Cat's Adventures in the Wild: Eclipse day

4/8/2024 - Monday

It was a dark and stormy night.....

No Snoopy, it wasn't!

But it was a foggy morning at the Paducah, Kentucky KOA campgrounds.

Woke up about 4 am to make the trek from T1 tenting site to the bathroom, not so far away. It's been rather cold most days since we've been here, but this is supposed to be our warmest day yet. I'm not sure exactly what that will mean for weather. The forecast has been wavering between mostly cloudy to partially cloudy across the entire area. Warmer could mean that the water dissolves more readily into the atmosphere or it could mean it evaporates more to create a greater haziness. I'm not familiar enough with the area to make a guess on regional weather patterns, but at this point the sky looks pretty clear beyond the ground-level fog.

Breakfast today is a repeat of yesterday's avocado toast (today on toasted white bread instead of English Muffin), with layers of bacon and hard boiled egg. Seasoned with granulated garlic, skipping the salt because of the bacon. By 9am the sun is getting high and the sky seems to be clear. No fog and no clouds.

We're heading over to Ferne Clyffe State Park for today's eclipse because it's supposed to be longer in totality than here at the campground, which was forecasted at about 90 seconds. We're supposed to get around 4 minutes at Ferne Clyffe. But the drive is an hour long and we're only just getting away at 9:40 (target time was 9am, but.... coffeee...... and breakfast.... 💗)

Quite a number of entertaining jokes from Rogue NASA on Facebook this morning, particular notes about the eclipse rocket being shot off from Wallops to test atmospheric movement in the Ionosphere. Also lots of chuckling about the 2017 eclipse when Trump didn't use glasses to look at the sun before it was eclipsed, the conspiracy theorists and end-of-worlders who saw the X between 2017 & 2024 eclipses as potential rapture opportunities, and the general possibilities of a giant dragon eating the Sun or some other medieval event.

anxiety-provoking! Driving into areas with more cloud cover than we left! Did we make the right choice?! Should we have stayed in Paducah?! What is the right thing to do when faced with an opportunity of such planning and commitment?!

Clearing!?

Sun again! But so many small obstacle clouds! Faith. Have Faith.

Quite a line of cars was starting to build off the highway going into Metropolis. Big festival plans in that coastal town today! Big plans in Paducah, too. What will the State Park look like?

There was no real line waiting to get into Ferne Clyffe, but there were a lot of cars parked in designated parking lots and lining the main road as we passed by the lake reservoir. It was slow going through the park and we were concerned how parking would be once we got to the climbing area. Also how crowded would climbing walls be with non-climbers looking for a good clear sky? Would there be other climbers to get help from since my partner wasn't lead belay trained. Lots of questions in the map above, you can see the Bluff indicated by the scalloped black line. We were fortunate enough to run into a couple and their kids who were planning to go over to this area & agreed to catch for me as I led. They also indicated there were a lot of easy climbs over here, which is just what I was wanting to get at. I hadn't brought my high clip, which also would have been helpful.

Oh yes - gorgeous sandstone rock!

Plenty of experienced climbers and LOTS of great walls here with easy grades. This is apparently the Scout wall training routes. Mostly 5.8 or less around this space, but also bolted with anchors at the top. Lots of recent bolting, too. Perfect for us outdoor low-baller types (and with me being skittish about risking my neck).

You can also see the sky from here! Sapphire blue and not a cloud! Couldn't ask for a better eclipse day out in the midwest where we've been getting mostly cloudy & occasional drizzles all week.

Bay Creek Wilderness Area (Carbondale, IL): (city of Carbondale totality = 4 min 9s)
Duration 2 hrs 35 mins

Partial begins Apr 8 at 12:42:59 pm

Full begins Apr 8 at 1:59:15 pm

Maximum Apr 8 at 2:01:20 pm

Full ends Apr 8 at 2:03:25 pm

Partial ends Apr 8 at 3:18:11 pm

Update 3/31: forecast for totality: partially cloudy 24/14 ** this is no longer an issue!

We began climbing a little after 11am at Rebman Wall. I got a catch to lead up a 5.6 or 5.7 maybe - I have hard time figuring out what climbs are which on Mountain Project, even with the pictures. Ok - they needed the update - Tettering Trick Fest (first climb) was a 5.7. The slsabby "First Climb" is rated a 5.3. Open Book is rated a 5.4. Not sure we did any others. I tried the 5.7 chimney Ditch Pitch, but above the first two clips there were no hands or feet. I just didn't feel confident enough to get into the top section without real holds. So I downclimbed - which was probably actually riskier than going up. It wasn't the chimney that was scary, but the bolts were completely outside the chimney and not good reach-arounds.

Getting ready to climb!

Climbing, Clipping & setting Anchors 👍

Checking to see if I could use the glasses to take a picture of the sun as it was eclipsing. Major fail on the picture taking for the most part. We got a few good ones, but my Pixel didn't want to coordinate it's multiple lenses and the shadded 'glass' of the eclipse glasses was confusing it even more. Disappointing. Hey look! Peak Climbing Stripes on that belt!

So we did get totality & here are the pictures we have. When you see 'stars' in the pictures, the one below & to the right of the Flaming Ring of Fire (aka Sun eclipsed by the Moon) is Venus. The one above & to the left of the sun/moon is Jupiter. There was a comet & other planets that we don't have visibility for in our cameras. Some great shots here from my camera and my climbing partner's.

Those are from my climbing partner.

The ones below are mine. (resolution of all of these has been reduced by Blogspot)

Bright light out the lower end of the sun is that Solar Flare. It was pretty impressive.

Short video above is showing sun & Venus at least. Click here for news explanation

Videos of me climbing the chimney 5.7 after the eclipse. I was also pretty worn out by this time in the day - so I might have had more motivation earlier.

Part 1 click here
Part 2 click here
Part 3 click here

Kudos to Aubrey - a perky young lady who caught for me three times that day & was very motivational. The climbing community comes through again! Wonderful people, helpful & collaborative.

Last bit - road traffic on the way home means we chose to stop for a bite - unfortunately accidents and traffic were not reduced significantly by the time we got back on the road, so it took a full 2 hous to get back to the campsite.

Fabulous food for dinner though! Fish sandwich, smoked barbecue, awesome fried mushrooms & onion rings!

Ice cream swirled Butter Pecan & Cheesecake - NEVER thought it would be this good! Especially after such a filling dinner. Wow!

Back to the campsite to break down & begin the trek home tonight (rain in forecast for overnight & morning meant it was better to get on the road & find a hotel rather than pack up wet gear. Kicker also was that the KOA was at 99.7% totality after a recent adjustment from the scientists. If we had stayed, then we would not have achieved Totality.

Last little bits about the ride home - Gorgeous Sunset over the Ohio River - and clouds rolling in from the other direction. It was a late night, but glad we made the effort.