Welcome to episode 196 of the first 40 miles.

If you're new to backpacking, or if you're hopelessly in love with someone who wants you to love backpacking,

then this podcast is for you. We'll talk about the

essentials, how to lighten your load and how to make the most of your time on the

trail. I'm your host Heather Legler, and I Josh Legler and this is the first 40 miles.

Today on the first 40 miles I was kind of wondering what today's episode should be about then it struck me today we'll chat about

lightning safety nothing shocking don't worry we promise to conduct ourselves

appropriately then y'all get to hear promise to conduct ourselves appropriately.

Oh boy.

Then y'all get to hear a little story from Steve about his friend's top-secret backpacking spot.

Next we'll test some trail food and wrap it up with a great resource from National Outdoor Leadership School or Knowles on everything you ever wanted to know about backcountry lightning safety. All this and that's about it. Today on the first 40 miles.

Well over the last couple months we've had some input from listeners saying that they wanted to know about lightning safety and summers a great time to talk about

lightning safety because for some reason lightning seems to hit in the summertime

Every once in a while you do see thunder snow or you know a lightning storm with snow that's pretty terrifying cool

Pretty scary. I haven't done the research, but I assume that it has something to do with the warmer temperatures that there's more

Friction in the air friction or maybe it's also able to hold more moisture in the air yeah we're making all this stuff yeah making

it all but something about summer and those warmer temperatures seems to up the chance of lightning.

Right when we lived in upstate New York there were amazing lightning shows in fact I

remember waking up many nights in a row just to these blue flashes outside of our windows.

Really exciting and terrifying at the same time.

It was just, you know, you see the power of nature all in this one strike and sometimes there's a boom accompanying it's just so much power all in one brief moment And if it was scary from inside an apartment down on the ground floor, like subground floor,

imagine that same experience but you're out in the woods, you know, in a tent or maybe even worse hanging in a hammock and you're thinking oh no what do I do now.

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