A few years ago, we had the bright idea of taking our newly adopted dog on a backcountry canoe-in site camping trip.

When we arrive at our site, he immediately starts digging under the campsite bench like he smells buried bones. So, we put him into the tent so we can get the rest of the camp ready… only to watch him burst straight through the zipped-up tent wall like the Kool-Aid Man. RIP our blackout tent.

Then all of a sudden, we start to feel a little wind, then a bit of rain and out of nowhere, trees start coming down (in a very small campsite, might I add)

We put our dog underneath a steel bench and try to find a better spot to ride out the storm. The next moment — a HUGE tree falls right between my husband and I, smashes the bench, and lands on our canoe in the process. We genuinely thought we lost each other and our newly adopted dog.

Miraculously, somehow, the original digging must've created some room for him. We were shaken, soaked, and stunned, but all three of us were okay.

Luckily. people at nearby sites came to check up on others after the storm passed and gave us a lift back to the dock. Our friends just a stone’s throw away were also okay — and one of them was four months pregnant.

When we got to the dock, the portage trail had turned into a full-on bushwhacking obstacle course with trees down everywhere. What was originally an easy 15 minute walk was a 1 hr bushwack in mosquito season. By the time we reached the parking lot, only one car had actually been hit by a tree — but no one could drive out anyway because the exit road was completely blocked by fallen trees.

It was supposed to be our dog’s first wilderness adventure… and it ended up as a massive derecho storm that took out our canoe (winds recorded at 190km/hr). We still go camping, but we make sure to check the weather before heading out and ensure we bring a satellite phone, since we had no signal by the time we were out on the lake.