[kite]

[natural_log]

Really enjoy reading folks' reflections on the experience. I ended up heading down to THE PATH and Silverton, OR from Portland on the roadside last minute. "I'd be a fool not to go," I said to myself the night before. I've never felt so fulfilled by anything. @ThursdayHiker, I really enjoyed your video capturing an element of the event that I wasn't paying attention to (rookie move....). Your commentary is also about on par with the majority of everyone else's reaction, I think

[ThursdayHiker]

Kite, That 3rd image is absolutely spectacular. That must have been taken with a high quality telescope. Great job.

[ale_capone]

[texasbb]

[Hiker Mama]

I love how you all have described the totality. I am without words. Spectacular and awesome don't seem to cut it. I took my kids down to Central OR on Wednesday to find a campsite to wait for the weekend. I had a lot of anxieties about this trip, and none of them came to pass, with the exception of horrible traffic coming home on Tuesday in Puget Sound. We got a spot on the river on the Metolius, and the campground didn't fill up until Saturday. We enjoyed resting in camp, swimming at Scout Lake, visiting family in Sisters and Redmond. On Sunday we moved to our eclipse viewing location. My parents have some high school friends who have retired to their home on the Crooked River. They have the most spectacular view east, 30 feet from the cliff walls of the canyon. We had an unobstructed view of the whole event. The partial eclipse phases were interesting, but the totality was something else entirely. The corona, the color of the sky, it still gives me chills thinking about it. It was over way too soon, we all wanted more. I can totally see why people chase eclipses all over the world. I'm tempted to, now, myself. Wow!!! We loved the crescent shadows. We didn't notice Baily's Beads, but we did see the diamond ring and the squiggly shadows for a few seconds before and after totality. We had various pinohle projectors, and my parents had a colander that made really pretty crescent patterns on a white sheet. It was one of the top experiences of my life. Eventually I'll get a TR posted.

[marydave]

We watched from a broad point on a ridge above Monument, OR. It was like being on a different planet whose atmosphere was, fortunately, breathable. A profound experience.

[call-151]

We did the long drive down from Vancouver BC. Found a nice spot to camp with a few other people on the backroads just west of Dixie Butte. Monday morning we hiked up to the top, (elev 7592 ft) and found a good spot to set up. There were a couple hundred other people there, but the summit area is large and everyone was pretty spread out. It was totally awesome, well worth the long drive. It got noticably cooler closer to totality, to the west it got dark like a storm was moving in. I could see Venus but not Mercury. Then all to quickly it got bright in the west, and soon it hit us and it was all over. --------------- Coming back on the highways Monday we got stuck in the mess north of Baker City, then again at the fiasco at Umatilla Bridge, both lane closures for no reason that I could see, by whoever runs the highways. I'm glad we did this trip, I've never been over the pass to Yakima and the dry country of eastern Washington and Oregon. It was great to get a taste of the area to plan more trips.

[grannyhiker]

I was camped on the Metolius River with my four children, their spouses and three of my six grandchildren. I mananaged to reserve two campsites (at separate campgrounds) for us. Amazingly, the threatening smoke from the Milli Fire stayed away Monday morning, while the twelve of us converged for breakfst at a lovely picnic area overlooking a pond at the Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery. There was extra entertainment for the teenage kids (who, like most teenagers, get bored easily) feeding the fish inhabiting the pond (I was able to get rid of several pounds of quarters!). A father next to us kept his small son busy by giving him one piece of fish food at a time. The little one eagerly ran across the deck to feed the fish and then ran back to Dad for another piece. This kept him occupied during the rather boring partial phases and probably ensured a nice long nap that afternoon! My son #1 thought he deserved the parent of the year award! Our teenagers were entranced by the crescent shaped shadows on the walls of a white utility trailer parked behind us. They were especially excited to find the crescents pointing the other way after totality. My son-in-law brought his telescope with solar filter, so all of us (including all the other watchers in the vicinity) got a good look through it. We all noticed the diminishing light and warmth as the eclipse progressed. About 20 minutes after totality, I headed for the restroom, leaving my sunglasses behind. By the time I came out again, I really needed those sunglasses! More entertainment was provided by a bald eagle and a kingfisher, each sitting on a different perch awaiting the appearance of a fish breakfast. They disappeared about 10 minutes before totality. The noisy jay in the trees overhead stopped squawking about then. We didn't notice any behavior by the fish, but of course we were too busy watching the sun then. All of us were awed by totality. It was a life-changing experience! Unfortunately, 1 3/4 minutes was just not long enough! I watched the corona through my 10x monocular and looked around briefly to see that it was much darker than I remembered at the 1979 eclipse in Moses Lake (perhaps due to reflection from the increasing high clouds at that event?). The corona wasn't really visible in '79, so I was especially impressed by it this time. I didn't see Bailey's Beads at all, just the diamond ring. A number of our group are inspired to travel to future eclipses. The 2024 eclipse will pass directly over Dayton, OH, where my son #1 lives, and totality will be twice as long as the eclipse just past. Unfortunately, the chances of its being cloudy in early April are at least 50%. A trip to Mexico sounds more promising. Monday afternoon, the winds switched to southerly and we suffered a good dose of Milli Fire smoke until we left Tuesday afternoon. I'm still coughing a bit. We had no problems driving home Tuesday afternoon (except lots of smoke) until we got into the usual Portland rush hour traffic on I-205. Fortunately, I know all the shortcuts for escaping that stretch, and we arrived in Troutdale well ahead of the time listed on the readerboard for driving from Oregon City to the I-205/I-84 junction! Oregon suspended road construction for the eclipse weekend; it's too bad that Washington didn't do likewise! I remember that back in the mid 80s, when two of my boys were at UW, we would drive to Seattle from Tri-Cities for long weekends. Coming home, the westbound traffic over Snoqualmie Pass (opposite direction from us) was always at a standstill--traffic jams there are nothing new! I'm just glad I didn't have to be there Monday night!

