Totality was an experience like none other. At the beginning of the month, I rented a cabin with friends at Tall Timber Lodge in Pittsburg, NH, at the tippy top of the state, where New Hampshire, Quebec, and Maine all meet. We spent the weekend driving around Northern NH and the Eastern Townships of Quebec (Estrie), which I will describe more after I talk about the eclipse.
In the late morning of the eclipse, people began assembling outside by Back Lake, the small lake next to Tall Timber. The property faces the lake to the South, so we had an excellent front row seat to the eclipse. Multiple amateur astronomers had telescopes with solar filters set up. The head of the NH Astronomical Society was also there and was happily talking away about eclipses.
At around 14:30, the partial eclipse started, which was about an hour before totality. We put our eclipse glasses on and began to see the sun get chomped away bit-by-bit by the moon. We posed for some photos with the glasses, because of course if there wasn’t a picture, did it really happen?
About 30 min prior to totality, the light started to get noticeably flat, the air got cooler, and I put my jacket back on. T-minus 20 minutes is when things started to get noticeably eerie. The light got even flatter and even dimmer. It was as if I was wearing yellow filtered glasses. The shadows got very strange. A friend brought a cheese grater and you could even see crescent-shaped shadows from the holes of the grater rather than something more circular. Wild! The energy and build-up at this point was thru the roof. My heart was beating fast at this point.
Then it happened. Within 20 seconds, the light switch was turned out, the sun disappeared behind the shadow of the moon, and the corona haze of the sun dazzled around the outline of the moon. As an added treat, there was even a red speck visible with the naked eye, which I was later told was a solar flare.
The shadow bands were arguably the wildest effect. If you have a white sheet or a white background on the ground you can make out wild wavy rapidly moving shadows from the sun’s corona. This is extremely difficult to capture with a camera. The added bonus was that we were standing directly next to frozen lake, so the entire lake started to shimmer with shadow bands. Incredible! I’ll never forget it.
I won’t forget the drive too. It took 10 hours to drive about 160 miles, including a two hour stop. Oh well. The eclipse was still worth it.
The weekend leading up to the eclipse on that Monday was a fun time too. We stopped at Schilling Brewery in Littleton, which is perched next to the Ammonoosuc River in downtown Littleton, which is getting nicer every year. The brewery proudly does not serve any IPAs, but rather an excellent selection of German and European style beers. Good smash burgers too. Poutine was also on the menu, which was foreshadowing our venture into Québec.
Littleton is still only two-thirds the way up NH, it was still another hour plus drive through Coös County to our destination. The road meanders next to the Connecticut River up to Colebrook and then abruptly ascends further into the wilderness next to a small mountain stream. For the next 15 miles: no cell phone reception, no houses, just trees and French Canadian radio stations.
After bushwhacking 15 miles, we arrived in the town center of Pittsburg. Don’t blink or else you’ll miss it, as I once heard someone joke. Pittsburg is an outpost town and the result of a survey dispute. For many years, in the 1800s the town declared itself to be its own independent county, the Indian Stream Republic, before formally deciding to join New Hampshire.
Tall Timber Lodge is located on Back Lake, a couple miles outside the center of town. In season, which is Summer and Winter, they have a restaurant and cabins for rent. Early spring is their down season, so we were on our own for food. I’m told Tall Timber is a big destination for snowmobilers.
On Sunday, we drove across the border to Magog, Québec, which is a bit more cosmopolitan than the region on other side of the border. We loaded up on artisan cheese, espresso, and croissants. We also stopped at Bleu Lavande and Abbaye de Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, a beautiful modern cathedral nested above Lake Memphrémagog. The monks at the abby famously produce cheese and cider.
For dinner, we ate at the micro-brasserie la Memphré in downtown Magog. The appetizers included bread and a warm compote of cheese and caramelized onions. Delicious. I rounded out the meal with a glass of wine and more bread and fondue made with cheese from the abby. Bread and cheese are my comfort foods.
Afterwards, we made our way back into the woods of Pittsburg and prepared for the eclipse day ahead. Great weekend!