Eclipse 2017
- Thread starter StG58
- Start date
My uncle lives up in the mountains in that area. I know he probably has no idea of this happening but then again he is a true mountain man with his wife.
Nice! He probably doesn't care either. There's a fair amount of "homesteading" going on from there north, as well as much further south. Some of the homesteads up in that area are just outstanding examples of rural living. I always get a little jealous when I wander by and see them. Tons of work and thought and time to get a homestead to that point. It always cracks me up when you go around a corner and come nose to nose with a free range cow or horse.
The 2017 eclipse is over. The Elcipsians are leaving the state or have left.
Things didn't work out exactly like I had hoped, but it was still a good weekend. Went up to the back side of Mt. Hebo on Friday and camped with the family. (won't use the term "clan", because some individuals may be offended / mortified by that term) We didn't venture into the south Siuslaw because of concerns about traffic on Monday. I didn't think it would be an issue on the trails we were going to use, but I only had one vote. It was a totally typical coast range outing. Mild weather, sunshine most of the day and cool nights. Lots of good food and lots of family time. The woods were not nearly as dry as we were led to believe. Most of the seasonal streams still had a trickle of water in them. We headed back on Sunday, and had zero issues with traffic. I did blow my back out on Friday, but it's a hazard of getting old and not slowing down. It happens.
What was left of the family headed out to Mt. Angel to observe the eclipse. A friendly farmer lets us camp on one of his field access roads for the duration. He was a really nice guy, and we treated his property with all the respect due. Great view of the eclipse, and everyone along enjoyed the outing. Driving back was not that big a deal except for dodging bicycle riders and lost out of state folks on the small farm to market roads.
Off to the Dr. to get my back tuned up!
Things didn't work out exactly like I had hoped, but it was still a good weekend. Went up to the back side of Mt. Hebo on Friday and camped with the family. (won't use the term "clan", because some individuals may be offended / mortified by that term) We didn't venture into the south Siuslaw because of concerns about traffic on Monday. I didn't think it would be an issue on the trails we were going to use, but I only had one vote. It was a totally typical coast range outing. Mild weather, sunshine most of the day and cool nights. Lots of good food and lots of family time. The woods were not nearly as dry as we were led to believe. Most of the seasonal streams still had a trickle of water in them. We headed back on Sunday, and had zero issues with traffic. I did blow my back out on Friday, but it's a hazard of getting old and not slowing down. It happens.
What was left of the family headed out to Mt. Angel to observe the eclipse. A friendly farmer lets us camp on one of his field access roads for the duration. He was a really nice guy, and we treated his property with all the respect due. Great view of the eclipse, and everyone along enjoyed the outing. Driving back was not that big a deal except for dodging bicycle riders and lost out of state folks on the small farm to market roads.
Off to the Dr. to get my back tuned up!
The moral of the story here is that you shouldn't always believe the news. They hyped this thing up (along with ODOT) as the biggest event of the century. Hell, ODOT was saying it was on track to be the worst traffic event in Oregon history.
So one of two things happened:
1) The news was wrong.
2) People who visited were smarter than we expected, followed the rules, and stayed off the roads mostly.
Here in Salem, Oregon (which was for the most part ground zero), there was less traffic than usual, and I didn't encounter ANY issues whatsoever going out or driving around all weekend.
I'm a bit disappointed I didn't get to see some sort of madness on the news, but at the same time, I'm happy that my town wasn't overwhelmed with idiots.
So one of two things happened:
1) The news was wrong.
2) People who visited were smarter than we expected, followed the rules, and stayed off the roads mostly.
Here in Salem, Oregon (which was for the most part ground zero), there was less traffic than usual, and I didn't encounter ANY issues whatsoever going out or driving around all weekend.
I'm a bit disappointed I didn't get to see some sort of madness on the news, but at the same time, I'm happy that my town wasn't overwhelmed with idiots.
The news was wrong, in that things were much less chaotic than expected. There was a lot of traffic, but it did move along fairly well. You know the local news outlets @Chris, they will over hype everything and anything to get eyes on their sites. I especially loved the interviews where the news person was asking how people felt about the eclipse. Really? Seriously? How did you feel about the eclipse? This was a totally natural and predictable occurrence that can be simply explained by basic astrophysics, and you were asking people how they felt!? "I felt emotionally overwhelmed by the clockwork of the stars..." Oh good grief.
In a region of mostly snowflakes (Portland), you've got to always ask people how they feel. You know, because snowflakes have a lot of emotions, and if they can't protest over something, then how else will they get their emotions out? The news outlets are very sensitive towards the feelings and emotions of the snowflakes.
I don't know how the local news stations are in other major cities, but you're right about the local news outlets in the Portland area. They like to hype everything up as much as possible (it's good for business). Like I said earlier, the only way they could have made this better is if they'd managed to turn the eclipse event into one of racial undertones.
I really was expecting there to be tons of traffic in Salem, but the only time at all I saw any major traffic was immediately after the eclipse was over. Leading up to it, it was nothing at all out of the usual.
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