Despite the discomfort of carrying a backpack on hot, humid days, we've been prudently doing so when we embark on our daily woodland hikes with our two little dogs. A small backpack to be sure, containing only rainjackets for us and for Jackie and Jillie. Truth is, we can take being soaked far better than two very small poodles. So we take the jackets along for insurance, just in case the skies open up on such weather-iffy days.

We've felt reassured having the rainjackets with us that though we wouldn't come away entirely unscathed if a thunderstorm hit, there would be some comfort in not becoming utterly drenched, particularly for our little pups. On each of those occasions we only resorted to pulling on the rainjackets once, and beyond a pale imitation of a heavy rain, only temporarily, since the rain soon stopped and we doffed our raingear to continue on our circuit along the forest trails.

On all other occasions rain failed to materialize until, magically, we exited the ravine and headed home. Until yesterday. The forecast was for rain and for thunderstorms throughout the day. We decided to head out to the ravine in the early afternoon. And decided, given our experience that we'd eschew the backpack/rainjackets and just give it a go. When we left, the mostly-dark clouds were shifting continuously under the influence of a powerful wind.

It was hot, and it was humid. We had dressed for the heat and humidity and if the rain happened to come down, big deal, we'd be temporarily cooled off. Twenty minutes into our circuit, light drops. The canopy is dense enough so that we were hardly impacted. And then, the drama of thunder clattering and clamouring nearby, above. And we could hear it coming closer as the rumbling became louder.

We decided to forge on while shortening our usual circuit. And rain began to fall in earnest, and we picked up our gait. The puppies dislike the sound of thunder. We could see they were uneasy, even as we moved ahead, picking up speed as we did. The rain would plop down and then lift and this occurred on several occasions. While we did feel raindrops falling on us on the rare occasion where the forest canopy thins somewhat, we were still dry.

What drama. We have, in the past, been caught out in the ravine, taking shelter under dense foliage as a thunderstorm raged about and rain fell copiously, but that was not the situation this time. Plenty of sturm und drang but those periods of rain/no-rain, meant we were spared a full drenching. Granted, we sped through the circuit fairly quickly, and as we neared our exit point, Jackie raced on ahead, anxious to get home, so he had to be leashed to prevent him from dashing up the last hill and onto the road in his anxiety.

We were miraculously still dry, and envisioned that we would emerge into heavy rain, as we've experienced on other occasions, once out of the protection of the forest canopy and onto the street. In fact, the street was weeping rainwater, great puddles on the sides here and there, but the rain had stopped. It seemed that the full force of the thunderstorm was realized not in the forest but out at street level for some strange reason; sparing us but not the landscape of the streets beyond.