1999 Giant City Campout

"Don't you listen to the forecast??"

That was our greeting from the park ranger upon arrival at Giant City State Park on Friday, March 12, 1999. It also became the "saying of the weekend". The forecast for Saturday was for heavy snow beginning in the morning. A winter storm warning was posted. And yet there we were, setting up camp in the youth camping area. That area sits in a valley at the end of a long, winding, steep downhill road. "This area gets shut down during heavy snow because they don't plow this road," the ranger went on to say. He only charged us for one night initially because he didn't know if we would be there come Saturday night.

This campout had been planned in August, 1998 to coincide with March's theme of Climbing and Rappelling. Giant City is a great place to climb and rappel and is popular among climbers in southern Illinois. We thought in August that by mid-March the weather would be decent and there wouldn't be any crowds on the cliffs. Due to the dire weather predictions for the Friday/Saturday time frame we began wondering during the prior week about the decent weather part. But, in the tradition of Troop 53, the campout would go on as planned — or at least as far as the weather would let us carry out that plan. Alternate program plans were made in case we couldn't play on the rock. We hoped we wouldn't have to use them.

Saturday morning dawned cloudy — but no precipitation. Breakfast was prepared and eaten. During breakfast cleanup, light sleet started to fall. "Uh-oh! Here it comes!" But the ground temperature was too warm for any accumulation. A scouting trip was made out to the cliffs to see what conditions were there. They were wet from the melting sleet. In the interest of safety, the decision was made to go to the alternate program plans for the weekend. An orienteering course was set up for those needing it for First Class and the Orienteering Merit Badge. A class was started on climbing knots. The morning passed quickly. Still none of the predicted snow.

Our tents as they looked on Saturday.

During lunch, the sleet stopped. The rock around the campsite dried quickly and we decided to set up a climb and a rappel. The cliffs had dried off and all was right with the world. The Scouts had a great time climbing and rappelling. Everyone had the opportunity to do both at least once in the time we had left before sundown.

A couple of parents had arrived from Belleville while we were out on the rocks. They said that the snow was predicted to start after midnight. Belleville was to receive little to no snow and the heaviest snow was to fall somewhere between Belleville and Giant City.

We returned to camp after sunset and prepared supper. Shortly after, sleet started to fall again — this time mixed with some wet snow. But again, the ground temperature was too warm for the snow/sleet to accumulate.

The ranger came around again to collect fees for Saturday night. He again told us that we were taking a huge chance on staying. We told him that, if things started getting bad, we would get out quickly. He answered, "Remember, they don't plow this road. I won't feel sorry for you when you get stuck down here." We said, "Don't feel sorry, we'll be fine. We'll get out one way or another if the snow comes."

By midnight there was around an eighth of an inch of "stuff" on the ground. But more of it was freezing to the tents than to the ground and a couple of them were threatening to collapse from the weight. All of the tents were shaken off and straightened up. The last adults went to bed around 1:00 AM after determining that there would be "little to no additional accumulation if it hadn't started by now".

The exciting
conclusion!