Running for our lives - Tornado on the Appalachian Trail - on May 26, 2024.
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- čas přidán 25. 05. 2024
- Appalachian Trail 2024 attempted thru hike and a windstorm suddenly burst upon us sending deadfall trees downward. Was tornado style winds My friend PapaSmurf had to leave his tent behind as a tree branch crashed through it.
Fortunately we were camped near a roadway in Bland Virginia, when a passerby gave us a ride to a local mom and pop owned motel called “The Big Walker Motel”. There is no power currently at the motel due to the storm.
Tomorrow morning (June 1st, 2024) at 6am, you can watch the day of hiking in its entirety which includes the lead up before this storm and the conditions
June 2nd, 2024 at 6am will be a follow up and aftermath video from Memorial Day and returning to the camping location.
Thank you for all the new subscribers, views, comments and well wishes. Means a lot to me.
🙏
There actually was tornado activity around the AT a few days back. I was wondering what folks out there were doing or if they knew.....glad you all came out ok
That fire need to be out out with all that wind - That was terribly dangerous - it could have caused a wildfire
In Virginia in may ? Pretty wet and humid
@@robotickidx yes we are - but - when that wind started up at the first - putting out the fire would have been wise
This situation happened in minutes. I assure you that it was calm as can be one minute (as in the beginning of the video) and the next minute it was raining tree limbs. NOBODY was anticipating the wind at all.
@@AwakenedAve Glad y’all are ok - but - at first when it started - putting out the fire would have been a good thing to do - I get it came fast our weather in our area can and will come fast - But - still - taking a few seconds to put out fire would be wise - was a bad fire just over the mountain in Tennessee several years bad on top a mountain - that burned down trees houses and it was terrible - caused by people - I guess I think more about fires - my brother is a fireman - and a few seconds of safety will save a year or years of damage - up their their are still trees with blackened bark from the fire - it was one fire that spread that fast with wind and trees that the fire could jump from area to area - a pound of safety can save a year or years of heartache - Blessings
@@beverlyhill6783 in hindsight, of course we should have put the fire out immediately. From when we noticed the wind to when we were running for our lives - maybe 1 minute. It was causally us saying Wow, the wind is whipping in the canopy to branches falling out of the sky on top of us and the wind going from the canopy to the ground howling like a train almost.
Trust me when I say I am not making an excuse at all - when I went back down to retrieve my gear (literally less than 5 minutes from when we ran) the first thing we did was ensure the fire was completely put. Which it was because we got dumped with freezing cold wind and rain and so did the fire. It was still blowing at that time - but the entire incident from initial camera turn on to jumping in the truck was less than ten minutes.
Thankful you all are safe!
Thank you Just happened. My friend has a tree through his tent.
Scary stuff…. So glad everyone was safely hauled out of there.✌️🙂❤️
It was an adventure for sure. So much fun / everyone is safe
The wind kicked up fast!! Glad y'all are safe!!
Literally came out of nowhere. We all set up (hence the hammock video was so calm) and started a fire and were cooking over the fire. It came on quickly. Took us completely by surprise.
Glad you guys all got out safe.
Thank you 🙏
It's a scary situation when there's no place to go. 😑So glad all of you made it through okay. I live in tornado alley (Missouri) and know the "run for it" feeling well. 😧 Nothing but happy trails ahead! 🌿🌸
Gosh, you guys were so lucky to grt out when you did !! We had straight lines that dropped trees behind my office within minutes !!! That notvsomething you'd want to tempt fate on, for sure !!!
The trail is littered with blowdowns 70 plus miles north of this location. They’re everywhere. Thank you. Blessed indeed.
Thankful that you made it out safely.
Thank you
On my way back home to northeast tennessee yesterday from visiting with my LT Commander son who lives in Alexandria,vs I meet up with operation second chance thru hikers Jeremy Baugh and Josh Beers at lockout mtg campground on the skyline parkway, while driving off the mountain at Afton and interstate 64 at 8 p.m. the sky's opened up and high wind gust were pushing my Colorado trail boss all over the highway. Had to hold on tightly to the steering wheel using both hands to keep my truck on the highway. Phone showed wind gust up to 60 mph on the accurate app.
