Pray for Rain

Suggested song to listen to while reading the following post. It's the song that was in my head the day that the following event took place.

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The mountains tend to be cool, but when summer finally reaches the peaks, the mountains can be just as warm as most any place. However, when it's a hot enough day in the mountains, there's no telling if it will stay that way. If the cold fronts in the peaks are confronted with the rising warm currents, thunderstorms will result.

It was one of these uncomfortably hot days in the mountains of Wyoming. So hot that all I could think about was water even though I was on the way to climb. I hiked over boulders with my pack of gear, trying to stay near the trees for their welcomed shade as best as I could.

And then my prayer for rain was answered.

Cooling my skin, the light drops came to my rescue and brought the temperature down to something more reasonable. I continued to snake along amongst the outcrops of boulders towards the direction of the route that I hoped to climb.

The clouds continued to release their build up, with the light shower soon turning into larger drops. In little time, the rain became heavy and fast, leaving little choice but to seek shelter. Like an animal crawling in for refuge from the night, I huddled under a protruding boulder and covered myself with a poncho.

And I watched it rain. Beautiful, large drops of rain.

A mule deer wandered by, feeding on leaves. Apparently the rain didn't make much of a difference to her agenda. But once she spotted me, my presence caused her to break from her lunch and spring away.

I continued to watch the rain form under my rock. The storm built with magnificent lightening in the distance followed by tremendous claps.

I pushed my pack back further under the rock to protect it from intruding trails of water. As the water flow down the roof of my rock increased, channels were needed to redirect their paths. With a stick, a deep groove was dug in the dirt towards the ground outside of my refuge and a micro-river was created.

Tipping my head back, I took in a mouthful of water from another trail of rain making its way down the roof of my rock. It tasted incredibly sweet with its freshness. I gulped the up.

And, as quickly as the storm had come, it soon had moved on to cool another area. I emerged and laid on a giant rock that was already mostly dry. I let the sun soak up the water clinging to my poncho and warm my body back up.

This thunderstorm lasted perhaps an hour, but in that short time it provide the most dramatic solution to the day's unbearable heat.