Looking at the weather report for the weekend I saw that it was supposed to rain every day. However, Saturday had turned out brilliantly so I called Dad and asked him to check the radar for Sunday so I could plan my day. 
He said Sunday would feature afternoon showers so I got up bright and early Sunday morning and was hiking St. Regis Mountain by 7:15am. 
I was the only one on the trail and the sun was filtering through the trees so it was very nice.
It’s about 3.5 miles to the summit and the last bit was a strenuous uphill haul. 
While I was nearing the top I started hearing rumbles of thunder. That can’t be right I thought, it’s 8:45 in the morning. I looked around and saw blue skies and sun through the trees but when I finally broke through tree line I was greeted by this view:
Off to the west clouds were swirling and rapidly descending over the mountain. I grabbed a few quick pictures, shook my fist at the closed fire tower and proceed to run pell mell down the hill. 
I have no idea how I did not break a bone or impale myself on something because I was vaulting over rocks, swinging off trees and using my improvised hiking sticks as crutches. What took me almost an hour to climb up, took only about 20 minutes for me to plummet down. Then the skies opened up and the forests darkened and the lightning flashed and the thunder boomed and I hauled ass. It was over 2 miles to my car so there was no way I was getting to safety anytime soon so I just tucked my head and kept up my brisk pace. Luckily the temperature didn’t fall too much, since I was only wearing a tank top and shorts. 
Finally my adrenaline rush faded and I was walking along soaked to the skin. Eventually the sun started shining again. As I got closer to the trailhead I met a guy going the other way (dressed in full rain gear) and he took one look at me and said “you’re a real trooper huh”. Ugh. I wanted to take a picture because I looked quite a sight but my camera was a victim of the deluge. Lesson learned!
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