On A Clear Day.......

 

On a clear day, in Wyoming, during summer it's heaven on earth.  Fortunately we have had many of these days but there have been some not so heavenly days too.  This whole region of Wyoming and the Black Hills of South Dakota are well known for hail storms, sometimes really violent hail storms.  One of our neighbors in employee housing was here last year and his 5th wheel took a beating.  The insurance company ended up shelling out over $26,000 to repair the damage and he was without a place to live for months while repairs were being done.

One can tell just how much hail influences the local economy.  Whether in Gillette or Rapid City, when you drive down the light industry sections of the towns there is practically a hail dent repair facility every three doors.  We've spent the entire summer watching every dark cloud that came near, hoping and praying it would not be the "one".  There were a couple of pea-sized hail storms in mid-summer and we were beginning to think we may have slipped by without a damaging storm falling upon us.  But just one short month before being gone from Devils Tower a cloud rolled in that was less than delicate on trees, shrubs and sheet metal

On August first, just as the sun went down a dense, dark cloud rolled in and let go with thunderous rain and ear-splitting hail.  While Cyndee had her head buried and fingers in her ears I popped our door open and grabbed a quick snapshot of the hail coming down.  Hailstone size was ranging from marble to jawbreaker.  The thin sheet metal on the hood of my truck was no match for these hunks of ice.  It took a beating.  Cyndee's car was under an oak tree that did a great job protecting it.  She ended up with just a couple of small dings here and there.

But the weather wasn't done with us yet.  During Sturgis Bike Week, in addition to the thousands of bikers, we also had our routine crowd of vacationers and tourists.  Like it had been all summer, a great deal of these visitors were not at the peak of health.  Our most popular trail, the Tower Trail, walks one completely around the base of the tower.  Leaving from the Visitor Center and back again is roughly two miles with a hundred feet of elevation change.  But the trail undulates the whole way, you do that 100 feet more than once.

One of the numerous slopes on the Tower Trail.

One hot afternoon in the last days of Bike Week Cyndee was contacted by a visitor that said there was an elderly couple on the Tower Trail and that they were not doing well.  The woman had stopped to sit and rest on a boulder and not able to get going again and the husband seemed confused.  Cyndee contacted me by radio and I hot-footed it over to the Ranger Office, loaded up on water bottles and set out for their last known location.  I would get to them, get them hydrated and assess whether they would be ambulatory or if search and rescue (SAR) would need to wheel them out.

Two things happened on the way to their location.  First, I ran across the SAR Team Lead and he agreed to join me on the contact and assessment.  Second, the scorching sun was now behind cloud cover that had rapidly moved in.  It was nice getting the cloud cover to give some relief from the 90+deg heat on the south side of the tower but by the time we got to the visitors in distress the cloud cover was winding up to be a doozy of a storm.

While trying to get them hydrated and on their feet the storm moving in made it clear it was not waiting for us to get out of the way.  Radio calls were made for SAR help to bring one wheelchair and the SAR Lead went on around the trail to help get some of his people down from a training climb they were on.  Lightning was starting to pop and the south face was nowhere to be with a storm rolling up the valley from the south.  I was left with moving the visitors along to intercept the incoming wheel chair.  We had gone only a few dozen yards when the woman gave out again.  But I could see one Law Enforcement/SAR about hundred yards away.  He got to us just as the storm unleashed its fury on us.  First a hard rain quickly followed by 50+mph wind, driving the raindrops into our skin like needles.  More help was radioed for but the Law Enforcement/SAR supervisor deemed the situation too dangerous to send more people.

The Law Enforcement/SAR started wheeling the lady up and down the steep trail and I was helping the man walk short little shuffling steps.  Then there was a pounding gust and the sound of trees snapping could be heard over the howling wind.  Suddenly a four inch diameter branch crashed on the trail, striking the older gentleman in the foot.  That's when we made our way to a gap in the trees on the trail and took refuge alongside a boulder where falling trees couldn't reach us.

About that time the SAR crew that was on a training climb had extracted themselves from the heights of the tower and caught up with us just as hail started pelting us.  They pulled helmets from their climbing bags and put them on the visitors.  The rest of us had to make do with our hats.

Now it was a matter of waiting the storm out.  Totally exposed but out of the reach of falling trees.  The temperature dropped approximately 40 degrees but the rain was surprisingly warm.  As we sat there I noticed that my waterproof, above the ankle hiking boots had completely filled with water.  They were heavy when we finally started moving again.

As quickly as the storm came up, it broke.  Still, no extra help was coming, we were moving the visitors in the direction of the parking lot on our own.  This time the Law Enforcement/SAR had the help of the other SARs with the woman in the wheelchair.  I had the gentleman by the arm and was walking him through the ponds that had formed on the trail.

Reaching the bottom of the trail, which is also the parking lot, there was a contingent of Law Enforcement and Park Rangers to receive the visitors and do a medical assessment.  The rest of us headed each in our own direction to find dry clothes and towel off.