Jay Challenge, 2008

Mud. Water. Mountain. It was all there. Everybody: post reports in At The Start
the comments and I'll promote them to this main article. Even though we've talked it out endlessly over beer, pizza, bacon and hot tubs, it'll be good to have this all down for posterity. And who knows - there may be somebody in our lives who hasn't yet heard repetitive, redundant & tediously verbose descriptions of each section of that run, along with stories of who disappeared in which mud-hole.

I have to say, it was a great group at the house. Thanks to the PM for getting the house, thanks to Sue for the pizza, to Vicky for the foozball body slam, to tMail for such vicious domination of the pingpong table, to g-$$$ for the veggies, to MadDog for inspiration, to Rick for the half-marathon tales from the darkside, to Pat for the chicken-eaten-by-ferrets stories and to Spanky for eating all the leftovers.

I had decided last year that Jay 2008 was the last, but now I'm not so sure.

And oh, what a difference a day makes. The National Weather Service issued the following special weather statement for today for all of northern Vermont:

SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP ALONG AND SOUTH
OF A NEWPORT VERMONT TO NEWCOMB NEW YORK LINE BY EARLY THIS
AFTERNOON. THESE STORMS ARE EXPECTED TO INCREASE IN AREAL COVERAGE
AND INTENSITY AS THEY MOVE INTO CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN VERMONT
THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON. THE PRIMARY SEVERE WEATHER THREAT WILL BE HAIL UP
TO ONE INCH IN DIAMETER AND ISOLATED STRONG AND DAMAGING
THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS.

IN ADDITION...FREQUENT CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING AND LOCALIZED
VERY HEAVY RAINFALL WILL ACCOMPANY THE THUNDERSTORMS THIS
AFTERNOON. THE COMBINATION OF RECENT RAINS...RESULTING IN HIGH
WATER LEVELS AND SATURATED GROUNDS...ALONG WITH MORE
THUNDERSTORMS...WILL CAUSE MINOR FLOODING OF LOW LYING AND POOR
DRAINAGE AREAS.

THE SEVERE WEATHER THREAT IS EXPECTED TO DIMINISH ACROSS CENTRAL
AND SOUTHERN VERMONT BY EARLY THIS EVENING.

[Update 7/27 3:20pm] Pics are posted (what few there are)