Rolinco Road Ramblings: Totality Cool

This past Friday, August 18th, we launched the SS Rolinco and made our way to Dooley Summit, just south of Baker City Oregon. We were staking out a claim on what we hoped would be a remote enough location to view the solar eclipse in the path of totality, without a billion other people. When we arrived Friday evening, around 7 pm, we were the only ones in a campsite that Reynald and Alicia had scouted out the first part of July.

It was a beautiful location, despite a wild fire having burned out most of the trees the summer of 2015. That actually made us feel more comfortable, knowing that if a fire did start anywhere near, we were in a "black zone" which had already been burned and we would not be in any fire related danger.

Sunset on Friday night.

Charlie's first camping trip.

Saturday morning a few others arrived, setting up camp, including our friends from Vashon Island, Warren and Mary Ann.

Charlie plays hard, then conks out for a few hours!!

Sunday more campers arrived, and there was a steady stream of cars going past our camp on to higher ground. While the view may have been even more spectacular, the road was treacherous for cars and SUV's and certainly not suitable for the SS.

Reynald scouting out the landscape.

A few more folks arriving.

Several people drove clear to the top of Bald Mountain.

I enjoyed meeting people as they arrived. I was officially tagged as the "camp host", a title I was happy to assume. We met people from Israel, the Netherlands, London and from many parts of the US.

This family is from the Netherlands. I love his t-shirt!

We kind of adopted Adam, who teaches 2nd grade in Anchorage Alaska, and drove down for the eclipse.

Monday morning our campsite filled up rapidly and it became impossible for me to meet and greet everyone that arrived! We estimated that there were around 100 plus people in our direct area.

This guy is taking a snoozer before the big event!

There was lots of serious equipment for recording the eclipse.

Carl and Steve drove over from the west side of Washington state and set up these large telescopes.

This fellow had witnessed 8 total eclipses and was looking forward to his ninth!

Such an appropriate t-shirt for the day!!!

The eclipse began shortly after 9am, with totality at 10:21am, lasting in our location for 2 minutes and 5.3 seconds. I know this because Reynald kept repeating it, over and over.

Sunrise on Monday morning.

Alicia and Charlie and Reynald and Baxter going for a pre-totality walk.

Beth is looking through a lens that the fellow that has seen so many eclipses loaned us for a few minutes.

Alicia with her NASA approved solar glasses.

All eyes glued to the sky.

Many people at our campsite had experienced a total eclipse and they were most happy to talk about their previous experiences. One fellow said that this was his 9th total eclipse! They all gave us advice on what to look for and be aware of.

Again, the fellow with lots of eclipse experience.

Our friend Warren had some cool stuff set up as well.

Everything we were told would happen did, but there were a few things that I was particularly surprised by. First, when the sun was nearly covered, the temperature began to drop significantly, and when it was totally covered it was down right cold.

Totality!

Crayton, Beth and Adam at totality.

Second, I was not prepared for the 360 degree sunset, which really wasn't a sunset, since the sun had not set, but the horizon was simply spectacular.