Honking big hail !

Not yesterday, but the day before, Wednesday, while I was sitting in my office---in Durango CO.--- around three-ish
the sky started getting dark--- and I mean real dark...!

Now I had ridden my bike/motorcycle to work that day and anyone who rides will tell ya, big fat raindrops hurt.

So I grab my jacket and head out of town fast as I can...
just us as I'm heading down the hill... I hear in my headphones that behind me Durango is being hit with softball sized hail.
naturally I roll my throttle open and zoom as fast as I could for the nearest shelter.

I mean come on, getting hit with a rain drop just stings... Getting hit with a softball hunk of ice falling at 24 feet per-second and my zipping along a 65+ MPH... would have been fatal...

Big honking fat hunks of hail, is not all that uncommon up in the high country.
The cloud base is lower... Ice/hail has less distance to fall thus doesn't have the time to melt down to pea sized.

Now I've been caught out in open country during storms before... Not like this one...
But when you get those big honking chunks of ice falling all around you--- You need to find shelter 'RIGHT NOW' ----

Terrain will determine what kind of shelter is available...

The obvious choice for me on a bike was to seek out an overpass or a bridge I could slip under...

Failing that, I was also looking for big ole pine trees... The kind that look like a Christmas tree ... There I could burrow under the branches on the lea side and hope for the best--- Yeah I know under a tree during a thunderstorm is not smart--- but it's better than getting pummeled by bigger than your fist sized Ice.

Next on my list of places to look for would have been big rocks, boulders.
Again I could hunker down in the lea of the rocks using my leather jacket to protect my head and face from the ice-shrapnel that is sure to be all around after hitting those rocks.

If nothing else were around... I would have stopped and laid my bike over my body trying to keep my arms and legs tucked under.
If I'd been on a hike with no other protection I would use my pack to protect my upper body, with the idea of having my legs crushed is far better than having my brains splattered on the ground.

Now I wrote this for ya all so you'd have some ideas ahead of time, in case you get caught out in a storm like this one. after all preplanning is key to survival right?


As for me--- I pulled a roadrunner 'MEEP MEEP ZOOM' and fly down the road until I got to the gas station in Hesperus--- the next little town west of--- and there I stayed until the storm blew over...

Hey man--- I may be crazy--- but I'm not stupid!