The 100 years was up....

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Trip Start Mar 01, 2010 Previous
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  Capulin, New Mexico
Wednesday, July 7, 2010

We have now made it to
north east of New Mexico, in 2 more riding days we should be in
Colorado!!! The scenery has completely changed and it is amazing and
green now. Loads of rolling hills and rocky outcrops. Fabulous, and
the temperature is now civilised now that we are at 6800 ft. A major
highlight the other day, well technically probably not a highlight
but we got caught in a 100 year flash flood. Where we had camped
ended up being in a river!!! It started with some awesome cloud
formations, lots of bangs and flashes and we sat there thinking, well
we have seen this before and it will be all show and no action! So we
sat observing and then realised a different storm had approached us
from the opposite direction and started to clash with the original
clouds. Spooky!



Well I had decided I
was hungry so started to cook supper and it started to spit. Typical
I thought so went and got my jacket, called the weather lots of names
and carried on cooking. A wind then started an uproar, racing through
the camp site threatening to rip our cover tarp to shreds so I ran
over to dismantle it. Luckily James and Lisa had seen me and came to
help because I could not manage it on my own. The rain then really
let rip and it was like being peppered with English hail. So we dove
for cover, Lisa and I in the truck and James went back to the tent
with Sandy. About 10 minutes later, the real hail descended, golf
ball size! It hammered the tents, the truck, the supplies, the poor
horses were out in for whole thing as there was no cover for them. In
the truck, we were wondering where on earth James and Sandy were. The
rule was, if there is hail, get in or under the truck. So I tried to
go out to look, go as far as 2 steps out of the door then flew back
in as the hail pelted me, boy that hurt. Having got over the initial
shock, I waited a bit to see if it calmed down. When I looked out
side again the ground looked like it was rippling, so bizarre, I then
I realised it was covered in flowing water and so the rippling was
the hail stones hitting it.




Slight panic set in now
because James and Sandy were still not in the truck, so I made a
break for it, while Lisa cleared space for everyone in the cab. I
leapt out of the truck into water up that when over the top of my
walking boots and ran for the tents while being bombarded by hail.
The water was pouring across the ground and piles of ice was building
up behind the tents. I shouted at James to come to the truck and his
reply was 'We are OK here.' So I responded ' The world is washing
away!' He response with 'what are you on about?' and stuck his head
out of the tent, yelped in surprised and asked for his boots which
were submerged outside the tent. We nearly got washed away getting
back to the truck which was in 2 foot of water now with a crust of
ice on top. While getting in the truck, Sandy and James let some
water in and the door got jammed slightly open. So the water started
to rise in the cab as well as outside. I ventured out into the cargo
bed to get some bailing devices, the ice was so think by then I could
walk on it to get to the boxes on the back. The temperature had
dropped from 98 ºF
to 35 ºF
in 2 hours!! At its max, the water and ice came up to 2 inches below
the windows of the cab.




Eventually
it stopped hailing and the rain slowed and after what seemed forever,
the water began to ebb. We were rescued by the rancher we were
staying with luckily, and they picked us and the horses up and took
us back to the headquarters for the night. It was so nice to have a
proper shower and a bed! It took 2 days to clear up our kit and
restock with supplies, we had to walk up to half a mile to find some
of the kit that had washed away. But the truck started first time,
bless it, we lost a fair amount of electrical equipment because of
the cab flooding, otherwise all we lost was food, the odd shoe and a
tent. So lucky!!!

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Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

And in box number 2....	...amazingly wet kit	The man has a pressure washer....	...and he is not afraid to use it!
Cleaner kit	More clean kit	Water logged books	Mucky truck
His Sunday best's	Is that wriggling in there??	And behind door number 1...	Nice carpet
And behind door number 2...	The remaining hail the day after	Feet of the stuff	The stuff that hit me!
I thought this was a truck not a boat	There is a water trough out there somewhere	See I told you there was	Tents on a bed of ice
Soggy teddy bear	Water in the tent	Left over ice	How high the flood water reached
The truck being rescued	'Take me to the car wash...'

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