Can't stop the rain

I just finished 45 sets of stairs. I'm going up in increments of five, which is better than expected. It's pouring rain outside, and I could hear it over the podcast I was listening to (A Trouble with Words, you should give it a listen), while I did my stairs. I've always found the sound of rain soothing, but today it makes me wonder. Will I find it as soothing if I can't escape it? If there's a rainy stretch on the trail, how will I feel about it?

Don't get me wrong, I've been caught in the rain and miserable before, but there's usually an end in sight. A respite at the end of the day, where you can get warm and change into dry clothes. On the trail, if everything's wet, there's no dryer to throw them into, no car to climb in and go home. And then there's thunderstorms. Who hasn't been rattled by a sudden boomer before and crawled into a safe nook inside to escape the fury?

I had an experience in my teens, when I was working for the Appalachian Mountain Club. After my tenure there, a friend of mine and I secured a spot in one of the huts on top of Mt. Washington. We hiked up with our gear, dropped it off in the hut and then went back down and then up a different route (I was in much better shape, way back then). It was a gorgeous day. The next morning, we packed our stuff and decided to head back above treeline, and down the backside of the mountain. While we were in that alien landscape of stunted trees and exposed rock, a sudden storm came up and thunder crashed. It was as terrifying a feeling as I have ever experienced. We were easily the tallest things up there, and both of us had metal frame packs on. Hastily, with pounding hearts and many glances up to the blackened sky, we headed down to relative safety and cover.

Twenty-two years later, I can still close my eyes and remember that scene and how it felt. Nothing makes you feel as small as the sound and fury of Mother Nature.