[grannyhiker]

I forgot to mention that on Tuesday morning everyone except me set out for a long hike on the Metolius River trail, smoke or no smoke. The youngest member present, my 12-year-old grandson, earned praise and fame by spotting a rare white-headed woodpecker, ahead of his semi-professional birdwatching uncle! There is plenty of hiking there, with trails on both sides of the river. I suspect it would be better in the spring, with lots of flowers and no smoke!

[Toni]

I decided to stay local and head up to Sunrise at 3:10 a.m., pulled into Sunrise parking lot at 5:00. I didn't know what to expect as far as other 'early birds' but the lot was about 1/4 full. I thought I'd incorporate the sunrise @ Sunrise gig - 6:11 a.m., and while waiting for my hiking buds to show up, I watched the tiny lights of climbers heading for the summit. By the time I finished breakfast, a few friends (the rest wouldn't be there until 9:00) drove in and we headed for 2nd Burroughs @ 7:30 and (again) I expected more folks already there. I shared my glasses and a filter for camera, tho I didn't take any Eclipse pics. Everyone was chatting and seemed ready to party. Soon, a breeze picked up, temps dropped!! we are all getting our fleece/down jackets, hats/gloves and whatever on, saying, who would have thought it would get this cold! It didn't get as dark as we thought w 93% totality...the only thing I noticed was the herd of goats that were grazing between Fremont and 1st Burroughs were all laying down after the Eclipse. We reached Frozen Lk. junct. and our winter clothes went back in the packs! Another group said there were about 60 plus folks up on Fremont. A day to Remember!!

[MtnGoat]

I've found very few people who say close to total is good enough, have ever actually seen totality. The sun gets mostly covered up, they go cool then go about their day and three days later they've forgotten about it. I don't know of anyone who has seen totality who feels that way. I hounded my mom, one of the 99% is good enough folks, into driving S from PDX to Silverton. I used every method fair and foul, and she finally decided to do it. When I got back into cell range on Monday, she had left a bunch of messages saying she was glad I did and it was so different and better than she ever expected.

[AlpineRose]

My name is AlpineRose, and I'm an eclipse chaser.

[Adohrn]

Went to Mt Sutton near the painted hills and pretty much dead center for totality. Spectacular! The 2:06 of totality can't be described so won't even try. Pretty much made an Eclipse chaser out of me to. The temp definitely dropped dramatically at 4,600 ft. Enough so that people were putting coats on. Even knowing this was going to happen it still surprised me. The shadow as it approached darkened the heavy smoke band over Mt Jefferson. It looked like a menacing storm cloud that suddenly looked really threatening reminiscent of lord of the rings. Had a 360 view and with the smoke in the distance made for a very impressive 360 sunset. Overall it was a really laid back experience maybe had 15 people on the peak sharing it with me with another 45 on the neighboring peak.

[ale_capone]

Little late, but I just figured out the internet.... Look how crisp the shadows are from a few hundred feet above. Notice how many people are standing below where I am working.