Isle Royale.
[0:15:29 – 0:15:54] Erik: oh yeah the cruise ships are all right nice yeah i mean i kind of feel bad like blowing up the name not yeah our podcast is not big enough for blowing you know i don’t think we’re gonna harm this gentleman’s reputation it also it doesn’t sound like there was it’s not one of those like honest mistake stories it sounds like he had multiple opportunities multiple people telling this is a stupid idea this is not a good idea sorry dave crevinson yeah
[0:15:54 – 0:15:57] Erik: It’s just, I mean, it really has nothing to do with the Bongewaters.
[0:15:57 – 0:15:59] Adam: No, it’s just local news of the summer.
[0:15:59 – 0:16:00] Adam: It’s just funny.
[0:16:01 – 0:16:03] Adam: Everybody in town was laughing about this for multiple days.
[0:16:03 – 0:16:04] Adam: Ridiculous.
[0:16:04 – 0:16:06] Adam: One of the nicest parts of the summer so far.
[0:16:07 – 0:16:08] Adam: Luckily, everybody was fine.
[0:16:09 – 0:16:09] Adam: Nobody was harmed.
[0:16:09 – 0:16:10] Adam: We can laugh about it.
[0:16:10 – 0:16:11] Erik: Yeah, everybody’s fine.
[0:16:11 – 0:16:15] Erik: He got rescued by a big tanker out in the middle of the lake in the middle of the night.
[0:16:15 – 0:16:21] Adam: Can you imagine having to crawl up a rope ladder and then having your jet ski hauled out of the water like an old fish?
[0:16:21 – 0:16:21] Erik: Yeah.
[0:16:21 – 0:16:23] Erik: And then you got to fly back to Thunder Bay.
[0:16:23 – 0:16:31] Adam: I read the only reason they actually pulled the jet ski out too is because then they didn’t want somebody else to find the jet ski and called in like, hey, there’s a loose jet ski.
[0:16:31 – 0:16:32] Adam: Somebody might be missing.
[0:16:33 – 0:16:36] Adam: They basically just picked it up so it wouldn’t cause any further confusion.
[0:16:36 – 0:16:40] Adam: So I don’t know if you got a jet ski shipped back to Washington, D.C. or what happened.
[0:16:40 – 0:16:52] Adam: right so let’s there’s that that was a fun news story of the day that’s wrapped up before we get a few and before we get into the storm question i had a few other loose ends i wanted to get to tie them up
[0:16:52 – 0:16:54] Adam: Number one, Eric, I got a surprise for you.
[0:16:54 – 0:16:55] Adam: Have you noticed it yet?
[0:16:55 – 0:16:58] Adam: There’s a change to Studio K. The skis?
[0:16:59 – 0:17:03] Adam: No, the skis are in here, and the wine is at the end of its fermentation.
[0:17:03 – 0:17:04] Adam: But that’s not it.
[0:17:05 – 0:17:09] Adam: I’ve filled in their 2019 trips onto the big map.
[0:17:10 – 0:17:11] Adam: Hey, with pink.
[0:17:11 – 0:17:13] Erik: It’s pinkish orange.
[0:17:13 – 0:17:13] Erik: Nice.
[0:17:13 – 0:17:15] Erik: Is that a salmon marker?
[0:17:15 – 0:17:16] Erik: We’re not on video this week.
[0:17:16 – 0:17:17] Erik: No, that’s too bad.
[0:17:17 – 0:17:19] Adam: In future weeks, we’ll be able to see it, but…
[0:17:19 – 0:17:19] Adam: Nice.
[0:17:19 – 0:17:20] Adam: I got around to it.
[0:17:20 – 0:17:22] Adam: Finally added in the large creek.
[0:17:22 – 0:17:23] Erik: The large creek line.
[0:17:23 – 0:17:24] Erik: That’s great.
[0:17:24 – 0:17:27] Adam: I added in the big heart of the park trip.
[0:17:27 – 0:17:27] Adam: That is great.
[0:17:27 – 0:17:30] Adam: And I even added in our big trip on Brule.
[0:17:31 – 0:17:34] Adam: Look at that little one centimeter inch line.
[0:17:34 – 0:17:36] Adam: And then I did put on the grand portage that you can see.
[0:17:37 – 0:17:38] Erik: Oh, right.
[0:17:38 – 0:17:40] Adam: You can only really see to the follow portage.
[0:17:41 – 0:17:41] Erik: Right.
[0:17:42 – 0:17:42] Erik: Nice.
[0:17:42 – 0:17:43] Erik: That’s a nice surprise.
[0:17:43 – 0:17:44] Erik: I did not notice that.
[0:17:44 – 0:17:45] Adam: So that was new.
[0:17:45 – 0:17:52] Adam: And then I also wanted to note that neighbor Tim brought over a plant called Sweet Flag in a bucket full of water.
[0:17:53 – 0:17:54] Adam: He said, you should plant this.
[0:17:54 – 0:17:54] Adam: Oh, yeah.
[0:17:54 – 0:17:55] Adam: In a wetland.
[0:17:55 – 0:18:04] Adam: So I planted that today just outside Studio K. Neighbor Tim pointed out that this is what they flavor Mr. Pibb and Dr. Pepper with.
[0:18:04 – 0:18:05] Adam: It’s that smell.
[0:18:05 – 0:18:07] Adam: If anybody out there listening knows.
[0:18:08 – 0:18:09] Adam: That’s one of the secret spices.
[0:18:10 – 0:18:10] Adam: Yeah.
[0:18:11 – 0:18:14] Adam: So Sweet Flag is its common name, and I just wanted to quick read.
[0:18:14 – 0:18:15] Adam: It’s Acherus calamus.
[0:18:16 – 0:18:18] Adam: Also called sweet flag or just calamus.
[0:18:19 – 0:18:21] Adam: It’s a species of flowering grassy plant.
[0:18:22 – 0:18:26] Adam: A tall wetland monocot.
[0:18:26 – 0:18:29] Adam: That means it only has one thing, right?
[0:18:29 – 0:18:32] Adam: It’s just a lot of one flower per clump.
[0:18:32 – 0:18:34] Adam: But apparently it kind of like…
[0:18:34 – 0:18:43] Adam: will grow almost like a rhubarb, and then you can cut off chunks of the root ball, dry the roots, and then ingest them as a tea.
[0:18:44 – 0:18:49] Adam: It is a traditional medicine used over the centuries to treat digestive disorders and pain.
[0:18:51 – 0:19:00] Adam: There’s not much in the way of clinical evidence, but the native peoples and people throughout the entirety of human existence have used this
[0:19:01 – 0:19:05] Adam: You find it near a lot of ancient civilizations where they settled.
[0:19:05 – 0:19:07] Adam: You’ll find this plant still growing.
[0:19:07 – 0:19:08] Erik: Nice.
[0:19:08 – 0:19:11] Adam: Yeah, neighbor Tim, he’s a real source of wealth.
[0:19:12 – 0:19:13] Adam: Source of wealth.
[0:19:14 – 0:19:16] Adam: All sorts of plants and interesting things.
[0:19:17 – 0:19:18] Adam: A wealth of knowledge?
[0:19:19 – 0:19:20] Adam: Yes, he’s a wealth of knowledge.
[0:19:20 – 0:19:26] Adam: And so thanks to him, we have Sweet Flag growing out near the fairway of Hole 1 on the local disc golf course here.
[0:19:27 – 0:19:27] Erik: Bizarre.
[0:19:27 – 0:19:40] Adam: So I think in a year or two, maybe we’ll try and dig up, probably in season five or six of Tumble Home, we’ll try and dig up some of the sweet flag root, put a bookmark in this, and we’ll come back to it and we’ll actually dry some and try it and see if it helps our digestion.
[0:19:40 – 0:19:40] Erik: Yeah.
[0:19:41 – 0:19:41] Adam: So that was exciting.
[0:19:42 – 0:19:46] Adam: This is the kind of stuff that we get excited about at the end of July, early August here.
[0:19:47 – 0:19:48] Adam: We’re just swamped.
[0:19:48 – 0:19:48] Adam: We’re in it.
[0:19:48 – 0:19:54] Adam: And so any kind of home solstice you can have, it’s nice when you have these things to look forward to.
[0:19:54 – 0:19:54] Adam: Yeah.
[0:19:55 – 0:19:59] Adam: Yeah, I’ve got some other things we would like to talk about at the end of the show.
[0:19:59 – 0:20:05] Adam: The other thing that we’ve kind of been dabbling in this season is the airplanes flying over us.
[0:20:06 – 0:20:08] Adam: And I think we should maybe touch on this quick.
[0:20:08 – 0:20:11] Adam: This would be the last thing before we get into the big question here.
[0:20:11 – 0:20:13] Erik: I have one other thing, which is just quick.
[0:20:13 – 0:20:17] Erik: I don’t think we really mentioned it, but I don’t know if you thought we were joking.
[0:20:18 – 0:20:18] Erik: We weren’t.
[0:20:18 – 0:20:24] Erik: We literally thought that last episode was episode 63 when it was in fact 64.
[0:20:25 – 0:20:29] Adam: Well, I think at first we were going to just do one episode on beavers.
[0:20:29 – 0:20:31] Adam: So that was all going to be 63.
[0:20:31 – 0:20:33] Adam: It ended up being 63 and 064.
[0:20:33 – 0:20:37] Erik: It was just funny because it was probably one of the most –
[0:20:38 – 0:20:53] Adam: times we’ve actually said the number of the episode yeah like throughout the whole thing we just like kept saying i’m like man well i think you know we’ve kind of just established that we want to like feature the number more too to help people like follow along in order and just keep it straight in our own minds so
[0:20:54 – 0:20:55] Erik: But it’s 65.
[0:20:55 – 0:20:57] Erik: Last one was 64, even though we said about 12 times.
[0:20:57 – 0:20:59] Erik: Episode 63.
[0:20:59 – 0:21:03] Erik: We’ve been fact-checked on the fly.
[0:21:04 – 0:21:04] Erik: Thank you.
[0:21:04 – 0:21:05] Erik: That’s it from me.
[0:21:05 – 0:21:07] Erik: Before we get to storms, you’ve got one last thing?
[0:21:07 – 0:21:09] Adam: Yeah, so airplanes flying over us.
[0:21:09 – 0:21:10] Adam: Almost every trip we’ve taken.
[0:21:11 – 0:21:12] Adam: You’ve taken some without me.
[0:21:13 – 0:21:21] Adam: Every time you’ve been in the park, you’ve seen what appears to be a silver and green, and I thought at one point it looked like a silver and red float plane.
[0:21:22 – 0:21:23] Adam: Yeah.
[0:21:24 – 0:21:26] Adam: Bigger than a Cessna, but not quite as big as a beaver.
[0:21:27 – 0:21:31] Adam: And we’re talking about the de Havilland, not Castor Canadensis here.
[0:21:31 – 0:21:32] Erik: Yes, definitely bigger than a beaver.
[0:21:32 – 0:21:35] Adam: Yeah, bigger than a beaver, but not as big as a de Havilland beaver.
[0:21:36 – 0:21:36] Adam: No.
[0:21:36 – 0:21:38] Adam: But bigger than a Cessna float plane.
[0:21:38 – 0:21:47] Adam: So after our little SAG trip even, we have a friend in the Forest Service I was just kind of texting back and forth with.
[0:21:48 – 0:21:52] Adam: And I described the dates on our little SAG Heart of the Park trip where we saw the plane.
[0:21:53 – 0:21:55] Adam: And she said, no, it wasn’t us.
[0:21:55 – 0:21:57] Adam: She checked with the Forest Service sources.
[0:21:57 – 0:21:58] Adam: It was not Forest Service.
[0:21:59 – 0:22:00] Adam: Doesn’t sound like our plane.
[0:22:01 – 0:22:05] Adam: And she wasn’t like familiar with anybody flying that type of float plane around out there.
