Awoke around 3am as Joel said he heard thunder and was a little scared. Nature was calling so I went outside and the light show to the west was tad bit disturbing. As a professional weather observer I know that the best way to estimate the intensity of a thunderstorm minus a radar is the frequency of lightning and amount of cloud to ground lightning.(CG)FYI- all other types of lightning are signs of a storm maintaining or losing intensity) This was still too far away to see any CG,, but close enough to see at least 10-15 flashes a minute. OH well, I always liked sleeping in a tent in the rain!! Feel asleep for about an hour and then awoke to the awful sounds of close proximity CG lightning. This thunder was eerie as it bounced off much of the exposed bedrock increasing the sound IMO since much of the vegetation that was burned away a few years ago was not available to absorb the sound waves. The closest CG were less then 2 seconds away from flash to thunder, so likely less then .4 of a mile away. In fact,, I swear that you could feel the bedrock actually vibrate. It was an uneasy feeling,, but Joel got through it.
Morning dawned mostly sunny and you could feel that the stickiness of the day before was gone. Breakfast was eaten and rods were rigged for some fishing as we had to make use of the leeches that were along. As I was about to collect some firewood (which is very abundant btw) I heard Joel yell that he had something!! It turned out to be a small SMB!! So I dropped my saw and rigged up my rods to no avail. Then we both went for a swim and then had lunch and then Joel wanted to go exploring around our site. Here he is itching to explore-- We ended up finding a very nice overlook showing much of Larch to the NE. The day was turning out great weather wise as the NWS had called for scattered showers/thunder (more on this later.) So I thought it was time for team pictures, Noticed the pressure had actually begun to rise steadily throughout the day and dew point steadily falling so I removed the tarp from the woodpile. Mistake. On the table for dinner tonight was BW Pizza with Boboli crusts. A first. I had frozen some pizza sauce along with bacon,green olives,bologna,mushrooms. I diced up some mozzarella cheese and got everything ready. And then it started to rain!!! Off to under the tarp. The pizza worked out great,, though I wish my stove had better simmer ability but the pan covered with foil and held above the low setting worked out OK. We were both stuffed that when I got the fire started (not easy after the rain) no one wanted the 2nd batch of Jiffy pop. No issues. About 8:30 the rain completely stopped and the sun peaked out to the west. It sure seemed like classic rainbow weather and sure enough Joel spotted one-- It was a gorgeous evening as the stable weather worked it's way into the area and the winds remained calm. It The kinda of evening we all wish for in the BW's in the long winter months. Sometime in the evening Joel said to me "Dad, it's just so peaceful out here." Just a little longer Dad!! And more "Deep Thoughts". Skitters this evening were a little better then the previous but still not that bad. The sleep this night was much more peaceful then the evening before. Was actually a little chilly as I had to put on some extra clothes as I only brought a light blanket. I will take it over the heat/humidity any day.