I'll kick off the Eclipse Trip and Side Trips series with Eclipse Day Eve, August 20, 2017.

The journey I've been waiting for was finally here, the journey to Solartown, Madras, Oregon, where we would camp for the night and watch the solar eclipse the next morning. Early Sunday morning, my friend rounded up the gang in Portland for a 2 hour journey to Solartown. My friend, C, and I had driven down from Seattle to Portland earlier. In Portland, we met up with M who lives in Portland, and V who flew in from Michigan. There was another party of 2 that would meet us in Madras instead. They had planned to drive there straight from Mount Rainier.


The past few days, there had been warnings on radio and TV about an impending eclipse traffic Armageddon. But luckily, traffic was fine for us as we made our way across Mount Hood and into the high desert.  Yeap, all fine and dandy, until we approached Solartown. There it was, standstill traffic on a single lane road leading to the camp entrance.

Occasionally, as the traffic inched forward, we would find shade at the shoulder. We took this opportunity to chill under the shade and snap some pictures. Why not?

We started chatting with other stranded folks, and they too wondered why it was taking so long. Feeling bored and restless, V decided to take a jog to the front lines to find out.



Upon his return, we found out it was due to a simple case of bottleneck at the entrance. The entrance was located near a crossroad, so you have a situation where traffic from three directions were being funneled into one road. Could the organizers had planned it better? Perhaps some communication would have been nice.

How did we kill time? Take more random pictures and videos of course. This is our ride into Solartown, the beautiful Prius.

After almost 2 hours, yeap, 2 hours, we finally made it to the intersection. There, folks from the National Guard I believe was there to direct traffic. After that, it didn't take that long to finally make into the campground. There, we picked a spot at the top of a slope to secure a better vantage point.

Finally at the intersection.

This guy sure did not have range anxiety.

MADE IT! The boundaries of the camp site were clearly and neatly marked.

Overlooking the RV campground.

I absolutely loved the artwork done for this event. Too bad I couldn't find it on a t-shirt print.

After picking our spot, it was time for a late lunch. Like any well organized event, there was a food section. It was a short walk past the canal to a wide open area with food stalls galore. Along the way, we could still see heavy traffic streaming into the campground.

Still heavy traffic streaming into the campground.

We finally met up with the other 2 that drove from Mt Rainier. They brought along some souvenirs: Rainier cherries!

After getting food, we adjourned to the booze tent as I would call it. After getting some drinks, not sure why we ended up sitting under the table.

Nice cold local beer on a warm sunny day. Perfection.

The line up for activities at nearby Solarfest (not Solartown where we were at). There was a shuttle bus that brought people to and from Solarfest, but we stayed put. Sign of aging perhaps?

By late afternoon,the campground was starting to fill up. We decided to set up tent. We had a decent sized tent that could fit four. Me being a total camping noob, I made way for the experts to set it up.

Ready...

Done!

There was surprisingly quite a worrying amount of clouds in Madras. I expected it to be clear considering it was summer in the high desert. Some folks at the campground speculated that it might have been affected by the haze coming from nearby forest fires. The clouds/moisture did result in this beautiful Sun halo though.

Overall, I was rather pleased with the spot we picked. We had a pretty good 360 view of the area. The only problem was the toilet. There were only three portable toilets near to our site, which was insufficient. Sure enough, queues formed. To access other portable toilets, we had to walk a good 5-7 minutes. Not too bad, but definitely an inconvenience.

Epic backdrop for a toilet queue.

By evening, the area around us was pretty much full with cars and RVs. It was truly a sight to behold. I have never been to any camping event before, let alone one of such scale. I was used to seeing scenes like this only on TV. To witness this in real life was quite the experience. As the sun begin to set, we were treated to an airshow from the nearby airport. Vintage planes zoomed by, silhouetted by the setting sun. Quite a show, but that was not the highlight. The highlight to me, was the sunset. My word. The clouds were just at the right place, the right time and the right altitude for a memorable, colorful sky. The sky was lit up. It was on fire. Naturally, I started snapping away.

Up on a slope, we had a fantastic view of the sunset.

Snapping away in the evening glow.

Obligatory group pic facing the sunset.

I loved how some of the sunlight was already blocked off by the mountains, but Mount Jefferson being taller was still bathed in warm golden rays.

Tiny little parachutes silhouetted against the setting sun.

View from our site. We could clearly see Mount Jefferson and Mount Hood from here.

The light show usually does not end after the sun completely sets, as evident here. The colors from the clouds turned darker and much more fiery, providing for even more contrast with the ground that was already in the shadows.

Mount Hood against the twilight sky.

Traffic was still streaming in after sunset.

I recall I was looking forward to the night, as I was expecting clear dark moonless skies, perfect for star gazing and astrophotography. But somehow, I did not do much of either. I guess I was tired by then. I only took one or two shots of the night sky, being contented with only a faint view of the milky way. Thinking back, perhaps I was trying to conserve the SLR battery for the big day, the eclipse day.  It was also slightly too cold, unexpectedly cold. Silly me. I had forgotten how cold it could get during the night in the West coast. I opted to sleep in the tent with my other three friends. The other 2 slept in the car. This was the beginning to my most miserable night in recent memory.