[0:22:05 – 0:22:07] Adam: She said, oh, we’ll check with fisheries.
[0:22:08 – 0:22:10] Adam: Perhaps they were messing around with some fishery stuff.
[0:22:11 – 0:22:11] Adam: Got back to me.
[0:22:11 – 0:22:12] Adam: It wasn’t fisheries.
[0:22:13 – 0:22:16] Adam: So that best guess, it was probably Border Patrol.
[0:22:17 – 0:22:21] Adam: Or private pilot, which maybe we want to call that in then.
[0:22:21 – 0:22:31] Adam: I guess the person you want to call this into would be like the local sheriff, and they can kind of filter it through the layers of government to figure out who should investigate that or who the hell it was anyways.
[0:22:32 – 0:22:33] Adam: Nobody really knows.
[0:22:33 – 0:22:35] Adam: Turns out it’s still a mystery.
[0:22:35 – 0:22:44] Adam: Our best guess just from our observations and from talking with our friend here at the Forest Service is maybe it was Border Patrol.
[0:22:44 – 0:22:47] Adam: But even she was like, I don’t think they have a float plane.
[0:22:48 – 0:22:49] Adam: Doesn’t make sense.
[0:22:49 – 0:22:52] Adam: And it could be Homeland Security or somebody else.
[0:22:52 – 0:22:53] Adam: Yeah.
[0:22:53 – 0:22:56] Adam: But I’ve seen the same plane flying around this neck of the woods even.
[0:22:57 – 0:22:57] Erik: Yeah.
[0:22:58 – 0:23:06] Adam: And we had a weird encounter, which we’ll maybe talk about a little bit more next week, on the Grand Portage at the Partridge Falls.
[0:23:06 – 0:23:07] Adam: We had two…
[0:23:07 – 0:23:08] Adam: Team Hennessy.
[0:23:08 – 0:23:11] Adam: Team Hennessy interns approach us at the campsite.
[0:23:12 – 0:23:16] Adam: We must have knocked a ground sensor or some sort of motion sensor off because…
[0:23:17 – 0:23:22] Adam: They were right up there the next morning, just happened to show up with their huge radio the size of a backpack.
[0:23:23 – 0:23:23] Erik: Yeah.
[0:23:23 – 0:23:26] Adam: And, yeah, matching stupid uniforms.
[0:23:27 – 0:23:30] Adam: And then just walked creepily through our camp and left.
[0:23:31 – 0:23:32] Erik: Yeah, looked at the falls for a second and then walked back.
[0:23:32 – 0:23:34] Adam: Didn’t say anything really to us, and we were just like,
[0:23:34 – 0:23:35] Adam: Have a good day.
[0:23:35 – 0:23:37] Adam: See you.
[0:23:37 – 0:23:40] Erik: You can hear us on the track that we were recording when we walked through.
[0:23:40 – 0:23:41] Adam: They just showed up.
[0:23:41 – 0:23:42] Adam: A bunch of creeps.
[0:23:42 – 0:23:47] Erik: We’re like, okay, well, we’re going to make sure that we’re safe and stop the track.
[0:23:47 – 0:23:50] Erik: And we didn’t really ever talk about it again.
[0:23:50 – 0:23:50] Adam: Yeah, no.
[0:23:51 – 0:23:51] Adam: So that was odd.
[0:23:51 – 0:23:53] Adam: So we still don’t know.
[0:23:53 – 0:23:58] Adam: But I did end up looking up, because we’ve talked about it a couple times this season, the flight ceilings.
[0:23:58 – 0:24:07] Adam: And for the boundary waters, and there’s some other connected wilderness that are also part of this flight restriction, it’s 4,000 feet above sea level is all.
[0:24:07 – 0:24:08] Adam: So it’s not much.
[0:24:08 – 0:24:12] Adam: And then you got to take into effect that little sag where we first encountered this plane.
[0:24:12 – 0:24:14] Adam: It was like roughly 1,600 feet above sea level.
[0:24:15 – 0:24:17] Adam: I think it might be like 1,598, something like that.
[0:24:18 – 0:24:24] Adam: So that really is only 2,400 feet above the surface of the lake or the campsite we were on when it flew over.
[0:24:24 – 0:24:24] Erik: Yeah.
[0:24:25 – 0:24:32] Adam: Now, with that in mind, I think it’s quite possible these planes were actually above the flight ceiling in question here.
[0:24:32 – 0:24:33] Erik: You think so?
[0:24:33 – 0:24:36] Adam: I think, you know, 2,400 feet is not that much.
[0:24:36 – 0:24:39] Adam: But isn’t it 4,000 is the limit?
[0:24:39 – 0:24:40] Adam: 4,000 above sea level.
[0:24:40 – 0:24:40] Adam: Right.
[0:24:40 – 0:24:41] Adam: Right.
[0:24:41 – 0:24:47] Adam: So only really 2,400 feet above Little Sag is the real actual legal flight restrictions.
[0:24:47 – 0:24:58] Adam: And then everything else I read was even if the Forest Service is in there monkeying around or fisheries are in there monkeying around or Border Patrol should be following this, which they apparently are above the law.
[0:24:59 – 0:25:02] Adam: But I guess it sounds like they usually do try and follow this.
[0:25:02 – 0:25:06] Adam: Like they will occasionally fly over, but they’ll stick right to that limit.
[0:25:06 – 0:25:06] Erik: Yeah.
[0:25:07 – 0:25:07] Adam: So…
[0:25:07 – 0:25:12] Adam: I don’t know what the, nobody, we still have no explanation for like the drastic increase in the amount of air traffic.
[0:25:12 – 0:25:14] Erik: Yeah, it’s mostly the increase, I guess.
[0:25:14 – 0:25:19] Erik: And I was on a, we’ll talk about this trip later at some other time.
[0:25:19 – 0:25:19] Erik: I’m not sure.
[0:25:19 – 0:25:22] Erik: But I was on a guided trip for four days and got flown over.
[0:25:23 – 0:25:23] Adam: Yeah.
[0:25:24 – 0:25:24] Adam: Twice.
[0:25:24 – 0:25:26] Adam: It’s prolific this summer.
[0:25:26 – 0:25:28] Erik: I’ve never not been flown over this summer.
[0:25:28 – 0:25:33] Adam: In my research, too, I found out there’s apparently Border Patrol has an air base in North Dakota.
[0:25:35 – 0:25:38] Adam: And they will apparently fly Black Hawk helicopters.
[0:25:39 – 0:25:41] Adam: People have seen this on the western side of the boundary waters.
[0:25:41 – 0:25:46] Adam: So if you’ve seen anything like that, that was definitely below the deck, so to speak.
[0:25:46 – 0:25:47] Adam: Right.
[0:25:47 – 0:25:47] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:25:48 – 0:25:49] Adam: We’re still investigating.
[0:25:49 – 0:25:53] Adam: I don’t know if investigating is the right term, but I’m curious and I want to know more.
[0:25:53 – 0:25:54] Adam: Yeah, we’re definitely investigating.
[0:25:55 – 0:26:00] Adam: And so if anybody’s seen a Blackhawk helicopter out there or a White Learjet, that’s definitely Border Patrol.
[0:26:00 – 0:26:04] Erik: Oh, this morning I had the White Learjet go over my house.
[0:26:05 – 0:26:05] Adam: There you go.
[0:26:05 – 0:26:05] Erik: Yep.
[0:26:06 – 0:26:08] Adam: So, yeah, I don’t know.
[0:26:08 – 0:26:12] Adam: Those interns walked up on us on our Grand Portage trip and…
[0:26:13 – 0:26:13] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:26:13 – 0:26:18] Adam: I guess we didn’t look suspicious enough to interview or question.
[0:26:19 – 0:26:19] Adam: No.
[0:26:19 – 0:26:23] Adam: Must have been our beautiful beards.
[0:26:23 – 0:26:26] Erik: Yeah, we were talking about my injured foot at the time.
[0:26:26 – 0:26:28] Adam: Yeah, you were being attended to medically.
[0:26:28 – 0:26:33] Adam: Anyways, we’ll get to that in next week’s episode.
[0:26:34 – 0:26:36] Adam: These are the housekeeping things I wanted to get to.
[0:26:37 – 0:26:38] Erik: Half hour in.
[0:26:38 – 0:26:40] Erik: We’re still… Well, we haven’t been in studio in a while.
[0:26:40 – 0:26:42] Adam: And these are important things I wanted to get to.
[0:26:42 – 0:26:44] Erik: These are very important things.
[0:26:44 – 0:26:47] Erik: The Dr. Pepper flavored plant was a must.
[0:26:48 – 0:26:49] Erik: Absolutely.
[0:26:50 – 0:26:56] Erik: And we’re going to take a quick break just to make sure that things are happening as they should.
[0:26:56 – 0:27:00] Erik: We’re going to come back and get to Storm Talk.
[0:27:00 – 0:27:01] Adam: With Paul Hutner.
[0:27:08 – 0:27:09] Erik: We’re back.
[0:27:09 – 0:27:09] Adam: Welcome back.
[0:27:10 – 0:27:10] Adam: Seamless.
[0:27:10 – 0:27:11] Adam: Yeah.
[0:27:11 – 0:27:15] Adam: This is Tumble Home, Boundary Waters Podcast, and we’re talking storms.
[0:27:15 – 0:27:17] Adam: This is the meat of the episode.
[0:27:17 – 0:27:18] Adam: And…
[0:27:19 – 0:27:22] Adam: You wanted to set the stage a little bit.
[0:27:22 – 0:27:28] Erik: Yeah, we’re going to blow the cobwebs off of the question of the month, week, whatever.
[0:27:29 – 0:27:35] Adam: Yeah, sorry, we’ve been ignoring our friends on Reddit who’ve been wanting to talk storms for quite some time now.
[0:27:36 – 0:27:40] Erik: Well, I think we did the season two opener was kind of an open question.
[0:27:41 – 0:27:49] Erik: You know, where we’re like, what are you guys doing this summer when we did the… You stole my design, you son of a… That was three weeks, three months ago almost now.
[0:27:49 – 0:27:50] Adam: I can’t shake that.
[0:27:50 – 0:27:51] Adam: Bill Paxton.
[0:27:51 – 0:27:51] Erik: Yeah.
[0:27:51 – 0:27:53] Erik: I got the Paxton within.
[0:27:53 – 0:27:54] Erik: Yeah, you do.
[0:27:55 – 0:27:57] Erik: So, yeah, it’s one of those things.
[0:27:57 – 0:28:02] Erik: I mean, I’m sure it’s always been a problem and a concern of the Boundary Waters.
[0:28:02 – 0:28:05] Erik: One of those things that you can’t control.
[0:28:05 – 0:28:08] Erik: There’s really nothing you can almost, to a certain extent, do about it.
[0:28:09 – 0:28:09] Erik: And it…
[0:28:10 – 0:28:37] Erik: i don’t know maybe it’s just me um maybe it’s because i’m more attentive to watching that kind of thing happen but it also seems like they’re occurring more often with um more and more like negative results yeah i mean do you ever feel like paddling and there’s kind of a rumble about and like you ever had this idea while you’re paddling we’re like yeah lightning could just strike us right now on the boat and i would never even know what happened
[0:28:37 – 0:28:38] Erik: Yeah, oh, totally.
[0:28:38 – 0:28:41] Erik: There’s been trips where I’ve sworn and we were hit by lightning.
[0:28:41 – 0:28:42] Erik: All right, yeah.
[0:28:42 – 0:28:44] Adam: And we were living in a dream world for hours after.
[0:28:45 – 0:28:45] Adam: Yeah, this is…
[0:28:45 – 0:28:47] Erik: But it did not end up being the case.
[0:28:47 – 0:28:50] Erik: Yes, very reverse, like… Foreshadowing.
