Total Solar Eclipse, 21-Aug-2017

[drm]

We went to Sutton Mt yesterday, no traffic problems, camped at the trail head with about 10 other groups and hiked up Sutton Mt early this morning. Set out for home at 1:00pm got stuck in a 15 mile tail back between Fossil & Condon. At Condon while most traffic headed west on 206 we stayed on 19 to Arlington, smooth sailing after Condon. Trip there 3.5 hours, trip back 5.25 hours!

About 60 people on top of Sutton Mt during totality, not too bad & probably a record for Sutton Mt! A fantastic time was had by all.

I was camped above the parking area - the one farther south on SR 207. If that is the one you used, you walked past my camp .6 miles up the trail with everybody else.

206 was clear NW of Condon too. Well, a few minor slowdowns, but nothing like the logjam getting into Condon.

[s0rce]

I watched with a couple friends from the top of McClellan Mountain in Malheur NF, we hiked up the ridge from Bear Flat (where we camped a couple nights) via Riley Creek Trailhead. It was a really beautiful spot. Perfect weather, only a slight amount of haze and high wispy clouds. We saw 3 other guys camped at another nearby hunting camp around Bear Flat but have no idea where they went for the Eclipse, surprisingly they didn't go over to the spring to get water (they would have passed our camp) so maybe they carried a bunch up... From McClellan we could see about a dozen people on the unnamed 7000ft peak on the ridge between McClellan and Field's peak, we tried to wave, anyone here was up there?. Couldn't make out people on Fields but I'm sure there were a bunch at the lookout. No traffic going back to NorCal via 395 south through Burns and Alturas until we hit I-5 south of Redding. Great experience.

[alexcr]

Well, that was awesome...

https://www.facebook.com/arosenfe/video ... =2&theater

Totally worth the ~30 hours of total driving from and back to LA. Despite the doomsayer predictions of some of the folks in this forum, I can't think of a single issue I encountered. Based on my research, found a great campsite at Slide Lakes on Friday morning, not to mention a hotel room in John Day when I arrived late the night before. Trails were busy, but not overly so. Had a perfect spot pretty much to myself to take in the eclipse. Didn't have any traffic at all leaving Malheur and Oregon. While I understand the trepidation, I hope in the future that folks are more open and encouraging to folks wanting to plan visits to the amazing wilderness of your state!

Even without the eclipse, it would have been a great trip. Strawberry Mountain Wilderness is a special place.

[adamschneider]

While I understand the trepidation, I hope in the future that folks are more open and encouraging to folks wanting to plan visits to the amazing wilderness of your state!

We weren't trying to be unwelcoming, we really did think it was going to be awful. Gridlock, shortages, wildfires... we had no idea what to expect. Maybe the anxiety caused people to spread out a little more than they would have, or maybe it would have been OK no matter what. Who knows, but in the end it went better than anyone could have hoped.

Plan a trip for any OTHER week and we'll be very encouraging.

[BigBear]

I think the concern for traffic was quite warranted. Portland is one of the worst traffic cities in the country ranking somewhere around 7th (BusinessInsider.com) but only ranked #26 in size (Wikipedia). Had most people not telecommuted or taken a vacation day on Aug 21st, it is no stretch to predict that the 3-4 hour commute from Salem to Portland after the eclipse would have been much longer. The normally 3-hr trip from Madras was 10 1/2 hours on the afternoon of the eclipse. Traffic on this day was far from light, but the workday issues were minimized by fewer workers on the freeway during the critical times.

A similar situation existed a few years ago when the I-5 bridge over the Columbia was going to undergo repairs and traffic armagedon was predicted. There was no traffic situation that week, not because the predictions were unjustified, but simply because virtually every resident of Vancouver (who worked in Portland) took a week of vacation.

With the dozens of wildfires which still have Sisters, K Falls and the Medford area at unhealthy air quality, this issue is still of concern for recreational enthusiasts looking skyward or simply wishing to breathe a deep breath of fresh air.

Perhaps the earlier comment about the trip from extremely-remote Malheur County not being very congested is simply the result of people from Idaho (the closest population center) not having to leave home because they were already in the eclipse path and it being simply too far away for Seattle & Portland people to travel.

The big surprise was that the Coast did not have any more tourists than a typical summer weekend, and that was due to the fog that did not burn off until mid-morning.

[adamschneider]

The big surprise was that the Coast did not have any more tourists than a typical summer weekend, and that was due to the fog that did not burn off until mid-morning.

I think it was due to the mere CHANCE of fog, regardless of what actually happened on 8/21. If I was travelling across the country and spending a lot of money to see the eclipse, there's no way I'd take a gamble on the coast, or even the Willamette Valley.