April 8th Total Solar Eclipse Trip!!

OVERVIEW

This April (8th), coming to skies in a state near you, watch the sun goddamn disappear in the middle of the day! Want to see every animal freak out and feel the temperature drop ten degrees while watching the Sun’s magnetic field blazes above you for three minutes? Then join us as drive up to — well, we’ll get to that in second — to watch the last total solar eclipse going across America until 2044.

If you’ve gotten this far and are interested in coming with, please read the ENTIRE trip description as this is not a typical trip so you need to know what you’re getting into.

So Templeton, where are we going? Unfortunately, the eclipse happens on one of the cloudiest days of the year, so at any given location there is only a 25-50% of there being clear skies to see it happen. You can see the path the eclipse will take here: https://shorturl.at/deBQR and the chance of clouds along that path here: https://shorturl.at/ftLRW or here: https://shorturl.at/fJLWY (page 11).

Because of this uncertainty, the plan is to make a call on where we are going on Saturday morning, as soon to when we have to leave as possible. The first pick would be the Adirondacks in upstate New York, but that also has the highest chance of clouds. Second pick would be Hoosier National Park in southern Indiana. Third pick would be Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois.

All these options are and 8-10 hour drive each way, which round-trip might bring the gas cost per car above the max of $150, thus the $20 fee for the trip. After drivers are fully reimbursed, any money left over will be reimbursed to everyone, so there’s a good chance the cost for the trip will end up really being less than $20. In the worst case scenario that all three options are clouded over, we’ll see if anyone has friends/family in Ohio with a yard that we could pitch tents in, but that should be pretty unlikely.

No matter where we go, we will be backpacking and pitching tents wherever we can find a flattish spot as all of these areas will be extremely busy (its estimated nearly 100 million people will be watching the eclipse, though probably most of them will get clouded out), and all designated camp-sights have already been fully booked for months (except Shawnee which only has on-sight day-of booking). All this is to say, where we are camping is intrinsically uncertain as will much of the trip, and it’s possible we’ll be setting up tents on top of rocks if that’s all we can find, though I think we should be able to find a good spot since we’ll be arriving Saturday. The only two things I can promise about the trip is that we’ll see the sun blink out for three minutes on Monday and that it’ll be a hell of an adventure.

One note about the schedule as a whole before getting into the details, is that you will miss all classes on both Monday and Tuesday. Why don’t we just leave right after the eclipse on Monday you may ask? Traffic. Based on the eclipse on 2017, traffic will be backed up far enough that it’s expected to take 6 hours+ longer to leave than to get there. It should be cleared up by Tuesday though.

Rough Schedule:

Saturday April 6th
– 5:00 am: Weather call on where we are going
– 7:00 am: Departing from Echols (eat breakfast beforehand)
– Midday: Stop for lunch, + sightseeing stops if we are going to Hoosier or Ohio
– 6:00 pm: Arrive at location and hike for ~1 hour until we find a camp-sight
– 7:30 pm: Set up camp, eat dinner, engage in tomfoolery

Sunday April 7th
– All day: Hiking without packs if possible to any cool stuff nearby, relocating camp-sight if necessary. We can split into several groups for the day if people have different things they want to do.
– Simultaneously: Scout out a good clearing to watch the eclipse from.

Monday April 8th
– Morning: any quick trips people want to do
– 2:00-3:30 pm depending on location: Watch the eclipse!
– Evening: more tomfoolery, potentially shenanigans

Tuesday April 9th
– 5:30 am: Pack up and hike back to the cars
– 7:00 am: Depart back to cville
– Midday: Stop for lunch, + sightseeing stops on a car-by-car basis depending on what time people need to be back
– 6:00 pm: Arrive back in cville

Food:

Food will be the responsibility of each individual/car group. You should pack food for Saturday night, and all day Sunday and Monday + snacks. For the car rides, you should discuss with your car whether you want to pack food or stop along the way. I’d also recommend a few group meals, but those should be planned within each car group. (If people want, we could potentially just bring a massive pot and make a massive thing of ramen/chili etc…, but that’s a discussion for later.)

What I will bring:

– Eclipse viewers to stare at the sun to your hearts content in the minutes before and after the eclipse!
– First aid kit
– Space knowledge

What you should bring:

– Sleeping bag
– Sleeping pad
– Backpacking pack
– Daypack (stuffed into your main pack)
– Headlamp
– Bowl + utensils
– Clothes (ideally non-cotton) (I’m not your mom, bring however much you want for 4 days)
– Hiking shoes/boots
– Camp shoes/sandals
– Cold weather layers
– Beanie & gloves
– Wool socks
– Toilet paper roll (store in a ziplock)
– 2-3 ziplock bags for trash
– Meds if relevant
– Food:
– Three breakfasts
– Two Lunches
– Three dinners
– Lots of snacks
– Toothbrush/toothpaste
– Water (At least 4 L capacity total)
– Cards or other compact games
– Stoke

What each car group should bring (will be coordinated later):

– Trowel
– 4 people’s worth of tents
– Camp stove + fuel + lighter
– Water filter
– Bear bag rope