Glad you’re safe. It def came out of nowhere
Wow ! Glad everyone is safe
Crazy weather
Happened quickly.
Thank you. Definitely a crazy experience, a story for life.
Fire in all that wind??
Exactly what I was thinking!
Exactly what I was thinking!
Fire was before the wind. During the calm before the storm. It came out of nowhere.
The video started me hanging my hammock in beautiful conditions. Total calm before the storm. This storm literally came in minutes.
Yal, didn't expect it to so extremely bad : heads anywhere any more chance bad wind and tornados at any time.
That strong wind and rain from the storm , when in a hammock the trees will pull the hammock up and down ( not sideways ) as they sway in opposite directions from each other. Hell of a feeling in the middle of the night.
I was prepared to be rocked to sleep until tree debris started raining down on us. I have aftermath video I’m trying to upload today.
Damn, Glad you guys made it out. I have wondered what happens when people are on the trail and the storms brew up, I know a few have weather apps. But with the cost of the hike, I doubt everyone does. Awesome video. Thanks for sharing it.
The weather is so unpredictable. We knew rain was on the forecast. But it was such a nice day and literally that entire scene was less than ten minutes. Calm and serene then the wind was blowing and nobody was panicked, just casually observing and talking. In an instant it was raining tree branches down upon us and trees were cracking
@@AwakenedAve Damn, Defiantly sounds like a micro bust that rolled in. Glad you all made it out ok.
I have been caught in a few of those storms in the mountains and we would try to find a big tree and get on one side of the tree for some shelter and hunker down and keep our eye's on other tree's around us. We all made it untouched. When caught high on a mountain and a summer thunder storm rolls in with lighting and lots of rain we would go down the mountain side to a low part in the mountain and back up against a big tree to block some of the rain and not have to worry about lighting strikes.
@@allenelswick6961 I hear that, I have been caught in Thunder storms chasing cows out here in Wyoming and Colorado, But the tornado factor isn't a issue in the Mountains here. Just the last few years I have been watching a lot of Hiking videos, And wondered if the hikers had weather warnings. Glad you made it out when you got caught.
@@DJMoore-001 When we chased cows from high up in the mountains and got caught in big thunderstorms with a lot of lighting we would keep our distance away from the cows until the lighting was over. One time high on a ridge i started getting tingeled by lighting it made the hair stand up on my head and neck and i flew back down the mountain into a low lying area. That's how close i come to getting struck by a lighting bolt. Here in eastern Kentucky during the summer months we would have thunderstorms of some kind every few days. We did not have a weather channel at that time and i guess we didn't really care then. Those hikers should have known about this big storm coming through i knew at least two days in advance here in Kentucky it was coming. Our area got some of the storm damage mostly tree's being blown down. I had two tree's blown down around my house. Our Appalachian mountains here have saved us from much worse like a tornado forming. Several years ago in West Liberty and Salyersville and F3 tornado struck and killed three men that lived several miles away from my house.
Damn those trees are swaying hard!!!
Was wild bro. Was a beautiful night and then ten minutes of mayhem. Was adventurous for sure.
Holy moly! Good thing nothing fell on you on the way out!
It was an adventure - but I also told my friends in the truck as we were leaving , Now this is LIVING
@@AwakenedAve I agree! Storms are exhilarating even though they can be scary!
Glad you're safe. That was a loud roar in the trees, wow. Where I live we get microbursts. They're like a tornado but it actually comes straight down from the clouds at like 70 mph or so. It's very violent for about 5 minutes and then it stops. I read that the Bermuda triangle area has common microburst activity and that's why so many ships are lost in that area. Scientists did a bunch of satellite tracking to get the data on that. Makes one think.