[0:28:50 – 0:28:51] Erik: Awkward foreshadowing for next week’s…
[0:28:51 – 0:28:54] Erik: This is upside down foreshadowing, but…
[0:28:54 – 0:28:55] Adam: So it basically…
[0:28:55 – 0:28:59] Adam: There’s been multiple trips like that for me where it’s like, this is really dangerous to be out here.
[0:28:59 – 0:29:00] Adam: Or just being in a campsite.
[0:29:00 – 0:29:05] Adam: Like, you ever think, like, you pull into a campsite and be like, I don’t know, I could die in a storm on this campsite.
[0:29:05 – 0:29:05] Erik: Mm-hmm.
[0:29:06 – 0:29:08] Adam: Might be the last campsite I ever approach.
[0:29:08 – 0:29:10] Adam: This might be my final campsite review.
[0:29:11 – 0:29:11] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:29:12 – 0:29:19] Adam: I mean, I’ve always felt like with the amount of camping we do, there’s a better than zero chance that we just die in a storm out there.
[0:29:19 – 0:29:21] Erik: It’s definitely better than zero, but it’s not much more than zero.
[0:29:21 – 0:29:22] Adam: But it happens so infrequently.
[0:29:22 – 0:29:27] Adam: You’d be more likely to drown in a bathtub or whatever, as they say.
[0:29:27 – 0:29:28] Adam: Yeah, so I mean…
[0:29:28 – 0:29:31] Adam: It’s such a small chance of it happening, but it’s still out there.
[0:29:32 – 0:29:34] Erik: Yeah, at 30 minutes in, you can’t tell what we’re talking about.
[0:29:34 – 0:29:38] Erik: It’s essentially like big thunderstorms and wind.
[0:29:38 – 0:29:39] Erik: Yeah, what do you do?
[0:29:39 – 0:29:42] Erik: That roll up on you in the park.
[0:29:42 – 0:29:44] Erik: Bonjewaters, Quetico…
[0:29:45 – 0:29:51] Erik: In places where there’s not, you know, when thunder roars, get indoors.
[0:29:51 – 0:29:52] Erik: Like, yeah, you can’t get indoors.
[0:29:52 – 0:29:57] Adam: I mean, I feel like fire danger is the real, like, natural disaster we have to worry about up here.
[0:29:57 – 0:30:03] Adam: But, like, when you’re camping, I mean, really, if there’s a big fire coming, they’ll have people in there evacuating and…
[0:30:03 – 0:30:06] Adam: You’re probably not going to get burned up.
[0:30:06 – 0:30:09] Erik: It’s more of a property concern than a physical.
[0:30:09 – 0:30:16] Adam: Your number one problem other than twisting your own ankle or something is like, yeah, a tree falls on you or a lightning hits you.
[0:30:16 – 0:30:23] Adam: Those are like the real main dangers or falling in because of wind into ice cold water and freezing up.
[0:30:23 – 0:30:31] Erik: Well, no, I think in general, just off the top of my head, you know, whenever people come up and they ask, you know, what about the bears?
[0:30:31 – 0:30:34] Adam: Like, am I going to get eaten by a bear?
[0:30:34 – 0:30:40] Erik: It’s like, no, the thing that kills people up here is the water, first of all, just straight up.
[0:30:41 – 0:30:49] Erik: The cold water in the spring and in the fall and or in the summer if you’re not prepared and you don’t know how to swim or whatever.
[0:30:49 – 0:30:49] Erik: Yeah.
[0:30:50 – 0:30:51] Erik: And then after that, I would say storms.
[0:30:52 – 0:30:52] Erik: Storms.
[0:30:53 – 0:30:56] Adam: Yeah, I would say bears aren’t even maybe their top 10.
[0:30:57 – 0:30:59] Adam: I don’t think a black bear’s ever mauled anybody to death in the Boundary Waters.
[0:30:59 – 0:31:00] Erik: Not in the Boundary Waters.
[0:31:00 – 0:31:02] Erik: There’s been like maybe one incident.
[0:31:02 – 0:31:05] Adam: Sure, heart attacks take more people every year than bears have ever taken.
[0:31:06 – 0:31:07] Erik: Oh, yeah, for sure.
[0:31:07 – 0:31:09] Erik: I mean, just general… Just out camping.
[0:31:09 – 0:31:13] Erik: Yeah, just general, like, health, like, quick health concerns.
[0:31:14 – 0:31:14] Erik: Yeah.
[0:31:14 – 0:31:15] Erik: That’s probably number one.
[0:31:15 – 0:31:18] Erik: But, like, things that the woods is going to throw at you… Yeah.
[0:31:19 – 0:31:20] Erik: I would say is probably…
[0:31:21 – 0:31:22] Erik: The water.
[0:31:22 – 0:31:24] Erik: And then number two is storms.
[0:31:24 – 0:31:25] Erik: And there have been…
[0:31:26 – 0:31:28] Erik: There are a number of stories.
[0:31:28 – 0:31:32] Erik: We’re not going to go into like crazy detail in some of the ones that I know of.
[0:31:32 – 0:31:33] Erik: Yeah.
[0:31:33 – 0:31:41] Erik: But like just in the past few years, there was the father and son trip out on Duncan Lake, which is just down the road from Clearwater.
[0:31:42 – 0:31:43] Adam: That unfortunately… That one hit close to home.
[0:31:44 – 0:31:46] Erik: Yeah, that one was tough because it was like…
[0:31:47 – 0:31:51] Erik: That was when you were living on the trail and I was over at your place.
[0:31:51 – 0:31:57] Erik: And for us, it was a little bit of rain, maybe a gust, and then that was it.
[0:31:58 – 0:32:04] Erik: And then we started driving back down to Clearwater and it was like, oh, there’s some debris on the road.
[0:32:05 – 0:32:06] Erik: Oh, there’s a branch.
[0:32:07 – 0:32:09] Erik: Oh, man, that’s a huge limb that’s down.
[0:32:09 – 0:32:14] Erik: And then by the time we got down to Clearwater, it was like full like sentinel pines across the road.
[0:32:15 – 0:32:20] Erik: And that was the storm that came through that you can still see on South Lake especially.
[0:32:20 – 0:32:25] Erik: It looks like it’s one of those things where it’s like somebody just took their hand and just laid it across the land.
[0:32:26 – 0:32:29] Adam: Yeah, I mean, is the Caribou Rock Trail still out because of that?
[0:32:29 – 0:32:30] Adam: No, the Caribou Rock Trail is good.
[0:32:30 – 0:32:31] Adam: They’ve kind of fixed it up now.
[0:32:31 – 0:32:32] Adam: They fixed it up, yeah.
[0:32:32 – 0:32:34] Adam: The Caribou Rock Trail was knocked out by that storm.
[0:32:35 – 0:32:35] Adam: Yeah, for sure.
[0:32:35 – 0:32:40] Adam: Duncan Lake took the—South Lake and Duncan Lake really took the swipe, as you say.
[0:32:40 – 0:32:47] Erik: Yeah, some downbursts, which is basically what you’re—besides lightning strikes in terms of wind—
[0:32:48 – 0:32:51] Erik: What is most concerning about thunderstorms up here?
[0:32:51 – 0:32:54] Erik: You know, there’s the classic 1999 blowdown.
[0:32:54 – 0:32:54] Erik: Yeah.
[0:32:54 – 0:32:59] Erik: Which was the Derrico, Deratio, whatever you want to say it.
[0:33:00 – 0:33:04] Erik: Straight line wind event, which is like once in a century.
[0:33:04 – 0:33:08] Erik: You know, we haven’t had anything close to that since, but we’ve had a lot of little events.
[0:33:09 – 0:33:29] Erik: uh weather events close to that that have unfortunately taken lives um so yeah the one just down the the road on on duncan was a downed tree scenario um and then i think later that summer there was a two boy scouts two scouts on basswood and
[0:33:29 – 0:33:30] Erik: That’s right.
[0:33:30 – 0:33:32] Erik: Kind of the same situation, downed trees.
[0:33:33 – 0:33:37] Erik: There’s been multiple lightning strike close calls.
[0:33:38 – 0:33:47] Erik: I know I remember hearing of some outward bound trips that the school over out of Ely that sends out a lot of paddlers on the water throughout the season.
[0:33:48 – 0:33:50] Erik: Some close calls with lightning strikes.
[0:33:51 – 0:33:54] Erik: And it’s one of those things that, you know, you hear about all these stories.
[0:33:54 – 0:33:55] Erik: You…
[0:33:56 – 0:34:01] Erik: You think about it and then, you know, in the moment when you’re out there, it’s not like…
[0:34:03 – 0:34:10] Erik: running around on the streets growing up or in the backyard where lightning strike, dark clouds, wind is rolling up.
[0:34:10 – 0:34:13] Erik: You just run into the house, whether it’s yours or not.
[0:34:14 – 0:34:14] Erik: Hey, there’s a house.
[0:34:14 – 0:34:16] Erik: Let’s get inside, go to the basement.
[0:34:16 – 0:34:20] Erik: If it’s real bad, get in the bathtub or stand in a doorway or whatever.
[0:34:20 – 0:34:26] Erik: You’re out in the woods and all of a sudden, you’re out there for four or five days.
[0:34:27 – 0:34:29] Erik: You look at the weather before you go out.
[0:34:31 – 0:34:40] Erik: And just for myself personally, this last guided trip that I did, I went out on a Saturday, and it was mostly sunny Saturday.
[0:34:40 – 0:34:42] Erik: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
[0:34:42 – 0:34:43] Erik: Mostly sunny.
[0:34:43 – 0:34:44] Erik: No chance of rain.
[0:34:44 – 0:34:45] Erik: Every day.
[0:34:46 – 0:34:48] Erik: And so that’s what you… All right, we’ll be fine.
[0:34:48 – 0:34:49] Erik: Whatever.
[0:34:49 – 0:34:49] Erik: Yeah.
[0:34:49 – 0:34:51] Erik: I’m not going to even think about it.
[0:34:51 – 0:34:51] Erik: And then…
[0:34:52 – 0:35:20] Erik: you know obviously weather changes things happen and then like three days later you’re out there and all of a sudden you’re kind of just sitting around camp later in the afternoon skies all of a sudden it’s looking kind of dark you don’t have you can’t just pull up radar yeah this time of year you always kind of have a look like a eye to the north and west yeah but to see what’s out there especially in these humid days things can kind of kick up yeah and they often do um
[0:35:22 – 0:35:30] Adam: I don’t know, it’s crazy to think about just that big tree falling over in that moment when you’re in that camp.
[0:35:30 – 0:35:35] Adam: Just think about the intersection of that tree’s life and the people who are in those camps when those things come down.
[0:35:36 – 0:35:42] Adam: Just insane odds to actually be there at the moment when that really goes down and really goes badly.
[0:35:43 – 0:35:44] Erik: Yeah, no, it’s… Yeah, that’s…
[0:35:44 – 0:35:45] Erik: I’ve…
[0:35:46 – 0:36:07] Erik: i think i’ve thought about that because it it it was so close to clear water and then there was also the ending of that whole story which the forest service had to go out and they couldn’t even clean up that campsite with saws safely they had to use dynamite and i was over on west bearskin picking up canoes when i heard the dynamite go off that summer well um
[0:36:08 – 0:36:14] Erik: And then subsequently, I’ve been to that site, and it’s got a feeling to it.
[0:36:15 – 0:36:16] Erik: I don’t know.
[0:36:16 – 0:36:18] Erik: I’m not going to say which one exactly it is.
[0:36:18 – 0:36:19] Erik: It’s on Duncan.
[0:36:19 – 0:36:20] Adam: It’s still a site.
[0:36:20 – 0:36:21] Erik: It’s still a site.
[0:36:21 – 0:36:25] Adam: I would have thought maybe they would have erased that off the map.
[0:36:25 – 0:36:26] Erik: Yeah, you can tell.
