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.

Thank you Just happened. My friend has a tree through his tent.

The trail is littered with blowdowns 70 plus miles north of this location. They’re everywhere. Thank you. Blessed indeed.

Glad you’re safe. It def came out of nowhere

It was an adventure for sure. So much fun / everyone is 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Happened quickly.

Thank you. Definitely a crazy experience, a story for life.

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.

Thank you 🙏

Thank you

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.

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.

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!

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 .

Appreciate it. Everyone is safe and sound with a story to tell.

Appreciate it. Everyone is safe and sound with a story to tell.

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.

Was wild bro. Was a beautiful night and then ten minutes of mayhem. Was adventurous for sure.

It was beautiful day and calm - until it wasn’t. The fire was started when it was calm.

We went back to the spot yesterday to retrieve my friends tent and several downed trees and limbs littered the spot.

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.

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.

Thank you - I will try to film better next time I am running from a tornado.

Thank you my friend. It was wild.

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

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.

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. 😂

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

🤣. 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

Was definitely a new experience for me. Apparently it was a tornado - go check the damage tomorrow or whenever it’s clear

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.

The 80 mph wind and buckets of rain took care of that for sure.

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/

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.

Sandals are camp shoes. Were they hiking - have hiking shoes and then camp shoes.

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