Thank you. Was def an experience. I did a video on the entire day (comes out tomorrow morning), you can see just how nice of a day it was.
Oaks roots grow closer to the top of soil 2-3ft.deep easily blown over. TAP ROOT TREES grow straight down, they usually break off before completely blow down
I lived in North Charleston during Hugo and we had seven oak trees huge ones around my house four of them fell. None of them hit the house, but I couldn’t believe how close the roots grew to the top soil. It’s insane. Those big trees and their roots are not very deep at all.
That was pretty sporty! Glad everyone got through ok. 🤓
Appreciate it. Everyone is safe and sound with a story to tell.
Appreciate it. Everyone is safe and sound with a story to tell.
So glad you all got out safely! I could see in the video some widow makers and the small threes swaying, ya'll definitely made the right choice to get off trail for the duration of the storm. Hopefully your friend can get a new sleeping pad and tent.
The trail provides A friend switched to a hammock like I did and gave my friend their Big Agnes. I took a hole in my new Dutchware Tarp as well, but messaged Dutchware and they shipped a new one to me already. Great company.
Was the tree that almost fell on ya the big DEAD ONE you built your campfire under???
Glad you got to safety
Thank you my friend. It was wild.
😮I have bee😢on river in storm coming down and I was never more concerned in my life lighting strike all around my feet I kept praying god if you get me out of here alive I promise I will change and then it lasted for about a hour then it stopped and I was like in the safest place I had one man pontoon boat custom built so it was like sitting in a lawn chair in the woods during a strong storm I only found out that it was a tornado a couple of days later I got a little information about the weather and as I was thinking that sure enough it was a little tornado 🌪 even though it was a little one the winds were still around hundred miles around that was more then enough for me 😮I honestly don’t think it should have made it home that night
I feel this completely. I have learned never to compete with nature - but to cooperate. The paradox of life is the fury is always followed by everlasting peace.
I got caught in that mess outside yesterday evening too, no shelter, no rain fly no nothing just me and my dog hunkering down in the rain and lightning for 2 hours while trees snapped and branches fell all around us Fun Fun
We have a Story for life. As Miss Janet says often, “Yea, but you didn’t die”. Lol. Glad you guys are safe my friend.
The worst trips make the best stories.
@@paulrickman7549 💯
@@AwakenedAve Mt.Washington, 4th of July, 40 degrees, 70 MPH, rain sleet snow, zero visibility. Stage 2 hypothermia at the top. Great hike.
@@paulrickman7549 not gonna lie, adversity brings out the best in all of us and makes for remarkable experiences. Best feeling in the world is perseverance and accomplishment.
I wouldn’t want to be out there without a good tent
Be safe
Glad y’all are safe. The fire should have been put out and yall should have looked for large rocks to get under.
It happened in a minute. A firefighter even commented on here - Life before property, you have to get out from under the falling debris in that situation and it literally dropped buckets of freezing cold rain and hail in moments. We made sure the fire was out once we were relatively safe - as we were collecting our gear to get out of there.
Who hikes the AT with a truck?
I don’t know, who does? If that was our truck we woulda been inside of it instead of behind it? The video clearly says we had to flag someone down for a ride outta there. Maybe it was a section hiker? Maybe a local day hiker? Maybe abandoned? I have no idea. It was still there yesterday when we got a shuttle back to the site to gather a friends tent with a tree limb through it.
I've seen several trees lying on the ground and sometimes across the trail. I bet it was weather like that that caused it
We went back to the spot yesterday to retrieve my friends tent and several downed trees and limbs littered the spot.
Was this in NC?
Virginia. Bland, Virginia. But the trail is littered with blowdowns at least from Bland (mile 593 ish) to past Wind Rock as far up to 675. Ill be doing Dragons Tooth and McAfee knob tomorrow - around 720
Great video. That looked scary. New follower here. Crow✌️
Appreciate it my friend. Trying to upload a video from today - an aftermath and follow up video after last night. WiFi is slow from this hostile we’re staying at.
