by Tim and Pat Leinart

Dan Nitzel had asked any of us caught in the storm if we would like to say a few things about it, so here goes:

The four of us, Tim and Pat Leinart along with Rick and Donna Thompson, had decided to go for an afternoon ride.

The weather was typical Nebraska, being hot and muggy. We had noticed a few clouds but nothing too ominous. We had reached an area on the Dismal Trail that had a couple of steep twist type hills. Of course we hadn't noticed that the few clouds around were darkening until we saw the lightning at the top of one of the hills. We all decided we had better start back to camp. Rick knew of a shortcut that basically went around a portion of the forest.

HOWEVER, little did we know that the soft sand on this route would cause us to be stuck a couple of times. We did manage to get back on the Dismal Trail but the wind was picking up pretty good. Just as we were reaching a clearing on the trail, THE HAIL STARTED COMIN' DOWN!!!!!

We had nowhere, and I mean nowhere to go so we stopped at the next patch of trees to take some cover. After about 10 minutes we decided to make a break for camp. It hailed and rained on us all the way back to camp. The asphalt road leading to the trail head had several spots where it was

flooding over because of the hills next to it. It seemed like hours out there, what with the hail, rain, and lightning everywhere. When we did make it back to camp, we scrambled under the shelter at our group camp and waited this thing out. It lasted for about an hour or so.

Like Dan said, most of the vehicles were hail damaged including the nice truck I had BORROWED for this trip. Oh well, my wife and I can't wait to go back to Halsey because for everything that went wrong that day, ten more things went right, like meeting new friends and getting to experience the wonders of the forest. Yes, this was our first trip to Halsey and we will never forget it or the people we met. ( by the way, this was my wife's first time on this type of trail ride).

My suggestion to those wishing to go to Halsey...... don't hesitate, it's a BEAUTIFUL THING!!!!!!!!

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This page was updated on Wednesday, January 19, 2005