Sierra Cascades - Day 13 - Heat Dome Struggles, Reality, and Fear + Day 14 - Zero Day in Three Rivers, CA
A boom thunders in the night. My mind, in a barely-slept haze, confronts the noise and attempts to attribute it. CLAP! Again, a reverberating long and deep noise. I think to myself, "Is this a storm? After such a hot and dry day? In the middle of the night? Unlikely…" as I drift back to sleep. But then the room flashes as lightning hits nearby so close with a thunderclap so loud that we both awaken. I struggle to fall back asleep. 2 AM arrives and so do our alarms. We dress hurriedly in the dark conversing about whether a storm really did occur or not. We leave shortly thereafter into the dark wall of night. Both us feel completely unrecovered and utterly destroyed. It is already 90 F out with a projected high of 110 F as we dip to the Sierra Cascade's lowest point at 400 feet in elevation. I note that I am exhausted but also pumped with adrenaline to make this low crossing under the cover of darkness…