I'm just glad you made it out ok. Fortunately, your truck was nearby . I've been concerned about the safety of all hikers . All season long, it's been storm after storm since February. Didn't know about the one in May. The presidential bickering made me turn off the news. Now we're heading into the drought season.
Wasn’t our truck. Maybe a section hiker or local. We got a ride from a stranger. We did hide behind the truck but if it was ours we woulda been inside of it leaving. lol. Thank you. It’s been a lot of rain for sure.
@@AwakenedAveDrastic times call for drastic measures .
Intense😳
Seriously and you had fire going
It was beautiful day and calm - until it wasn’t. The fire was started when it was calm.
Did they even put the fire out?
Yes
The huge amount of rain and hail took care of that.
@@IowaKim it did long before I could have put it out. It was 70 plus mph winds and buckets of rain and hail in less than a few min. Oh, and the ground was a muddy soup - nothing was going to ignite in that storm. It was difficult to even start a fire in the first place as everything was damp even prior to the storm.
Did these people hunker down in their campsite?
We did not, a passerby in a pickup truck drove us to a motel that had no power and or water due to the storm; and we were happy to be there
@@AwakenedAve I saw that I just thought it was after the storm. Glad you made it safely.
@@angelaevans1050 thank you so much. Means a lot to me and the people I was with. Appreciate the sentiment.
Tornadoes were in the area. Scary
I’ve never been in a tornado but others hikers had and they swore that’s what it was
@@AwakenedAve The noise has me saying tornado. We don't get many up here in New England but the past few years there's been an uptick in tornado activity.
@@new_england_times553 national weather service confirmed EF-1 Tornado
Wow what the hell are they waiting for?? Get the hell out of there.Put the fire out.
The Trail Goblins have angered the Ents!
Hope they put the fire out.
I don’t think I’d be standing under the trees
That’s why we ran. But we’re all thru hikers - hiking 2200 miles from Georgia to Maine. We were fortunate to be camped for the night by a road. Typically speaking, there are no roads and no place to get out from under the trees. We’ve been hiking for 650 miles thus far in the mountains, I’ve been out here for 2 1/2 months. Nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide. We check the weather multiple times a day. We’re expecting rain but not what we received.
Who hikes with a truck?
Nobody. Not sure whose truck that was. A section hiker maybe. That’s not the truck that drove us out of the mountain. We did a 26.4 slack pack the day before from Broken Bear hostile and yesterday only did a 8 or 9 mile hike to this camp sight just off the road near Virginia Road 612. We knew heavy rain was coming so Instead of hiking up to Helveys Mill Shelter we decided to stay in the camp site right next to the road so we could go into town the next day if our stuff got wet. We weren’t expecting a tornado or winds like that at all. Thankfully we didn’t hike up onto the ridge.
Have no idea whose truck that was. Some of us were hiding behind it as the trees came down. It was another truck - a man and his wife going home who stopped to help us and gave us a ride.
If we had a truck, we would have been inside of it instead of hiding behind it. We’re waiting on a shuttle now to go back this morning and collect the rest of our gear we left behind. Including my friends tent.
To be clear, your mom dumps with a truck. 😂
😲😳scary
Was definitely a new experience for me. Apparently it was a tornado - go check the damage tomorrow or whenever it’s clear
cardinalnews.org/2024/05/26/gusty-storm-line-knocks-out-power-to-almost-60000-possible-tornado-in-salem/
You need to stop with the camera sway. Made me ill.
Thank you - I will try to film better next time I am running from a tornado.
Perhaps looking for shelter? Getting under the truck etc. instead of filming a tornado. Just a thought…
That's normal here ..
Blowdowns are littering the trail the next 80 miles from this spot.
@@AwakenedAve travel safely and try to avoid camping under big trees for few days.... There will be people cleaning trail... Thank God everyone is safe.
