Saturday Eclipse Viewing From Mount Wichita Summit

I figured if there was to be any Ring of Fire Eclipse viewing in my area the best wide-open location to do so would be at Lake Wichita, perhaps from the summit of Mount Wichita.

I knew we were not directly in the eclipse's path. That was a few miles to the south, with Abilene and Austin getting the full blackout.

Upon arrival at the Mount Wichita parking lot I made note of a larger than usual number of vehicles parked. Likely enjoying the cool weather. We got down to 48 degrees last night. It was barely 60 upon arrival at Lake Wichita.

Last week's one day of rain added some water to Lake Wichita. That band of blue you see in the photo was not there upon my last visit to this location. But, it is going to take a lot more rain to finally float that new dock waiting for water.

I decided to hike to the summit of Mount Wichita for the first time on a long time. I think well before COVID was the last time I made that arduous trek to this summit. I used the trail on the east side of the mountain to get to the top. You can barely see the trail in the photo documentation.

From the summit, looking down at the Circle Trail and the newly added water.

When I was almost to the summit I was greeted by an aggressive poodle guard dog. The poodle's human picked him up to calm him down.

The poodle quit barking when I asked if I could take his picture. Poodles are such vain little mutts.

Back at ground level, upon reaching the parking lot, I saw a lot of people looking at the sky. I looked at the sun and it seemed way brighter than the norm.

I was almost to my vehicle when a girl, who was with a group of skywatchers, asked me if I wanted to see something cool.

Sure, said I.

She handed me sky viewing glasses. I then looked at the sun and could see the eclipse. The sun looked crescent shaped.

Back at my vehicle I looked at the sun again, without sky viewing glasses. At first what I saw looked like the photo I took from that location, looking at the sun.

But, continuing to look, suddenly I could see the eclipse, without sky viewing glasses.

I shouted to the people who had let me see with their sky viewing glasses that I could now see the eclipse without help.

Don't look too long, shouted a guy who was with the sky viewing glasses girl. It can do damage, said he. To which I said, I thought that was only with a direct viewing of an eclipse.

So, I then got in my vehicle and woke the phone to see how many Google Fit Minutes I had walked.

Well.

I could not read the numbers. I was blinded by that bright light. Luckily this blinding phenomenon did not last long, with my full sight returned.

But, it was unnerving. I won't make that stupid mistake again...