I’m sure this has been covered over and over again. I haven’t seen any for solo canoeing so here’s question
What do you all do if you find yourself on a lake paddling and it starts lightening? And what about in camp and it’s really storming?
Tim and I were on our group solo trim in July and we were about 2/3s back to our camp when we could hear the storm roll in. I paddled to beat heck and made it back before the storm hit. But I’m really unsure what to do. I’ve read countless cliff Jacobson books on what to do but it doesn’t make sense to me. What do you all do?

speaking for myself, i can't remember the last time i was on a lake and a big storm was barreling down on me. i would get to shore, if i had to paddle i have read it is safer to paddle a few feet off shoreline.
at camp, i don't hang out under the tallest trees.
storms are fun to watch and live thru. can't do a damn thing about them, so you might as well enjoy the show.
the sound of thunder in canoe land is incredible.

On any trip if there is a storm, lightning or not, we head to shore and wait it out. I agree it is wise to avoid those tall trees if possible. Of course the best campsites are surrounded by tall trees.

quote bwcasolo: "speaking for myself, i can't remember the last time i was on a lake and a big storm was barreling down on me. i would get to shore, if i had to paddle i have read it is safer to paddle a few feet off shoreline.
at camp, i don't hang out under the tallest trees.
storms are fun to watch and live thru. can't do a damn thing about them, so you might as well enjoy the show.
the sound of thunder in canoe land is incredible. "

Yup. I'd do the same solo as in a group.

I would never be caught with a storm barreling down on me. I’d have got off the lake well before it hit. What’s the saying? “If you see lightening, you can get hit by lightening.”

As for camp, the worst place to be is in your tent. I’ve gotten out of my tent during the night and found an area away from large trees to be safe.

We had a really bad storm on knife in September this year, it was after midnight i believe and it was as loud a thunder crack you could imagine, the lighting was real close and the winds gust were wicked. It was raining as well, at night like that not a lot of things you can do, trees were everywhere on this campsite and i was in my hammock. Honestly im kinda surprised nothing bad happen, we were pretty spread out and one of our tents was on a tent pad about 30 feet above the rest of us on a ridge. Its the campsite with a toilet with a view, if you've been there you know which im talking about.

On a lake: I was chased off of Kabetogama by thunder during Voyageurs challenge this year. Get to shore ASAP. Wait out the lightning/thunder. Rain is fine, but lightning means no paddling.

In camp: This is one of my phobias- founded or not- treefalls are legitimately how people are hurt/killed in the bwca every year. I carefully choose my hammock site to avoid most potential tree falls. As long as your hammock trees are not the tallest, I feel safe in the hammock during storms. If it got to that point where things are really blowing and trees are starting to crack, I would go down by the lake/open area/big rock where you won't get crushed by a tree and wait it out.

It would be a difficult call to leave shelter in the middle of a storm, a decision I'm hoping I never have to make.

As a teen (40 years ago), I paddled in almost any weather. This led to some rather exciting situations. Now I lean heavily toward just getting off the water if it's at all sketchy. As for being in camp, I've never done much except try to avoid clearly unhealthy trees and obvious deadfalls. I'm not sure how much good that does. A lot of the blow-down I've seen, with whole root systems torn out, would have been pretty hard to predict.

quote bwcasolo: "speaking for myself, i can't remember the last time i was on a lake and a big storm was barreling down on me. i would get to shore, if i had to paddle i have read it is safer to paddle a few feet off shoreline.
at camp, i don't hang out under the tallest trees.
storms are fun to watch and live thru. can't do a damn thing about them, so you might as well enjoy the show.
the sound of thunder in canoe land is incredible. "

+2

Thunder storms never sneak up on you. Usually plenty of time to make plans. I do remember being on the dock at scenic state park. No storm was around yet suddenly all the hair on my daughters head stood straight out, not sure what that was but I grabbed here and quickly got off the dock.
When I was a kid lighting stuck our house, actually my bedroom. It came right through the wall and showered me with smoldering plaster. I had a good story for show and tell.
During the 1987 Minneapolis superstorm my truck flooded and I had to abandon it. I was helping another stranded truck, standing in two feet of water lighting hit nearby. I definitely felt that. I got home somehow and called 911, the dispatcher handled it. If I was talking I was fine.

On my first solo and first trip in a solo boat, I stupidly decided to paddle in a fairly intense thunderstorm down the arm of Darky Lake where it comes out of that nice little river (Darky river?). I noted on my map a campsite right around the corner and the arm was fairly narrow and I figured I could paddle about 1/2 the height of the trees from shore. The rain was torrential and flashes were a bit blinding. Two nifty things occurred however with one being a Bull Moose becoming very interested in my black carbon boat and black raingear. I wonder if I looked like another moose to him? And the other was getting to meet a large group from Texas under a tarp when i (luckily) arrived at the campsite.

