Looks like we will be on Bell Mountain on Monday as well. Perhaps we will run into each other.
Looks like we will be on Bell Mountain on Monday as well. Perhaps we will run into each other.
Cheers,
The Goat
Mostly sunny, with a high near 92.
Great for viewing the sun, horrible for everything else...except for scorpions and solar panels
Yes, after I thought about it, I realized what you may have meant. Enjoy, and welcome to Illinois!Originally Posted by microlambert
Thanks guys! Yes, I'm renting a car. (Possible British English confusion: we'd use that interchangeably with hiring a car, whereas I think in the US hiring suggests paying a driver?) Anyway, I will be entirely self-propelling, so going a bit further from Carbondale is not a problem
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I was there on Wednesday afternoon, and camped at the summit. I didn't see another soul the whole time I was there, although I'm pretty certain I saw a bear cub. Which was a bit alarming!
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It's awesome that you had the place to yourself. I was originally planning to head to Shawnee NF and camp for the eclipse, but was worried that it would be crowded with the eclipse passing overhead. We ended up heading to Missouri instead. Knowing that Shawnee wasn't crowded makes me kinda jealous. I was probably overthinking it. Good for you, though.
Oh, that was Bell Mountain in Missouri that wasn't crowded - Shawnee was very busy! At least, it was around Garden of the Gods, where I viewed the eclipse. Seemed like thousands of people there. So if you wanted solitude, you probably made the right choice.
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OK, that makes more sense. Sometimes my reading comprehension isn't quite up to snuff. Months ago when I started planning my eclipse trip I was thinking Shawnee would be the perfect place to be. It was actually this thread that made me think "If people are going there all the way from England I bet it's going to be pretty crowded." So I made a last minute change and we watched it from outside of Jefferson City, which turned out to be perfect. I don't do crowds well.
I'm glad Jefferson City worked out for you – I guess that means clear skies too? A friend of mine was in St Joseph, MO, where they got rained on for the entire period of the eclipse :/
Here's a short clip that gives an idea of the number of people – the whole atmosphere was pretty festive!
Very cool video. I always like the idea of being in a larger group of people until I'm actually there, then I just want to get away. I think that's a large factor in my love of camping and backpacking.
They were calling for storms in Jefferson City, and we were pretty sure we were going to miss the show. The rain ended up holding off until Monday night, and the skies were perfectly clear for us. You could see the storm coming, but the clouds didn't get over us until around 6:00. I think that the forecast actually helped us out in that people were heading elsewhere.
I'm really glad to hear that you had a good experience after travelling so far. It was definitely an experience worth the trip in my opinion. I'd never seen a solar eclipse before, and to see a full one was a real treat.
The only time I've had a bear in camp was on top of bell mountain. I didn't see him but I heard him outside my tent in the middle of the night, and saw poo and tracks all over my camp. We have been there several times for usually impromptu quick overnights. The "busiest" time we saw 3 groups and one group had 5 people and the other two had two. It's nearly never busy.
Cheers,
The Goat
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