[0:36:27 – 0:36:29] Erik: It’s got massive trees down on it.
[0:36:29 – 0:36:31] Erik: Literally, it would take…
[0:36:32 – 0:36:44] Erik: uh two huge men or three normal people to like wrap around the trunk they’re massive trees yeah that tells you and they’re just right down in the site and it’s uh
[0:36:46 – 0:37:05] Erik: Yeah, it’s one of those things, like you said, when you think about just the timing and just how fickle life is in regards to like, yeah, that tree’s been growing for 250 years and you happened to be there on the night that it blew over.
[0:37:05 – 0:37:06] Erik: Yeah.
[0:37:06 – 0:37:10] Erik: That’s a whole other level of kind of what we’re going to talk about that is…
[0:37:11 – 0:37:16] Erik: Even scarier than not being able to do as much as you’d like to when you’re out there.
[0:37:16 – 0:37:21] Erik: So without getting down the rabbit hole of the philosophical.
[0:37:21 – 0:37:28] Adam: I don’t want to turn into this like being an episode of like scaring people to death about going out in the middle of summer when thunderstorms might be prevalent.
[0:37:28 – 0:37:30] Erik: No, it’s not a scaring to death thing.
[0:37:30 – 0:37:32] Erik: It’s like anything, you know.
[0:37:33 – 0:37:37] Adam: You may run into a nasty storm when you’re out there this time of year.
[0:37:37 – 0:37:41] Erik: Odds are you’re going to come back just fine.
[0:37:42 – 0:37:45] Adam: Odds are it’s just going to be some heavy rain and you’ll hear some cool thunder.
[0:37:46 – 0:37:46] Erik: Yeah.
[0:37:46 – 0:37:58] Erik: So to get to a little bit of substance here with my experience before we get to some of our listeners’ experiences in things that you can maybe do.
[0:37:59 – 0:38:05] Erik: So – and this was the problem I thought after that summer where there was a bunch of incidents that happened.
[0:38:05 – 0:38:08] Erik: Literally people were –
[0:38:09 – 0:38:12] Erik: Killed by the forest and the storms.
[0:38:12 – 0:38:24] Erik: And then the Forest Service itself was kind of sitting down with outfitters at the end of the year and trying to discuss, well, what do, you know, what do you do?
[0:38:25 – 0:38:28] Erik: It’s one of those things that’s – it’s not in the video.
[0:38:29 – 0:38:30] Erik: They even have a new one.
[0:38:30 – 0:38:31] Erik: It’s not in any parts of the video.
[0:38:32 – 0:38:41] Erik: There isn’t anything that we as outfitters are told to tell paddlers, you know, this is what you should do.
[0:38:41 – 0:38:42] Erik: Mm-hmm.
[0:38:43 – 0:38:53] Erik: And I think at this point, it’s borderline, I don’t know what the best word to use would be.
[0:38:53 – 0:39:01] Erik: I think they’re kind of dropping the ball a little bit, the U.S. Forest Service, in what they can do to prepare people.
[0:39:02 – 0:39:02] Erik: I get it.
[0:39:03 – 0:39:25] Adam: there’s a lot that you’re throwing at people who are heading out there leave no trace bears put out your fires but it yeah it’s i mean of the things that can really get you it’s up there and the things you’re more likely to encounter like you know bears or something then that’s what you should focus on that’s more likely to happen but not to have such a drastic impact on you
[0:39:25 – 0:39:29] Erik: And they mention, you know, check the weather before you head out.
[0:39:29 – 0:39:30] Erik: Yeah, but you’re on a long trip.
[0:39:30 – 0:39:32] Erik: Yeah, they give you no tips.
[0:39:32 – 0:39:38] Erik: And then even at the end of that year, when we were sitting down as outfitters in the Forest Service, nobody was like, well, what exactly do you do?
[0:39:39 – 0:39:44] Erik: And I don’t know if this show is going… You’re going to be able to sit down at the end of this and say, well, this is exactly what you do.
[0:39:45 – 0:39:54] Erik: But I think we can give a little bit more of a better description of what at least I do in the event of weather that kind of…
[0:39:55 – 0:39:59] Erik: It comes out of nowhere and all of a sudden you’re in it and things could maybe get hairy.
[0:39:59 – 0:40:01] Adam: All of a sudden you look up and the sky is green.
[0:40:01 – 0:40:02] Erik: Yeah, which has happened to us.
[0:40:03 – 0:40:04] Adam: All of a sudden it’s really still.
[0:40:04 – 0:40:04] Erik: Yeah.
[0:40:05 – 0:40:09] Adam: The sky is green and there’s towering cumulus clouds that are up 100,000 feet up.
[0:40:10 – 0:40:16] Erik: And just that, yeah, just that wall that you can almost hear it coming off in the distance, the wind.
[0:40:17 – 0:40:18] Erik: So, again.
[0:40:18 – 0:40:19] Adam: You got five minutes to button up camp.
[0:40:19 – 0:40:20] Adam: What are you going to do?
[0:40:20 – 0:40:22] Erik: Another criticism of the Forest Service.
[0:40:22 – 0:40:28] Erik: Maybe a little bit of details in weather because it seems like it’s happening more and more.
[0:40:30 – 0:40:39] Erik: Just this last week, almost every other day, we’ve kind of had one of those big bands of red on the radar come rolling through canoe country.
[0:40:40 – 0:40:44] Erik: And if you’re out in the woods, you don’t have the opportunity to check the radar to see that.
[0:40:44 – 0:40:52] Erik: So for me personally, I think the weather radio, that is a crucial piece of equipment that comes out with me every trip now.
[0:40:53 – 0:40:53] Erik: Yeah.
[0:40:54 – 0:40:59] Erik: And that’s not something that a lot of people know about.
[0:40:59 – 0:41:00] Erik: And if you don’t, you can…
[0:41:01 – 0:41:15] Erik: purchase these radios, they’re hand crank, and they come with a AM FM receiver, but then also there is a government-provided weather band that there’s seven or eight of them, depending on where you are.
[0:41:15 – 0:41:21] Adam: Yeah, we’re currently in the Bogus Lake Tower region here at Studio K, but there’s numerous weather stations.
[0:41:21 – 0:41:29] Adam: Then if you end up in Quetico even, there’s like French weather stations up there, which you can’t understand what they’re saying, but you can tell when they’re serious.
[0:41:29 – 0:41:29] Erik: Mm-hmm.
[0:41:29 – 0:41:29] Erik: Yes.
[0:41:30 – 0:41:35] Erik: So, like, and I just the other day, I was out on this guided trip.
[0:41:35 – 0:41:38] Erik: And like I said, the weather was just smooth sailing the whole time.
[0:41:38 – 0:41:44] Erik: And so, the last night we were out there, all of a sudden, there’s some low rumbles off to the north and the west.
[0:41:45 – 0:41:46] Erik: And… That’s Camp Chabot.
[0:41:46 – 0:41:49] Erik: Yeah, that was basically just me up at the latrine.
[0:41:49 – 0:41:50] Erik: Yeah.
[0:41:51 – 0:41:53] Erik: But I’m like, all right, this is unexpected.
[0:41:53 – 0:41:54] Erik: I don’t know how serious this is.
[0:41:55 – 0:42:00] Erik: So I quick had to throw the rain fly up over the hammock just for general precaution.
[0:42:00 – 0:42:00] Erik: First things first.
[0:42:01 – 0:42:04] Erik: And then I’m like, okay, well, let’s pick up a little bit here.
[0:42:04 – 0:42:06] Erik: Make sure just in general the wetness isn’t a factor.
[0:42:07 – 0:42:08] Adam: Gather the loose items.
[0:42:08 – 0:42:10] Erik: Loose items, but then I had the weather radio.
[0:42:10 – 0:42:11] Erik: Yeah.
[0:42:11 – 0:42:20] Erik: So I cranked that up and was able to find a weather band, which said exactly what I needed to hear, which was there’s some rain moving through the area.
[0:42:21 – 0:42:25] Erik: It’s a low probability of severe weather.
[0:42:26 – 0:42:30] Erik: It basically is exactly as it was described.
[0:42:31 – 0:42:37] Erik: Heavy rain, not much in terms of like wind or a little bit of thunder and lightning, but it seemed like it wasn’t.
[0:42:38 – 0:42:40] Erik: And then I went the next day when I got out, looked at the radar history.
[0:42:40 – 0:42:44] Erik: It was just kind of like a weak little yellow blob that moved through.
[0:42:45 – 0:42:48] Erik: So, number one, I would say Weather Radio.
[0:42:48 – 0:42:51] Adam: Plus, they’re fun to scroll those AM dials in the middle of the night.
[0:42:51 – 0:42:52] Adam: Yes.
[0:42:52 – 0:42:53] Adam: George Nuri.
[0:42:53 – 0:42:53] Adam: Yeah.
[0:42:54 – 0:42:58] Erik: So, what do you think a ghost’s favorite kind of burrito is?
[0:42:58 – 0:42:59] Erik: Yeah.
[0:43:00 – 0:43:29] Adam: that’s yeah you need that especially if you’re out for like the three four week wild card line wild card line yeah uh and then the hollow earth theory hollow the portals at the poles i am a subscriber to the hollow moon theory well that it would make sense that both would be hollow like a christmas ornament yeah basically we are hanging magma is a myth we’re hanging on an alien’s tree exactly yeah or perhaps in this eyeball of an alien
[0:43:29 – 0:43:31] Erik: Whatever the Christmas of their world is.
[0:43:33 – 0:43:34] Erik: I’ve never thought about that.
[0:43:35 – 0:43:39] Erik: Yeah, we discussed this more in episode 66, The Grand Portage.
[0:43:40 – 0:43:54] Erik: So the other thing to, I think, consider when you get to a campsite, and it’s really hard to do this because you’re never thinking of it when you get there, which is like, just take a look what’s in camp.
[0:43:54 – 0:43:56] Erik: What’s a lean in which way?
[0:43:56 – 0:43:57] Erik: You got bad leaners.
[0:43:57 – 0:43:59] Erik: You got dead trees.
[0:44:00 – 0:44:05] Erik: Also, do you have any kind of like big boulder crevices?
[0:44:05 – 0:44:19] Erik: Because if trees start snapping and blowing over, really one of the only places that you can go that is, I would say, 100% safe would be in kind of like a rocky crevice or like right up against the tall rock.
[0:44:19 – 0:44:21] Adam: The shadow of an erratic rock.
[0:44:21 – 0:44:24] Erik: Yes, if you have an erratic in camp, you keep your eyes.
[0:44:24 – 0:44:25] Adam: It’s your best friend in a storm.
[0:44:25 – 0:44:33] Adam: You may not want to set your tent up there, but if things start coming down, you get right up next to it, that will be your friend and shield.
[0:44:34 – 0:44:35] Erik: Yes, exactly.
[0:44:35 – 0:44:40] Erik: And that’s really, again, like I said, all of a sudden you’re just three, four days in, you get so used to.
[0:44:41 – 0:44:44] Adam: These are things I never considered in my early days of camping up here.
[0:44:44 – 0:44:50] Erik: No, and like even the other night, like when the dark clouds kind of rolled in and it looked nasty.
[0:44:50 – 0:44:56] Erik: There was a couple of lightning strikes, like not to ground, but just up in the clouds.
[0:44:56 – 0:44:59] Erik: I could see off in the distance and I’m just like kind of looking around.
[0:44:59 – 0:45:04] Erik: I’m like, man, we’re on the north side of a lake, which the storm is coming from the north.
[0:45:04 – 0:45:08] Erik: I’m camped right on the shore with my hammock and there’s kind of some nasty trees.
[0:45:10 – 0:45:12] Erik: And it was almost like if things get really bad…
[0:45:14 – 0:45:20] Erik: the only really safe place that I can see if trees are coming down is literally to jump in the lake.