At WCPP I had a very scary scenario a few years back while in my tent at night. We have all heard loud and scary thunder but this was if someone had shot a gun off in my ear. I actually felt for my body to understand if I was still in it. Weird right? Who would think to do that! My ears were ringing for several hours afterwards.

Get off the water. In camp, one of the first things I always do is find somewhere safe should a storm blow in. I am more concerned about downed trees than lightning, and I try to find an area where I would be safe if need be. That, by the way, is never in the tent or under a tarp.

The first thing I do when choosing a campsite is look for the obvious dangers and safe places. I was in my tent when a storm hit on Fishdance on my 40 day trip. When lightning hit the whole tent shook. Bernie looked at me like hey I didn't like that! If I have any concerns I'm out under or against a rock or something. I've actually looked at a possible tent pad and thought no that looks dangerous, and while there a tree fell in that area. Even at home I'm more tree conscious, I don't want nothing hitting my house. Had one hit while finishing a portage in WCPP, I dove under my canoe. I don't know where it hit, but you could almost feel the lightning. The guy I was with took off into the storm. After it blew through I started out looking for a burnt blob in the water, but was relieved when I caught up to him on a shore under a tarp drying out. We got to the next portage and there was one of those packets they put in bags to absorb moisture. He said, just think how wet this portage would be if this wasn't here.

quote nctry: We got to the next portage and there was one of those packets they put in bags to absorb moisture. He said, just think how wet this portage would be if this wasn't here."

Now THATS funny ;-)

I think being prepared is good.
We had our daypacks with us so if we needed to go to shore we would have kept dry. When you are close to lightning, the thunder cracks. When the lightning is far away, you hear the rolling sound. We kept watching for lightning flashes, which would have been a definite sign to get off the water. Since we only had a little way to go to get to camp and the thunder was far off and rolling, I think it was a good decision to keep going. If the storm was closer, then the decision would have been different. One time I was on the river with my son and a storm came up suddenly. We got off the river and took shelter under a downed tree. The storm blew over in less than 30 minutes and the weather turned nice like there never was a storm. We got back in the canoe and went off and had a great trip. Another time we pulled off and sheltered in a small grove next to the river.

I heard a very interesting sound this past September. Off in the distance at dusk there was a thunderstorm. But the thunder became just one low rumble like that of a freight train. I'm not sure what caused it. My theory is that I was hearing a lot of echoes. It was very still where I was and the storm was a couple miles away.

I'd never experienced this before. It went on for probably 10 minutes of just a constant rumble with little flashes of lightning. With me, lightning scares the hell out of me and I get off the water quick. In camp I just pray.

I rode out two good storms this past September. Both were a little scary. Being prepared and keeping a cool head is the best bet. The first came after I was asleep in bed. I stayed in my sleeping bag and just listened for the tell tale crack of a widow maker coming down on me. The second came a few days later in the evening. Not much to do but hunker down in a low spot and review my relationship with the divine. I flipped on the weather radio during both storms and found that winds were in the 40 - 50 mph range. "This storm will affect the boundary waters area. Seek shelter inside a sturdy building" the robot says.

What I liked about the weather radio was being able to figure out where I was in relation to the storm and its direction of travel. I was able to figure out that I was in the direct path of the first storm, the worst was about to hit, and would be over in about 20 minutes, and then just rain. It was reassuring to know how long it would last.

BCT, was this around the 18th or 19th, i cant remember the exact day, this may be the same storm that we had on knife, one of the nastiest i have seen up there.

campnfish: "BCT, was this around the 18th or 19th, i cant remember the exact day, this may be the same storm that we had on knife, one of the nastiest i have seen up there."

That's the one. I entered LIS north for a 10 day solo on the 19th. I discovered that very night I should have treated myself to a new tent instead of new sleeping bag for that trip. Thank goodness for those wonderful CCS tarps! Mine saved the trip.

All our guys use hammocks. This last September we were on Alpine and Seagull when it started storming around 6 PM and rained hard, thunder and lighting all night. Winds were horizontal. However, all hammocks made it through as did the tarps. The next day it stopped for a couple of hours. We checked the weather and it called for the rest of the day severe thunder storms. That did it for us. We called the camps by radio and pulled everyone back to the outfitter early. It turned out to be a good decision as it was 3 solid days of hard rain and thunderstorms.

Seagull is also not a fun lake when the winds pick up. We hugged the shorelines all the way back from Alpine. Took 3 hours to paddle back from Alpine to Seagull Outfitters as we were paddling into wind and waves and hugging the shorelines.