After dinner at the campground in Hanna, I considered taking a dip in the lake. The discovery of a leech while scooping water to wash my cook pot quickly settled my indecision on the matter.
Shortly after cleaning up dinner and trading in a book at the little free library, I saw a large and ominous cloud rolling in towards me. Getting everything into a waterproof state, I settled in and read my book at the picnic table until the first drops of rain chased me into the tent. What followed was a strong storm that was mostly wind with a smattering of driven rain, that only lessened as I drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, I woke up and was delighted to see sunlight filtering through the bushes. A quick glance around the horizon however, revealed another storm apparently on the way. I broke my fast on day old coffee and a quarter of an apple pie to save time and quickly got the camp packed up. I hit the road, intending to outrun the storm.
I soon learned that these prairie storms defy all ground rules for prevailing winds. I wrestled with headwinds and strong crosswinds most of the day while trying not to get blown off the narrow shoulder by gusts from passing trucks. Guess I'm still waiting on one of those legendary tailwind days of the prairies.
The morning's storm followed me down the highway until about lunchtime, where I finally got ahead of it at Youngstown. However, looking ahead, I could see that the highway was flanked on either side by some pretty evil looking clouds.
Setting out with the goal of making it to Oyen or even across to Alsask, I came up between the two cloud systems, now building to potent storms. Around 1 pm, I came under the leading edge of the smaller storm, and started to get sprinkled on. Eventually, these sprinkles became a driving deluge and I was quite thouroughly soaked from the rain and the spray generated by passing vehicles. As I approached Cereal, the rain stopped but I could see the bigger storm to my right getting quite dangerous. Lightning was flashing several times a minute and the landscape was totally obscured by the rain.
I decided to hide in the picnic shelter at the campground and watch the cloud to see what it would do.
This was probably the best choice. The nastier of the storms didn't come my way, but a new storm rolled out of the north and brought heavy rainfalls and chills for the rest of the afternoon. Even just sitting in the shelter in dry clothes was cold and miserable. I can't imagine how much it would have sucked to keep going, let alone the very real possibility of getting blasted by lightning.
At about 5 pm, after several hours of continuous downpour, it looked like I was stranded in Cereal for the night. I pitched my tent right in the picnic shelter, cooked dinner and some hot coffee to warm me up, oiled my chain and then settled in for an early bedtime in the hopes of a dry morning and early start to make up for the short and crummy day.
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