[0:45:21 – 0:45:24] Erik: Like there’s not much else around.
[0:45:24 – 0:45:40] Erik: And that’s the other problem is you’re typically going to be pretty hard pressed in a nasty storm situation to jump out of the tent or get out from under the rain fly because it’s probably going to be raining.
[0:45:40 – 0:45:40] Erik: Yeah, yeah.
[0:45:41 – 0:45:41] Erik: And…
[0:45:42 – 0:45:46] Erik: Yeah, it probably feels really safe to be in the tent, you know.
[0:45:46 – 0:45:53] Erik: But the safest place to be, especially if it’s light out, is probably out just in the open.
[0:45:53 – 0:45:53] Erik: Watching.
[0:45:54 – 0:45:55] Erik: Watching for trees.
[0:45:55 – 0:46:03] Erik: And the thing with lightning is also you’re not going to want to just be laying right on the ground for that because…
[0:46:04 – 0:46:14] Erik: A lot of the stories that I’ve heard over the years with lightning strikes and people getting in trouble with that is the root systems that run across the ground.
[0:46:15 – 0:46:19] Adam: I’ve heard of people like get out your life jacket and kind of like kneel on that as sort of a…
[0:46:20 – 0:46:20] Adam: Ground insulator.
[0:46:21 – 0:46:23] Erik: That is the like official outward bound procedure.
[0:46:24 – 0:46:25] Erik: Yeah.
[0:46:25 – 0:46:28] Erik: If they hear thunder that…
[0:46:28 – 0:46:32] Erik: Sounds… Whatever the math is, I think it’s eight seconds or something.
[0:46:32 – 0:46:33] Erik: It’s within a mile.
[0:46:33 – 0:46:35] Erik: Yeah, yeah.
[0:46:35 – 0:46:38] Erik: So if you hear lightning and it’s within…
[0:46:39 – 0:47:09] Erik: 8 to 10 seconds I think it’s close enough that there could be a strike where you are and if you’re just laying on the ground or even if you’re just standing out in the open like just because you’re not leaning with your hand up against a tree the root systems through those campsites are so shallow that they can run through that and you can still get a good zap just through the ground yeah the ground current so like I think the outward bound schools official like
[0:47:09 – 0:47:39] Erik: thunderstorm procedure is yeah pull up the life jackets and then like you’re just supposed to like squat like on a life jacket on your life jacket yeah like which doesn’t sound comfortable yeah mine is always hanging somewhere in a tree at the periphery of camp yeah probably wet you’ve got a nice sized one though my stole quest would be tough to try to get everything like yeah that would be the only advantage that steve’s is a ridiculous child lots of foam a lot of foam mm-hmm hmm
[0:47:39 – 0:47:45] Erik: Yeah, so I think, I mean, that’s the gist of it, I guess.
[0:47:45 – 0:47:55] Erik: It’s one of those things where, I mean, I kind of was a little hard on the Forest Service for maybe not having a little bit more clear detail on some of the storm things, but it’s also…
[0:47:55 – 0:48:11] Erik: Um, super subjective in terms of where you are in camp, what your site looks like, but just a few tips, you know, to say like, it’s not always the safest to just be in your tent, which I think is the problem with the story over on Duncan is everybody was just in their tents.
[0:48:11 – 0:48:12] Erik: Trees started coming down.
[0:48:12 – 0:48:13] Erik: They couldn’t see where they were coming.
[0:48:14 – 0:48:19] Erik: And then, yeah, you’re dry, but you’ve also, you know, been slammed by a tree that you couldn’t see coming down.
[0:48:19 – 0:48:20] Erik: So, um,
[0:48:21 – 0:48:24] Erik: I know for myself personally, yeah, you’re nice and dry under the rain fly.
[0:48:25 – 0:48:30] Erik: Do I really want to go outside and get soaked just to make sure I don’t get hit by a tree?
[0:48:30 – 0:48:34] Erik: But the alternative is not getting hit by a tree.
[0:48:34 – 0:48:35] Erik: Yeah.
[0:48:36 – 0:48:48] Erik: I don’t actually have too many specific stories besides some of the ones that I think we’ve actually in the last few years recorded where you’re paddling and then that green wall comes out of nowhere.
[0:48:49 – 0:48:53] Erik: And in camp, I think we’ve talked about some of the best things to do.
[0:48:54 – 0:48:59] Erik: On the water, though, I think it’s always advisable to get off of the water.
[0:48:59 – 0:49:00] Erik: Yeah.
[0:49:00 – 0:49:00] Erik: And…
[0:49:01 – 0:49:09] Erik: I know the question that we posed to our listeners did describe or asked about the cone of safety.
[0:49:09 – 0:49:10] Erik: Yeah.
[0:49:10 – 0:49:16] Erik: Which I remember Cliff Jacobson’s got a few Boundary Waters like tips and tricks books out there.
[0:49:16 – 0:49:17] Erik: And that’s one of the classic.
[0:49:17 – 0:49:19] Adam: We met him at Midwest Mountaineering.
[0:49:19 – 0:49:19] Adam: We did.
[0:49:19 – 0:49:19] Adam: Yeah.
[0:49:20 – 0:49:22] Adam: I forgot to ask him about the cone of safety.
[0:49:22 – 0:49:23] Erik: I’m sure he would still defend it.
[0:49:23 – 0:49:24] Erik: He’s a very nice guy.
[0:49:25 – 0:49:26] Adam: I believe in it.
[0:49:26 – 0:49:28] Adam: I mean, it’s better than being out in the middle.
[0:49:29 – 0:49:29] Erik: For sure.
[0:49:30 – 0:49:36] Erik: But I think unless you’re paddling up against like a sheer cliff, I think getting to shore is probably still always the best option.
[0:49:36 – 0:49:37] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you don’t want to just keep going.
[0:49:38 – 0:49:38] SPEAKER_00: No.
[0:49:38 – 0:49:40] Adam: You have no choice, I guess.
[0:49:40 – 0:49:43] Adam: Get as close to shore as possible and hopefully it’ll hit a tree instead of you.
[0:49:44 – 0:49:49] Erik: So apparently the idea is the 45 degree angle down from the trees next to shore out to the lake.
[0:49:50 – 0:49:50] Erik: Yeah.
[0:49:50 – 0:49:58] Erik: If you can paddle within that imaginary line and shore, you are supposed to be quote unquote like safe from being struck by lightning.
[0:49:58 – 0:49:59] Erik: But…
[0:50:00 – 0:50:03] Erik: Um, I don’t think lightning is, it’s not sentient.
[0:50:04 – 0:50:10] Erik: I think it does things like one of the biggest like misconceptions that is that lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice.
[0:50:11 – 0:50:17] Erik: It like the empire state building has been struck like over a thousand times, like lightning strikes in the same place, sometimes back to back.
[0:50:18 – 0:50:21] Erik: And it just, it’s not one of those things where it’s like, well,
[0:50:23 – 0:50:24] Erik: I got struck by lightning.
[0:50:24 – 0:50:25] Erik: I’ll never get struck again.
[0:50:25 – 0:50:28] Erik: It’s like the guy at the white streak down his head in the movie The Great Outdoors.
[0:50:29 – 0:50:39] Erik: So do you have anything else to add for people when they’re out there in the woods and a big green wall of mysterious rain, thunder, and wind is coming up at them?
[0:50:41 – 0:50:48] Adam: No, that’s… You know, just keep your head up and do your best to be aware.
[0:50:49 – 0:50:58] Adam: But, yeah, definitely get in the shore and, yeah, hopefully you find some sort of rock or something where you’re not in danger of a massive tree coming onto you.
[0:50:58 – 0:51:00] Adam: I love big trees in camp.
[0:51:00 – 0:51:05] Adam: But, yeah, they can be, like, your biggest danger if you’re actually made it to shore or in camp.
[0:51:05 – 0:51:06] Adam: Watch out for the leaners.
[0:51:06 – 0:51:08] Adam: Kind of go against it.
[0:51:08 – 0:51:08] Adam: I…
[0:51:09 – 0:51:15] Adam: Yeah, I’ve never really been in a super scary situation where I’ve actually had to apply these lessons in camp.
[0:51:15 – 0:51:19] Adam: I’ve been in some nasty storms, but nothing to the point where trees were coming down.
[0:51:19 – 0:51:20] Adam: I don’t know what I would do.
[0:51:20 – 0:51:21] Adam: That’s the thing.
[0:51:22 – 0:51:23] Adam: It’s like we can talk all we want.
[0:51:23 – 0:51:25] Adam: Like this is the right thing to do.
[0:51:25 – 0:51:27] Adam: But like if you’re out there in a storm like that.
[0:51:28 – 0:51:32] Adam: I can’t imagine what that is all about and how I would actually react in the moment.
[0:51:33 – 0:51:34] Adam: Especially if it’s the middle of the night.
[0:51:35 – 0:51:36] Adam: That would be really tricky.
[0:51:36 – 0:51:36] Erik: That’s the scariest one.
[0:51:37 – 0:51:39] Erik: I’m so happy we’ve never had to deal with that.
[0:51:39 – 0:51:44] Adam: I feel like the kid in the back of the Explorer in Jurassic Park flashing their light around.
[0:51:44 – 0:51:45] Adam: What’s going on out there?
[0:51:46 – 0:51:47] Adam: You can’t see anything.
[0:51:47 – 0:51:50] Adam: It’s got to be one of the most terrifying feelings you can have.
[0:51:51 – 0:51:54] Adam: Again, not to scare people off of the Boundary Waters.
[0:51:54 – 0:51:55] Adam: This is, again, like the…
[0:51:56 – 0:52:02] Adam: Probably one of the most dangerous things you can run into, but also one of the least likely things you can run into out there.
[0:52:02 – 0:52:04] Adam: Yeah, highly unlikely.
[0:52:04 – 0:52:09] Erik: It’s the woods, it’s the wilderness, and anything can happen, but it’s not likely.
[0:52:10 – 0:52:13] Erik: But it’s still something to think of because it can happen at any time.
[0:52:14 – 0:52:14] Erik: Absolutely.
[0:52:15 – 0:52:18] Erik: So that’s our two cents, I think.
[0:52:18 – 0:52:19] Erik: We did a decent job.
[0:52:20 – 0:52:21] Erik: I’m going to go ahead and say it.
[0:52:21 – 0:52:21] Erik: We did.
[0:52:21 – 0:52:22] Erik: We did a great job.
[0:52:23 – 0:52:26] Erik: Nobody’s ever going to die in the Bunch of Waters again because of us.
[0:52:27 – 0:52:29] Erik: Thanks, Eric.
[0:52:29 – 0:52:33] Erik: So, yeah, we pose this question to the friends on Reddit.
[0:52:33 – 0:52:36] Erik: It’s been a while since we’ve been on RBWCA.
[0:52:37 – 0:52:40] Erik: I’ve been loving the consistent content I’ve been seeing coming through.
[0:52:40 – 0:52:42] Erik: There’s some great bass pictures.
[0:52:42 – 0:52:42] Erik: Yeah.
[0:52:42 – 0:52:43] Erik: Some sweet sunsets.
[0:52:43 – 0:52:46] Erik: Just great general love for the park on there.
[0:52:46 – 0:52:46] Adam: Good panoramas.
[0:52:46 – 0:52:48] Adam: I’ve seen some panoramas out there.
[0:52:48 – 0:52:49] Adam: I love a good panorama shot.
[0:52:49 – 0:52:51] Erik: Yeah, this whole summer has been great.
[0:52:51 – 0:52:59] Erik: And that’s the time to be on there and sharing stuff and even some great feedback from some questions we’ve had from people who are starting out.
[0:53:00 – 0:53:04] Erik: And then some great feedback on this question, which is obviously about storms.
[0:53:04 – 0:53:10] Erik: And we asked specifically, what is your procedure in the event of inclement weather?