I’d be packing or just plain running instead of filming……
Being out here, you kind of expect some wind and rain. It was gorgeous one minute - hence the video of my hammock in the beginning, then the wind just suddenly came in the tree canopy. NOBODY and I mean none of us were expecting what happened or a tornado. Didn’t even think tornado until we got to safety and checked the weather and reports of tornado in the area surfaced. I was literally filming the wind howling and we were all calm as can be. Then when debris started falling we ran for cover. Literally had my phone in my hand - not even intentionally filming. Got scary really quickly. We left gear behind and just returned to get what was left. Trees downed everywhere.
Always be prepared, there are plenty of rock shelters on the Appalachian trail, especially around Tennessee,into Virginia.
The nearest shelter to us was a couple miles up the mountain. We were prepared - knew rain was coming and forecast said 80% rain from 2am-7pm the next day. It’s why we camped near the roadway in case it rained all night and all the next day we could possible crawl out the tent and hammock and go into town. As prepared as anyone could possibly be - but def forgot to read up on my out of nowhere tornado situation. lol.
Maybe watch forecast before going camping.
🤣. It’s not camping. It’s a 2200 mile thru hike of the AT from Georgia to Maine. And we check the weather 10x a day. But hiking 20 miles a day on differing side of a mountain and weather changes fast. As you can see it was a beautiful clear day until it wasn’t. And it never once said tornado coming. Thanks for the comment though. Iv3 been out here for 2 1/2 months and 650 miles. Campers can go home - the trail is my home until I’m done. Most of the time there is nowhere to run. We were fortunate to be near a roadway. Most were not
The number of ignorant know-it-alls in this comment section is astounding.
didnt they check the weather forecast before they went out,if they didnt..STUPID!!!!!!
Went out? Been out here since March 15th. Did check the weather forecast - said rain 2am-7pm, it why we set up camp close to the road. Zero about wind or tornado warnings. When You hike from Georgia to Maine and live on the trail you check the weather everyday, but in the mountains the weather changes quickly and varies from elevation to elevation, one side of ridge can be raining and howling and the other side crystal clear. As you can see in the video is was gorgeous one minute and raining trees the next.
It’s a 2197.4 mile thru hike not a camping trip.
I hope the fire was put out! J/s
The 80 mph wind and buckets of rain took care of that for sure.
Kick that fire out
misleading title for clicks.... do better
Google Tornado in Salem VA. 60000 without power, still without power in a motel in Salem. Funnel cloud coverage and videos and injuries. Not click bait.
www.wdbj7.com/2024/05/27/widespread-damage-after-storm-hits-salem/?outputType=amp
www.wsls.com/news/local/2024/05/27/possible-tornado-in-salem-sunday-crews-will-survey-damage/
www.wdbj7.com/video/2024/05/27/salem-storm-video/
cardinalnews.org/2024/05/26/gusty-storm-line-knocks-out-power-to-almost-60000-possible-tornado-in-salem/
Total lies.
National Weather Service confirms EF-1 Tornado in Salem Virginia on May 26. Google it.
I have a video today I am trying to upload today including a national weather service confirmation of tornado.
Bad language.
Wearing Sandals on that
Trail with a lot of copper heads.. not good
Sandals are camp shoes. Were they hiking - have hiking shoes and then camp shoes.
Not sure why CZcams thinks I want to watch sad losers this was dumb
Thanks for watching and the comment my friend. I value your feedback and comment immensely. I would say that maybe if you want to criticize and belittle, that’s ok - I accept it. We’re all human. I would just point out that maybe you should choose a different profile photo, as the Spiritual Avatar you choose, doesn’t accurately represent your comment on this video. Why even comment at all? A question I need not the answer, it’s a question for you to answer to yourself.
Much love and peace my friend.
Namaste
Just imagine if all the weeds that hitchhiked on peoples clothes were pulled and replaced with herbs, leafy greens and other garden plants that provided nutrition along the way and all towns had trails of mulch for safe pedestrian traffic even along cities and towns where we reside, creation nationwide trails interconntected by others that desire what we as a hiking community create everywhere we go!?