Ilanarama!

As some of you may remember, in 2017 we drove to near Casper Wyoming to see the total solar eclipse, which was an incredible, astonishing, literally awe-some experience. So when we learned that we'd be nearly in the direct path of an annular solar eclipse (what happens when the relative distance of the sun and moon are such that the apparent disc of the moon doesn't completely cover the apparent disc of the sun), naturally we made plans to get ourselves in position to see it!

We actually wouldn't have had to drive very far, as the center of the annularity path would pass only an hour or so south of Durango. But there had been a lot of regional buzz - nearby Mesa Verde National Park was expecting a huge influx of visitors, all the campgrounds and hotels were sold out - and we wanted to get away from people, as is our wont :-) So instead we drove about 3 hours to Utah's Cedar Mesa, an area with many canyons full of arches and ruins we've explored many times, and more importantly lots of nooks and crannies that regular RVs wouldn't be able to access but which would be no problem for our Sportsmobile.

As it happened, Cedar Mesa had a lot more visitors as well, and the spot Britt had picked as a possible camp already had a half-dozen vehicles parked along the narrow dirt road. No matter; we headed back to the main road across the mesa and continued along it, looking for possibilities. Pretty soon we found a small cut-off that wasn't on the map, but didn't have a "no vehicles" sign - perfect. The fact that it was narrow, with sharp dips and bumps and hard turns and a few sections of deep sand just made it better, because we were pretty sure nobody else would come in after us. We found a flat spot and settled in to enjoy the sunset.



The clouds cleared out during the night, making for excellent (though very chilly) stargazing. When I got up in the wee hours (so called because I had to wee :-) I saw a meteor streak across Orion!

After breakfast the next morning we moved our chairs and table to a spot just behind the van where we had a clear view of the clear, blue sky, and settled in with our eclipse glasses, eclipse binoculars, and the SkEye app on our phones.

And this is what we saw!



Many more photos, including total annularity, below the cut. Note that these were taken by shooting with a phone camera through one lens of a pair of eclipse glasses, so they are very far from professional quality! However, I think they're nifty, so you get to see them. Total annularity was maybe even prettier than totality, though we had to continue to use the eclipse glasses and not the naked eye. It also got colder and darker, though not by nearly as much as it did for totality.

( One ring to rule them all... )

Oh, I did, by the way, blow off the Wednesday afternoon sessions and go mountain biking. Took the Peaks Trail to Frisco, 8 miles of singletrack, and yes, I was by myself, and so I very much erred on the side of caution. Still, I rode bits that I am pretty sure I got off and walked before (I rode about 1/3 of it with a group last year; we turned around at a nasty river crossing which is now bridged) and did not actually fall off the bike at any time, although I possibly came close. Then I rode back on the paved path directly into the howling wind, which was extremely not fun. A total of just under 20 miles of riding, averaging the same average speed at which I ran the Baltimore Marathon. :-)

I also ran 7 miles on Tuesday morning, and about 4 this morning. I pretend that living at 6600 feet makes me impervious to altitude, but all it takes is a tiny uphill here at 9600 feet and I am gasping and miserable. Clearly I need to get more altitude training before the Imogene Pass Run in September. I wanted to go biking again tonight, or running tomorrow morning before driving home, but I'm running the Steamworks Half Marathon on Saturday and must conserve glycogen. To that end I am carboloading a bomber of Switchback Amber from the Backcountry Brewery in Frisco, and have polished off most of a bag of Rold Gold Honey Wheat Braided Twist pretzels. La la la.

I did make it back for the Wednesday evening special session, which was James Balog of the Extreme Ice Survey showing all sorts of nifty time-lapse photography of glacier faces falling into the ocean. As soon as I got back to my room I put his NOVA/PBS documentary on Netflix. REALLY COOL, folks. After his presentation he made a heartfelt plea for scientists interested in using his images to extract land-ice data to help him get funding, because he really needs $600,000 to keep going, and all I could think of was, wow, in the world of scientific projects that is such a tiny little amount. I actually don't know how useful his stuff is in the world of glaciology - we are just starting to fold glaciology into our models, so it's a kind of climate science I'm only barely conversant with - but wow, it's science in action!

Tomorrow morning I shall drive home. Whee.