[0:53:10 – 0:53:14] Erik: weather while in the wilderness, either on the water or in camp?
[0:53:14 – 0:53:18] Erik: Do you have any close calls or crazy storm stories you’d like to share?
[0:53:19 – 0:53:22] Erik: And then do you believe in the cone of safety?
[0:53:22 – 0:53:30] Erik: So we’ve got a bunch of answers here we’re going to go through and see if we can learn anything.
[0:53:30 – 0:53:32] Erik: This is our first time going through this.
[0:53:32 – 0:53:32] Erik: I always love
[0:53:33 – 0:53:57] Erik: reading these for the first time on air live and uh sponsor of the show this week is the first response the most upvoted 10 points do you want to start hopalicious and friend of the show uh by the way i would give this beer uh a 4.5 oh yeah we’ll have to get this on untapped here uh alpha king at some point
[0:53:57 – 0:54:00] Adam: I’m done with mine, and I feel great.
[0:54:00 – 0:54:01] Erik: Cheddar King.
[0:54:01 – 0:54:01] Adam: Hopalicious.
[0:54:02 – 0:54:08] Adam: Thank you for the beer, and thank you for this response, which I’m going to read real purdy right now.
[0:54:08 – 0:54:10] Adam: Make sure the knots on the tarp are tight.
[0:54:11 – 0:54:12] Adam: Hunker down and wait for it to pass.
[0:54:15 – 0:54:17] Adam: Info from the weather radio is a bit vague.
[0:54:17 – 0:54:21] Adam: I once went to bed listening to fire and brimstone and the storm completely missed us.
[0:54:22 – 0:54:26] Adam: So I don’t do too much until I see an impending doom on the horizon.
[0:54:26 – 0:54:30] Adam: I then get off the water and prepare for camp and the storm’s wind.
[0:54:31 – 0:54:36] Adam: This would involve tidying up things that may blow away and moving things under the tarp so they stay dry.
[0:54:36 – 0:54:44] Adam: I also give the camp a once over for any trees that look like they may tip over should the wind get the best of them or act as a lighting rod.
[0:54:45 – 0:54:49] Adam: I then pull out my Coghlan’s Camp Axe and quickly chop them down for safety.
[0:54:49 – 0:54:50] Adam: Not really.
[0:54:51 – 0:54:52] Adam: Nice.
[0:54:52 – 0:54:53] Adam: Solid answer.
[0:54:53 – 0:55:01] Adam: Yeah, you kind of hit on a lot of our general themes and good use of the Coghlan’s humor.
[0:55:01 – 0:55:03] Adam: I can see why you got 10 points.
[0:55:03 – 0:55:09] Adam: We’re going to award you two extra points and another point on top of that for the beer sponsorship.
[0:55:09 – 0:55:10] Adam: So that’s 13 points for Hopalicious.
[0:55:11 – 0:55:24] Erik: running away with the question of the month do do do i think this is the first time we’ve heard from this uh reddit user i love the name david putty uh-huh gotta support the team yes
[0:55:26 – 0:55:33] Erik: Any chance of heavy rain warrants a large tarp, comfortable seating, and copious amounts of boxed wine.
[0:55:33 – 0:55:36] Erik: Huzzah, huzzah, brother.
[0:55:36 – 0:55:49] Erik: I’ve had one site that had trees positioned in a way where we were able to tie off a shelter like an open-sided teepee facing away from the wind with the opening just a couple feet away from the edge of the fire.
[0:55:49 – 0:55:50] Erik: Very nice sounding.
[0:55:51 – 0:55:55] Erik: Close enough to keep you toasty, but not so close where you were burning the tarp or breathing smoke.
[0:55:56 – 0:55:58] Erik: I bring bungees and ratchets to get it nice and tight.
[0:55:59 – 0:55:59] Erik: Very cozy.
[0:56:00 – 0:56:04] Erik: Plastic painter’s drop cloth makes a great tent base or extra rain fly.
[0:56:04 – 0:56:04] Adam: Huh.
[0:56:05 – 0:56:05] Adam: All right.
[0:56:05 – 0:56:05] Erik: There you go.
[0:56:06 – 0:56:07] Erik: Thank you, David Putty.
[0:56:08 – 0:56:08] Erik: Whoa.
[0:56:09 – 0:56:09] Adam: Oh, boy.
[0:56:09 – 0:56:10] Erik: You got a big one here.
[0:56:12 – 0:56:18] Adam: Grumman C, which I believe is short for Grumman Cranew.
[0:56:19 – 0:56:20] Adam: Eight points.
[0:56:21 – 0:56:22] Adam: Hold on.
[0:56:22 – 0:56:24] Adam: I got to wet the whistle before this one.
[0:56:25 – 0:56:28] Adam: Well, I can tell before I even read this, this is well thought out.
[0:56:29 – 0:56:31] Erik: It sounds like there’s maybe a storm story involved here.
[0:56:32 – 0:56:32] Erik: It’s quite long.
[0:56:33 – 0:56:34] Adam: Grumman C, eight points.
[0:56:35 – 0:56:38] Adam: The worst I’ve ever been in was the big one in 2016.
[0:56:39 – 0:56:44] Adam: I was on Hanson Lake when it came roaring in at about 1 a.m., totally taking us off guard.
[0:56:44 – 0:56:46] Adam: I woke up to near daylight.
[0:56:46 – 0:56:53] Adam: The lightning was constant, like strobe lights, but there was no thunder yet, so we knew we had a few minutes to get organized before it really hit.
[0:56:54 – 0:56:57] Adam: Then as soon as the wind picked up, everything just seemed to explode.
[0:56:57 – 0:57:00] Adam: The thunder was so loud, I couldn’t hear the person right next to me.
[0:57:01 – 0:57:09] Adam: and the wind was tossing all of our stuff around, including our alumina crafts, which flew 20 feet through the air and landed on our fire grate.
[0:57:10 – 0:57:15] Adam: The wind was snapping trees like toothpicks behind our campsite, which was the most bone-chilling sound.
[0:57:16 – 0:57:20] Adam: Anyone can deal with a bunch of lightning, thunder, and rain, but no one should mess with the wind.
[0:57:21 – 0:57:26] Adam: The wind has the power to drop 5-ton trees on your head, which is what it tried to do in this storm.
[0:57:27 – 0:57:36] Adam: We made it through the night and didn’t realize its impression on the lakes until we paddled down through Hanson, through South Arm of Ninth, and down to Birch Lake, and then the Moose Chain.
[0:57:38 – 0:57:40] Adam: There was almost no usable campsites along that stretch.
[0:57:40 – 0:57:43] Adam: Everything was just toppled trees and storm scars.
[0:57:43 – 0:57:50] Adam: It also didn’t help our crew while paddling back that an old couple told us the news that there were fatalities because of the storm.
[0:57:50 – 0:57:53] Adam: And even though we didn’t know them, there’s still a sense of hurt.
[0:57:54 – 0:57:59] Adam: Anyone who has been to the BWCA shares a special bond with others who have also been.
[0:57:59 – 0:58:03] Adam: And when you’re out in the woods, those other people and crews you see are like neighbors.
[0:58:04 – 0:58:05] Adam: It’s just you and them in the woods.
[0:58:07 – 0:58:13] Adam: So the lesson that I have taken from this experience is the woods doesn’t care.
[0:58:13 – 0:58:17] Adam: You have to protect yourself and not rely on divine power to keep you safe.
[0:58:17 – 0:58:22] Adam: And if you think for one second that nature will protect you from harm, that’s when it will drop a tree on you.
[0:58:23 – 0:58:26] Adam: And the second lesson being be kind to everyone you see on the trail.
[0:58:26 – 0:58:27] Adam: Help them if they ask.
[0:58:28 – 0:58:29] Adam: Respect them if they don’t ask.
[0:58:29 – 0:58:33] Adam: Give a hello or a hole or eye when you see your neighbors.
[0:58:35 – 0:58:37] Erik: Wow.
[0:58:37 – 0:58:41] Erik: Guy got a little chill when he was describing the storm in the beginning.
[0:58:41 – 0:58:42] Erik: Or she.
[0:58:42 – 0:58:44] Erik: Grumman C. Thank you.
[0:58:45 – 0:58:50] Erik: Man, it sounds like that was probably the same storm that we were talking about with the folks on Duncan.
[0:58:50 – 0:58:51] Adam: I think so.
[0:58:51 – 0:58:52] Adam: 2016, it had to have been.
[0:58:53 – 0:59:07] Erik: Yeah, the snapping trees sound is, yeah, I’ve heard, I’ve just heard a snapping tree here or there in the occasional, you know, heavy winds at Clearwater, never well out in the woods.
[0:59:07 – 0:59:14] Erik: I can’t imagine just hearing them at a Bongewater site coming down in large numbers, especially in the middle of the night like that.
[0:59:14 – 0:59:23] Adam: I’ve always said this too, like, just with the dangers out there in the park, that it’s amazing there aren’t more, like, people hurt.
[0:59:23 – 0:59:25] Adam: It’s such a wild, wild wilderness.
[0:59:25 – 0:59:31] Erik: The blowdown of 99, the fact nobody died in that, is one of the most incredible things.
[0:59:31 – 0:59:34] Adam: And I’m not sure I believe in miracles, but that is a miracle.
[0:59:34 – 0:59:35] Erik: It’s crazy.
[0:59:35 – 0:59:51] Erik: I would love to see, not love, but I think like a visual, like the picture that Grumman C painted in my head there was something that would be incredible to see like really well done in like a movie, like almost a horror movie.
[0:59:51 – 0:59:54] Erik: Like that’s how scary some of those storms can be out there sometimes.
[0:59:54 – 0:59:56] Erik: Super unsettling.
[0:59:59 – 1:00:18] Erik: mandy-esque like horror movie just with like the lightning striking and then like for a split second you get to see like there’s a tree coming and then like blackness yeah the darkness the snapping it’s just crazy uh thank you for coming to see you have you been back
[1:00:19 – 1:00:46] Erik: that’s the thing I always wonder like if I experienced something like that would I ever go back out there yeah for sure scary you could definitely get a little you could get a little rattled by that I’m sure I know you know I’ve told the bear story before I was I was a little soured on the park for a while if I wasn’t in the middle and where I was at the time I was I was kind of ready to be done for a day or two there like I don’t want to get attacked by a bear again that was scary and that was not nearly as
[1:00:46 – 1:00:49] Adam: Yeah, that’s a very small concern.
[1:00:49 – 1:00:53] Erik: Yeah, and then I also like the sentiment at the end just about how everybody out there is kind of neighbors.
[1:00:53 – 1:01:02] Adam: That was really, I think, the finest part of that entire comment was that we are all neighbors out there, and we’ve got to help each other out if we can.
[1:01:03 – 1:01:06] Adam: I think that’s just a common thing.
[1:01:06 – 1:01:14] Adam: When you get out there, everybody just kind of goes to that mindset, regardless if it’s nice and sunny or if it’s a dangerous situation.
[1:01:14 – 1:01:16] Adam: I feel like everybody out there is neighbors.
[1:01:16 – 1:01:17] Adam: I’ve never heard it put that way.
[1:01:18 – 1:01:19] Erik: Very nice.
[1:01:19 – 1:01:23] Erik: I love some of the elocutions that come out of these questions that you don’t expect.
[1:01:23 – 1:01:24] Erik: Absolutely.
[1:01:24 – 1:01:25] Erik: That one is a good one.
[1:01:26 – 1:01:28] Erik: What do we got next?
[1:01:30 – 1:01:31] Erik: Monk Rome.
[1:01:32 – 1:01:32] Erik: Five points.
[1:01:33 – 1:01:34] Erik: Man, one month ago.
[1:01:34 – 1:01:36] Erik: We really been out in the field a lot.
[1:01:37 – 1:01:39] Erik: It really depends on the situation.
