Not the "scariest, but one of the more exciting camps while on a bike tour.

Juntura, Oregon (eastern part of the state)


Severe windstorm (+60 mph) hit, blowing over several large trees in and around the campground. The wind also caused a lightening ignited wildfire to "blow up" and burned across the highway about 2 miles from the town,


closing the road for the entire night. It was like a huge party. This small cafe also stayed open most of the night to help the stranded travelers. That is not fog, it is smoke! Our little tent held up well.


This was one of our "scariest" camps. We were stuck near the top of Mt. Hood (Oregon) in a storm that reduced the visibility to near zero, a whiteout condition. It wasn't too bad until about midnight when it became really quiet. We thought the the storm and high winds that had plagued us for several hours had finally quit. Trying to stick my head out of the tent door to see what was going on, I found the tent sheathed in about a half inch of ice, and the wind was still hammering us. We would wake up periodically and beat on the sides of the tent trying to keep the ice from building up. Usually ventilation is not a concern in a tent; but in a situation where the tent becomes sealed by the ice, the oxygen inside the tent could drop to dangerously low levels. Between the condensation freezing to the inside of the tent and the cloud layer freezing to the outside of the tent, that thought crossed my mind. There really was not much actual danger. It is just the feeling of being very small and the uncertainty of waiting things out. We did beat a hasty retreat when the weather finely cleared enough to descend safely.