Bald Peak P1K

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Well, the whole point of the trip to Oregon was to see the eclipse. Jackie and I had scoped out a USFS Day Use area on the north side of Detroit Lake days earlier. Ryan and his friends drove down to camp there the night before, a bit clandestine, but the rangers weren't really checking for such before the big event. Mom, Jackie and I got up to drive from Beaverton starting at 4a, finding no traffic whatsover on the way there. The wind direction had changed during the night, blowing smoke from the Sisters fire into the valley, leaving visibility at something like 10mi. Not very good for eclipse viewing, but we made due as did hundreds of our new friends from all over the West Coast and Canada. Totality lasted just over two minutes, drawing applause, oohs, and aahs from the crowd. It was quite a spectacle, the second for me (Baja, 1991) and the first for the rest of the family. They all agreed it was well worth the time and effort to see it. The expected post-eclipse traffic jams materialized even before the moon had finished passing in front of the sun. I had us avoid Interstate 5 altogether as we went through the rural areas of Oregon west of the freeway between Salem and Portland, stopping at Bald Peak State Park on the way - after all, I need a peak to include these eclipse photos in a trip report. Btw, if you were hoping for better pictures of the eclipse you should know better than to look on this website - I'm really no match for even your average photographer. The state park is quite small, neatly covering the summit area whose highpoint is found on one of the grassy knolls around a pair of picnic tables. Trees block most of the views of the surrounding countryside. Jackie and I spent about half an hour collecting blackberries from the nearby bushes before we left. Mmmm, more Oregon pina coladas...

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