[1:01:40 – 1:01:44] Erik: Things can turn from partly cloudy to stormy pretty fast.
[1:01:44 – 1:01:51] Erik: The last time that happened, we were one mile from the portage and lightning was still many miles away, even though the rain had started.
[1:01:52 – 1:01:54] Erik: We paddled through the rain and portage during the lightning.
[1:01:55 – 1:02:04] Erik: By the time the portage and a quick snack was done with, we had clear sky with clouds moving away in the distance.
[1:02:05 – 1:02:11] Erik: If we are already at camp and see a storm moving in, I overturn the canoe and line a tarp above it for a cooking area.
[1:02:12 – 1:02:15] Erik: If it is windy, I have used the tarp sideways to block the wind.
[1:02:16 – 1:02:20] Erik: I have to admit I’ve never given much thought to lightning once off the water.
[1:02:20 – 1:02:22] Erik: The odds on getting struck are so low, why even worry?
[1:02:23 – 1:02:25] Erik: Statistically, I have a bigger chance of drowning.
[1:02:26 – 1:02:27] Erik: We kind of mentioned that.
[1:02:27 – 1:02:27] Erik: That is true.
[1:02:28 – 1:02:29] Adam: Or a heart attack or something.
[1:02:30 – 1:02:30] Adam: Yeah.
[1:02:30 – 1:02:30] Adam: For sure.
[1:02:31 – 1:02:41] Erik: The one thing that came up in that that does kind of remind me, which I did on this last trip when a nasty wall of clouds kind of rolled up,
[1:02:42 – 1:02:47] Erik: is the canoe was already flipped over and up in camp, but I tied it off to a tree.
[1:02:47 – 1:02:49] Adam: Yeah, we were kind of hanging underneath it.
[1:02:49 – 1:03:18] Erik: yeah no yeah that that one too like but the the guided trip i was on oh yeah tie it down make sure that yeah the grumman’s flying through the air grumman hansen grumman’s are flying through the air tie down your canoes kevlar it’s almost just a generally good idea to tie off your canoe to a tree at night whether it’s a beautiful sunset or cloudy or whatever you never know what’s going to happen in the middle of the night worst thing you want to wake up to is a campsite without the canoe so yeah that would be a real nightmare um
[1:03:19 – 1:03:21] Erik: We’re going to take a little break here.
[1:03:21 – 1:03:22] Erik: Adam’s…
[1:03:22 – 1:03:23] Adam: I’ve got to collect myself.
[1:03:24 – 1:03:25] Erik: We’ve got a storm rolling in.
[1:03:25 – 1:03:28] Adam: We’re going to make sure there’s no trees hanging overhead.
[1:03:31 – 1:03:38] Erik: There is a response to Monk Rome, which I thought was kind of fun to think about, from David Putty also.
[1:03:40 – 1:03:42] Erik: He or she, but I’m assuming it’s he.
[1:03:42 – 1:03:47] Erik: David Putty, how far can an electrical charge realistically travel through the water?
[1:03:48 – 1:03:52] Erik: I’d like to know if I’m safe swimming, wading, or fishing near shore.
[1:03:53 – 1:03:57] Erik: Theoretically, shouldn’t all fish in the lake be killed when lightning strikes water?
[1:03:58 – 1:04:01] Erik: Maybe the fear-mongering weatherman has been lying to us all these years.
[1:04:02 – 1:04:04] Erik: I’m calling shenanigans.
[1:04:04 – 1:04:06] Erik: Shenanigans.
[1:04:06 – 1:04:10] Erik: Isn’t the fact that the fish are floating make them impervious to the lightning strikes?
[1:04:10 – 1:04:11] Adam: Yeah, they’re not grounded to anything.
[1:04:12 – 1:04:14] Erik: Yeah, so if you’re swimming…
[1:04:14 – 1:04:16] Adam: It’s like a crow sitting on a power line.
[1:04:16 – 1:04:19] Erik: Yeah, so if you’re swimming, you’re probably fine.
[1:04:20 – 1:04:23] Erik: But if you’re standing on shore, waiting… Yeah, or touching the bottom.
[1:04:24 – 1:04:26] Erik: Or touching bottom, I think then you’d run into trouble.
[1:04:26 – 1:04:28] Adam: I still wouldn’t want to be out swimming, though.
[1:04:29 – 1:04:31] Erik: Yeah.
[1:04:31 – 1:04:33] Erik: There’s a bunch of responses that continue on from there.
[1:04:34 – 1:04:36] Erik: It seemed like a little bit of a discussion that kind of…
[1:04:37 – 1:04:38] Erik: Went off on the…
[1:04:38 – 1:04:40] Erik: It’s an interesting question, though.
[1:04:41 – 1:04:42] Erik: You know, how far…
[1:04:42 – 1:04:50] Erik: If you’re in the lake swimming, if you’re a mile away from a lightning strike, I can’t imagine that would be… Yeah, and I just…
[1:04:50 – 1:04:54] Adam: I can’t see a lot of people getting out of their tents and then going in the lake.
[1:04:54 – 1:04:55] Adam: That’s not, like, an option.
[1:04:55 – 1:04:56] Adam: Right.
[1:04:56 – 1:04:57] Adam: If you end up in the water, maybe.
[1:04:57 – 1:04:59] Erik: Just generally, if you’re swimming and then, like… Don’t think about it.
[1:05:00 – 1:05:07] Erik: It’s probably a good idea to just get out of the water, but if for whatever reason you seem to be out in the water and lightning striking.
[1:05:07 – 1:05:12] Adam: If you’ve been capsized in a storm and are floating down the lake, I don’t know, probably you’re fine.
[1:05:12 – 1:05:12] Erik: Yeah.
[1:05:13 – 1:05:15] Erik: Are you?
[1:05:15 – 1:05:15] Erik: I don’t know.
[1:05:16 – 1:05:16] Erik: Any lightning?
[1:05:16 – 1:05:17] Erik: Paul Hutner?
[1:05:17 – 1:05:18] Erik: Are you out there?
[1:05:18 – 1:05:20] Erik: I thought he was supposed to be here by now.
[1:05:20 – 1:05:21] Erik: Yeah, he’s on his way.
[1:05:21 – 1:05:22] Erik: He’s on his way.
[1:05:22 – 1:05:23] Erik: Bill Anderson.
[1:05:23 – 1:05:25] Erik: We’re just going to have to deal with him instead.
[1:05:26 – 1:05:28] Adam: Aldi won four points.
[1:05:29 – 1:05:37] Adam: Our group has taken pride in our tarp setup in recent years, and it makes it a priority to work on that almost immediately when we get to camp.
[1:05:37 – 1:05:42] Adam: Some of the best times during our trip have been when we’re forced to hunker down in Tarp City.
[1:05:42 – 1:05:43] Erik: Yes.
[1:05:43 – 1:05:46] Adam: Throw on the party lights and you’ve got yourself a good time.
[1:05:46 – 1:05:53] Adam: I’ve also gotten into the habit of making every campsite worth staying at along the route in the event we need to call it a day due to the weather.
[1:05:54 – 1:05:57] Adam: I’m a bit picky with campsites, so reviewing beforehand helps.
[1:05:58 – 1:06:00] Erik: Yes, I would agree.
[1:06:00 – 1:06:17] Erik: I think the campsites and the experiences that we’ve had out there that are the most memorable are some of those ones where you’re hunkered down in Tent City, Gypsy Camp, just nice.
[1:06:17 – 1:06:18] Erik: You’re dry.
[1:06:18 – 1:06:19] Erik: You’re under the tarp.
[1:06:19 – 1:06:21] Erik: Yeah, the weather sucks, but
[1:06:21 – 1:06:22] Adam: Listen to the weather radio.
[1:06:22 – 1:06:23] Erik: Yeah.
[1:06:23 – 1:06:23] Erik: You’re dry.
[1:06:23 – 1:06:25] Erik: You’re still sitting next to a campfire.
[1:06:25 – 1:06:26] Erik: It’s just, there’s something about it.
[1:06:26 – 1:06:28] Erik: It almost feels like home.
[1:06:28 – 1:06:28] Erik: You’re cozy.
[1:06:29 – 1:06:30] Erik: Um, so yeah.
[1:06:30 – 1:06:34] Adam: That’s why a big, like 10 by 10 rain fly is always part of my gear bag.
[1:06:35 – 1:06:35] Erik: No matter what.
[1:06:35 – 1:06:36] Erik: For sure.
[1:06:36 – 1:06:36] Adam: Yeah.
[1:06:37 – 1:06:37] Adam: And I agree.
[1:06:37 – 1:06:38] Adam: I get that up first.
[1:06:40 – 1:06:42] Adam: And deal with setting everything else up later, honestly.
[1:06:44 – 1:06:46] Erik: Do now 634.
[1:06:46 – 1:06:49] Erik: In the event of something major like large hail.
[1:06:49 – 1:06:51] Erik: Ooh, haven’t even talked about that.
[1:06:52 – 1:06:59] Erik: That’s one thing that’s really nice, that there is not issues with large hail in the Bonjou waters very often.
[1:07:01 – 1:07:02] Erik: Oh, that’s creepy.
[1:07:02 – 1:07:02] Erik: Exactly.
[1:07:09 – 1:07:23] Erik: So yeah, in the event of large hail, which fortunately is not something that we experience very often in the Boundary Waters, to my experience for 15 years of being up here, I think I can remember maybe one or two.
[1:07:23 – 1:07:24] Erik: Mm-hmm.
[1:07:24 – 1:07:30] Erik: medium-sized hail events, not those big golf ball, softball-sized skull crushers.
[1:07:31 – 1:07:33] Erik: But he, or she, continues on.
[1:07:34 – 1:07:40] Erik: I would get the wife, hound, and myself under the canoe, but I have luckily never had to deal with anything like that up to this point.
[1:07:41 – 1:07:47] Erik: I try to keep my eyes up when setting up camp, looking for any widow-makers or sketchy trees in general.”
[1:07:48 – 1:07:59] Erik: The National Lightning Safety Institute’s stick people drawings make me not have much faith in the cone of safety theory.
[1:07:59 – 1:08:00] Erik: Though they are pretty sweet.
[1:08:01 – 1:08:05] Erik: I don’t know what’s the National Lightning Safety Institute’s stick people drawings.
[1:08:05 – 1:08:11] Erik: Is that just those things where they’re like the signs where there’s literally like a bolt of lightning striking a stick person?
[1:08:11 – 1:08:12] Adam: Danger.
[1:08:12 – 1:08:13] Erik: Yeah.
[1:08:16 – 1:08:18] Adam: Total bogey, three points.
[1:08:22 – 1:08:25] Adam: My worst storm was a classic midsummer thunderstorm.
[1:08:25 – 1:08:31] Adam: Huge crashes of thunder, lightning that lit up the sky, and trees constantly creaking from the wind.
[1:08:31 – 1:08:34] Adam: We all sat up anxiously in the tent waiting for it to blow over.
[1:08:35 – 1:08:42] Adam: It was pretty unnerving because earlier that summer, a man died in the BWCA from a tree falling.
[1:08:43 – 1:08:44] Adam: This was 2016 again.
[1:08:44 – 1:08:44] Adam: Same storm.
[1:08:47 – 1:08:52] Erik: I passed the time and tried to ease the tension by playing D&D and sipping from the whiskey now, Gene.
[1:08:52 – 1:08:59] Adam: I’m not familiar with the cone of safety, but after a bit of Googling, it seems to be the theory of lightning protection.
[1:09:00 – 1:09:06] Adam: It’s been quite a while since I took a physics course, but my impression was that you needed a Faraday cage to protect you from lightning.
[1:09:06 – 1:09:07] Adam: random electric currents.
[1:09:07 – 1:09:12] Adam: The airspace adjacent to a tree doesn’t really seem suitable for that, but I’m definitely not an expert.
