Eclipse - August 21, 2017

On August 21 2017 there was a total eclipse that passed over the Continental USA.   My friends John and Gabrielle from the UK were coming over to view the eclipse and stay with some friends so I decided to join them.  The location for viewing had been picked out earlierby our friend Dave Lilly from Houston.  He had done all the hard work like picking the best cloud free location and arranging for accommodation so all I had to do was show up.  The location was McCall, Idaho - or at least that was the accommodation location the path of totality was 30 or 40 miles south near Cascade, Idaho.

I set off on the afternoon of Friday 18 August driving up I-80 to Reno.  There was a very impressive rain storm coming down the East side of the Sierras - a real downpour that caused the emergency services to break into radio transmissions to warn of flash flooding.   Half an hour later all was well and it was a nice evening in Reno.  I took a detour around town and grabbed a bite to eat before heading out in the evening towards the East.  I was going to stay in Fernley but I found there were no hotel vacancies.  Apparently I wasn’t the only one heading to Idaho for the eclipse.  I called ahead to Winemucca and finally found a room (the hotel lady said perhaps the last hotel in town).  I also panicked about finding a room in Boise so I booked a hotel for the next night in Boise.  I then had a little longer drive than I intended along I-80 to Winemucca where I arrived a little before midnight.  I didn’t see any other hotels with vacancies.

McDermitt, Nevada-Oregon

The next morning I headed north on route 95 through the great expanse of nothingness that is Nevada.  Wonderful countryside but there is not much there.  I stopped at the border with Oregon at the town of McDermitt.  Not much of a town, a gas station and a very run down casino and that was about it.  I wandered around town photographing a few of the highlights of town - mainly derelict buildings.

Continuing through Oregon towards Idaho, again there was not a lot of civilization.  Agriculture, cattle, lots of hay being grown to feed the cattle.   At the town of Jordan Valley I stopped for lunch.  The poor waitress in the one and only coffee shop was run off her feet - it had been a busy morning with all the eclipsers heading north.  Jordan Valley was originally settled by Basques and there is a pelota court in the middle of town.  A huge stone structure that from one side looks like a windowless building and from the other side a smooth walled handball court.  I visited the museum which was in an old stone house built by a Basque farmer to entice his wife to come over to the US from her native Spain.   Apparently she did and she stayed.  

Pole Bending, Jordan Valley

On the outskirts of Jordan Valley there was a rodeo going on.  I stopped for a while and they had a children’s event called Pole Bending going on.  They start them early on horseback here and they were all pretty proficient weaving in and out of marker poles set up at intervals along the course.  Everyone, boys and girls alike, had the full cowboy get up on - boots, jeans, cowboy shirt, and cowboy hat.  Just about all the guys lost their hats as soon as the got up to speed.  

Owyhee Country

Just after Jordan Valley the road crossed into Idaho.  The countryside was quite beautiful and we crossed through something called Owyhee Country near the Snake River - apparently named after Hawaiian fur trappers that were brought here in the early 1800’s.  I didn’t know the Hawaiians trapped for fur.  The road then crossed the Snake RIver valley at Marsing and shortly afterwards I was in Boise.  The Boise Motel was not anything great but it provide the necessary bed and shower.

Idaho State Capitol, Boise

In the evening I met the sister of my Sacramento friend Diane, Deb Nash, and she showed me a little of the city of Boise.  It was a surprisingly nice city.  Not too big but big enough to have a few things going on.  It looked like a nice place to live but I would be worried about its reputation as a home to libertarians, right wingers and white supremacists.

On the road the next morning I had a relatively short drive up the Payette Valley from Boise to McCall.  A beautiful drive through some splendid countryside.  Just the thing for a Sunday morning.  There were lots of signs of the pending eclipse - fields where you could reserve a viewing spot, accommodations already all full, warnings about the traffic on eclipse day and already a pretty steady flow of traffic.  

In McCall, I found my friends, John and Gabrielle from the UK, Dave and Gail Lilly from Houston (I had met Dave once 20 years ago on a hiking trip in Colorado), and Randy and Patty also from Houston who I had not met before.  We planned our strategy for the next day and decided that we should reserve a spot on that afternoon and then set off early on Monday allowing plenty of time for the traffic.  We headed south again and found a spot in a field by the Payette River near Smith’s Ferry (just south of Cascade) where for $20 we could reserve a space.  We then headed back towards McCall and decided we needed a backup plan if the traffic was too bad the next day, so we reserved another spot nearer to McCall.  Listening to the news all the talk was of extreme traffic conditions on the morning of the eclipse so we were all a bit spooked by that.

Monday morning, we were up at 5:30 for an early morning departure for the viewing site.  Much to our surprise the traffic was relatively light and we made our preferred viewing spot by 7:00am.  We were rewarded by taking the last riverside viewing spot on the banks of the Payette.  It was quite beautiful at that time in the morning, the sun was just rising and the river was steaming with mist.  Lots of people had been camping on the site all night to ensure their prime spot.

The Eclipse Team - Dave, Gail, John, Gabrielle, Randy, Patty, Steve

We then had around 3 hours to wait before the eclipse started.  Time passed fairly quickly watching a Bald Eagle fly up and down the river and then several Ospreys joined in and the Eagle disappeared.  I was most surprised when I chatted with the folks in our neighbouring spot.  They were an English family, from Derbyshire, from Chesterfield.  What a small world. Ian and Amanda Elliot and their son Oliver.  They knew Paul Griffiths someone from Staveley that I grew up with.  Ian was a masterful birder - he knew everything that was flying by, even without binoculars.

Payette River, Smith's Ferry

As the eclipse approached we were all ready with our dark glasses, and Dave had an impressive set up with three tripods with a couple of cameras and some binoculars.  As the eclipse progressed and took a chunk out of the sun you could see the sun spots through Dave’s set up.  

Start of the Eclipse, Note the Sun Spots

The excitement built as we approached totality.  You could see Venus quite clearly.   It got quite cold and yet even with 95% totality there was still quite a lot of light and you could only look through dark glasses.  But then with totality we saw the Baily’s Beads and then a darkened sun and just the sun’s corona was visible and you could look at it without glasses. Totality lasted just over 2 minutes and it was an incredible experience.  It was dark, it was cold, it was quiet, it was quite an emotional feeling.  Everyone was silent and in awe for the first minute or so and then there were whoops and hollers.  The so-called diamond ring appears as the totality ends and light came back to the world.  It is a shame we can’t have do overs.

Totality

As the moon’s shadow passed out of the sun we were pretty relaxed about the whole thing - a partial eclipse is one thing, and yes it is impressive, but totality took it to a whole different level.  An experience I would make a point of seeing again if I could.

We stayed until the sun was full again and then drove back to McCall feeling very satisfied.  

I had this notion that I would drive back that afternoon to be in Sacramento the following evening.  That was a bad idea.   While I made good progress for a while when I got to Cascade the traffic became stop and go and we were a lot more stop that go.  It took 4 hours to get to Boise, something that should have taken less than 2 hours.

From Boise south the traffic was fine and I pushed on until late into the night finally arriving in Winemucca around 11:00 pm.  I was too tired to figure out a hotel so I just pulled off the road on the hills outside Winemucca and crawled into the back of the car.   Quite comfortable anod no one bothered me.

Breakfast the next day in Winemucca (the Griddle, a great place for breakfast) and then the long drive back to Sacramento.  Again a rain storm as I passed through the Sierras.  I became obsessed with getting good mileage out of the Audi for the trip and managed to average 30 mpg which is pretty good compared to my usual 21 mpg around town.