[1:09:14 – 1:09:16] Adam: I don’t think we’re going to get into Faraday cages today.
[1:09:17 – 1:09:19] Erik: Part two, Faraday cages.
[1:09:19 – 1:09:20] Erik: Holy moly.
[1:09:20 – 1:09:26] Erik: I kind of agree with Total Bogey there on the cone of safety.
[1:09:26 – 1:09:27] Adam: I’m not sure it’s a safe thing.
[1:09:27 – 1:09:32] Adam: I mean, it’s probably better than paddling right down the middle of the lake, but only about 1%.
[1:09:33 – 1:09:36] Erik: Yeah, like you’ve seen pictures of lightning where it’s like, it’s jagged.
[1:09:37 – 1:09:40] Adam: It can bend right around a tree and do whatever it wants.
[1:09:40 – 1:09:40] Adam: Yeah.
[1:09:40 – 1:09:47] Erik: Yeah, no, it’s, yeah, like I said, unless it’s literally a sheer cliff, I say get on shore.
[1:09:50 – 1:09:51] Erik: Chef cycle.
[1:09:51 – 1:09:57] Erik: I think get off the water, set up a strong and tidy camp, and wait for it to pass is about all you can do.
[1:09:58 – 1:09:58] Erik: There you go.
[1:09:59 – 1:09:59] Erik: Agreed.
[1:10:01 – 1:10:03] Erik: Worst experience was actually paddling in Florida.
[1:10:04 – 1:10:08] Erik: Storm came through in early afternoon as it did almost every day.
[1:10:08 – 1:10:12] Erik: So we stopped paddling, got near shore and sat in the canoe to wait it out.
[1:10:13 – 1:10:20] Erik: We were in an area with such a thick mangrove forest there was nowhere to set up camp or even really be on land.
[1:10:21 – 1:10:21] Erik: Yeah, no big deal.
[1:10:22 – 1:10:25] Erik: Except this was the one serum that didn’t blow over.
[1:10:25 – 1:10:29] Erik: Six hours in a canoe not moving was one of the worst experiences of my life.
[1:10:29 – 1:10:31] Erik: Yeah, that sounds bad.
[1:10:31 – 1:10:39] Erik: Just pull up into some mangroves and then just sit and wait for a six-hour borderline hurricane to blow over.
[1:10:41 – 1:10:43] Adam: Sounds like a Jimmy Buffett album gone wrong.
[1:10:44 – 1:10:44] UNKNOWN: Yeah.
[1:10:46 – 1:10:47] Adam: Chef Cycle.
[1:10:48 – 1:10:49] SPEAKER_00: We read Chef Cycle.
[1:10:49 – 1:10:49] SPEAKER_00: Printing…
[1:10:50 – 1:10:51] Erik: Printing, printing.
[1:10:51 – 1:10:52] Adam: Printing, printing.
[1:10:53 – 1:10:53] Adam: Two points.
[1:10:54 – 1:10:57] Adam: Try to stay away from dead trees and find a low point in the land.
[1:10:57 – 1:11:01] Adam: Also sit on top of a sleeping pad outside of the tent if there is a ton of lightning.
[1:11:02 – 1:11:02] Erik: Yes.
[1:11:03 – 1:11:04] Adam: Seems sensible.
[1:11:04 – 1:11:05] Erik: Straight into the point.
[1:11:07 – 1:11:09] Erik: Oh, it’s our good friend Rojo Ryder.
[1:11:09 – 1:11:11] Erik: We haven’t heard from Rojo in a while.
[1:11:11 – 1:11:13] Adam: The Rojo family is chiming in.
[1:11:14 – 1:11:17] Erik: Just because you’re last, I’m going to give you an upvote.
[1:11:17 – 1:11:18] Adam: How does that feel, Rojo?
[1:11:18 – 1:11:19] Erik: Three points.
[1:11:19 – 1:11:20] Erik: Three points.
[1:11:21 – 1:11:24] Erik: Last comment on the Storm discussion.
[1:11:26 – 1:11:31] Erik: We make sure our tarps set up and our tents are secure and we’ll keep the gear dry.
[1:11:31 – 1:11:37] Erik: We also secure the boats after hearing stories of even aluminum canoes being tossed like rag dolls in some storms.
[1:11:37 – 1:11:38] Erik: That’s scary.
[1:11:38 – 1:11:41] Erik: Then we hunker down where we’ll stay dry.
[1:11:41 – 1:11:48] Erik: If the wind is looking bad, I will look around for low spots near shore or a boulder big enough to help protect from trees being blown down.
[1:11:49 – 1:11:49] Erik: Pretty classic.
[1:11:50 – 1:11:50] Erik: Yes.
[1:11:50 – 1:11:57] Erik: Personally, I have only experienced some minor weather events in the woods, including some penny-sized hail this past week in Quetico.
[1:11:58 – 1:11:59] Erik: This past week in Quetico?
[1:11:59 – 1:12:00] Erik: Tell me more.
[1:12:01 – 1:12:05] Erik: One time in the BWCA, we woke up after a minor storm, unable to find the latrine.
[1:12:05 – 1:12:14] Erik: The storm the night before had blown down three black spruce trees and covered the toilet, requiring some saw work before the morning call could be heated.
[1:12:14 – 1:12:16] Adam: I thought the storm had blown the latrine away.
[1:12:16 – 1:12:20] Erik: I was going to say, that would be a hell of a storm if the latrine blew away.
[1:12:21 – 1:12:24] Erik: I could have squatted, but where’s the fun in that?
[1:12:26 – 1:12:30] Erik: Roll Rider!
[1:12:30 – 1:12:31] Erik: Man.
[1:12:32 – 1:12:33] Adam: Thanks for chiming in.
[1:12:33 – 1:12:38] Erik: I think Grumman C gets my official big thumbs up.
[1:12:38 – 1:12:52] Erik: The biggest of upvotes for the story of the Illumicrafts flying through the air, the bone-chilling snapping trees like toothpicks, and then just the overall sentiment of us all being neighbors out there in the woods.
[1:12:53 – 1:12:53] Adam: Agreed.
[1:12:53 – 1:12:54] Erik: Comment of the week.
[1:12:55 – 1:12:57] Erik: Comment of the week goes to Grumman C.
[1:12:57 – 1:13:00] SPEAKER_00: Comment of the week.
[1:13:01 – 1:13:01] Erik: Nicely done.
[1:13:01 – 1:13:03] Erik: Thank you to all who commented.
[1:13:03 – 1:13:05] Adam: Appreciate you chiming in.
[1:13:05 – 1:13:09] Adam: And sorry it took us so long to get to those, but you’ll understand.
[1:13:10 – 1:13:12] Erik: We also were 100% upvoted.
[1:13:13 – 1:13:14] Erik: We didn’t have any downvotes.
[1:13:14 – 1:13:16] Erik: So that’s good, just generally.
[1:13:16 – 1:13:16] Erik: Nice.
[1:13:16 – 1:13:18] Erik: There’s no haters out there.
[1:13:18 – 1:13:18] Erik: Not yet.
[1:13:19 – 1:13:19] Erik: Not yet.
[1:13:20 – 1:13:21] Erik: Haters, hit us up.
[1:13:22 – 1:13:24] Erik: TumbleHomeCast at gmail.com.
[1:13:24 – 1:13:25] Erik: What don’t you like about us?
[1:13:26 – 1:13:28] Adam: Yeah.
[1:13:29 – 1:13:31] Adam: Send me some direct messages about that.
[1:13:31 – 1:13:34] Erik: Send us some hate mail.
[1:13:34 – 1:13:36] Adam: Send the hate mail to our Snapchat account.
[1:13:37 – 1:13:44] Erik: Yeah, send the hate mail to Snapchat, and then send all of the good vibes and good reviews to iTunes or whatever.
[1:13:46 – 1:13:48] Adam: All right, well, that about does it for Storm Talk.
[1:13:48 – 1:13:55] Adam: This has been Episode 065, and before we get moving here, I think we’re going to go hang out down on the beach.
[1:13:55 – 1:13:58] Adam: It’s pretty hot, and we’ve got to get to the beach.
[1:13:59 – 1:13:59] Erik: Got to.
[1:14:00 – 1:14:02] Adam: We’re going to give a short preview here for Episode 065.
[1:14:05 – 1:14:07] Adam: The Great Carrying Place.
[1:14:07 – 1:14:07] Erik: 066.
[1:14:08 – 1:14:10] Adam: Jesus, I can’t get it right.
[1:14:10 – 1:14:12] Adam: Why has this got to be so confusing, Eric?
[1:14:13 – 1:14:14] Adam: What episode is it?
[1:14:14 – 1:14:15] Adam: 066 next week.
[1:14:15 – 1:14:17] Adam: It’s The Great Carrying Place.
[1:14:17 – 1:14:18] Adam: The Grand Portage.
[1:14:18 – 1:14:21] Adam: Gitche Onigaming?
[1:14:22 – 1:14:23] Adam: Gitche Onigaming.
[1:14:24 – 1:14:25] Adam: The Great Carrying Place.
[1:14:26 – 1:14:26] Adam: Next week.
[1:14:28 – 1:14:29] Adam: Here’s a little preview.
[1:14:29 – 1:14:31] Adam: It is not 8.5 miles.
[1:14:32 – 1:14:33] Adam: It is 10.3 miles.
[1:14:33 – 1:14:36] Adam: That was measured by the GPS, and we have so much more to tell you about it.
[1:14:37 – 1:14:55] Adam: Between that and the Fowl Portage and the Royal River Portage and the John Portage and then eventually the portage around Partridge Falls, we, by our calculations, did 4,007 rods on this trip coming up next week.
[1:14:55 – 1:14:56] Adam: So we’re back in the field.
[1:14:58 – 1:15:01] Adam: And we got a lot to tell you about the end of that border route.
[1:15:02 – 1:15:11] Adam: And yeah, I think both of us now have paddled everything from Lac La Croix, the Lac, all the way to the Great Carrying Place.
[1:15:11 – 1:15:17] Erik: Yeah, Cuetico River on Lac La Croix, all the way down to the Great Carrying Place.
[1:15:17 – 1:15:18] Erik: That’s pretty cool.
[1:15:18 – 1:15:19] Adam: We’ve done it all now.
[1:15:19 – 1:15:21] Adam: It’s a big accomplishment.
[1:15:21 – 1:15:22] Adam: We’ve put it up on the board.
[1:15:22 – 1:15:27] Adam: I have a little orange-ish pink line that’s going off the edge of the map there.
[1:15:29 – 1:15:29] Erik: It feels good.
[1:15:31 – 1:15:32] Adam: Yeah, that’s wild.
[1:15:32 – 1:15:34] Adam: So that’s coming up next week.
[1:15:35 – 1:15:38] SPEAKER_00: And, um, I think that’s all he wanted to talk about that with.
[1:15:39 – 1:15:40] Erik: So I think that’s it.
[1:15:40 – 1:15:40] Adam: All right.
[1:15:40 – 1:15:52] Adam: Well, uh, thank you for input and it was, uh, good to be back in studio, Eric, and interacting with, uh, some of our listeners and friends stay safe out there.
[1:15:52 – 1:15:58] Adam: And if it is the cone of safety or just your safe place, um,
[1:15:58 – 1:16:06] Adam: Make sure you just keep that weather radio on and watch the skies to the north and west, as Bill Paxton would do.
[1:16:06 – 1:16:10] Adam: Maybe pick up a little dirt in your hand and give it a sniff.
[1:16:10 – 1:16:14] Erik: It’s been said, storm chasers have a sixth sense.
[1:16:15 – 1:16:21] Erik: And as Bill sifts a handful of dirt, he lets nature embody his mind.
[1:16:27 – 1:16:29] Adam: Gotta insert some wind chimes.
[1:17:16 – 1:17:16] UNKNOWN: you