Verstovia and Lunar Eclipse

Clear skies. Frosty overnight, into the 40s by the afternoon. Light winds.

I biked to Verstovia for my walk and talk this morning. It felt like a push to get up to the first view point at the pace I took. I had considered going on, but the way my legs felt, I turned back instead.

I noticed a little trail to the small beach adjacent to the Allen Marine shipyard. The tide was up, but I was still talking with my parents and thought it might be pleasant to sit in the sun by the water.

The day hadn’t warmed up as much as it would, and I felt a bit more chill than I had hoped, but enjoyed the warmth of the sun.

Many flies were active along the shoreline. They come close to me, but don’t seem to tolerate the camera much. I managed a few photos, but missed many others.

I checked rocks for lichens. I think the guard rock has been in place for quite some years, but maybe it just went in when the separated path did (which I think has still been 10 years or more). I didn’t find as much as I expected. Most of what I saw on the larger rocks was Placopsis. I did not make any observations of it, but did find a smaller rock closer to the water with a handful of different (from each other, at least) looking lichens.

A robin called from the neighborhood while I relaxed in the sun outside my house this afternoon. I am not sure if it’s a new migrant, or one that’s been here through the winter (but mostly being scarce, as there have been few robin reports so far this year).

I thought I would stay home and work on projects this afternoon. However an iNaturalist post on Metzgeria (a kind of liverwort) made me want to revisit and collect one I had observed last year around this time.

I headed out, but took my time getting to the liverwort. I made an initial stop to check the willow on the break water. The insects were still there. I collected a handful in case I might be able to get a name on them.

Verstovia below Picnic Rock had may more snowboard/ski tracks on it today.

While scanning, I noticed a single trail on Bear Mountain. That caught my attention and looking more, I saw a person on final approach to the summit.

I thought they might spend some time on the summit and I wanted to get a closer look, so I drove out to Silver Bay. I didn’t account for the angle of viewing there.

I could see the summit, but just barely. I did not see a person there. I couldn’t see the trail at all.

I checked again from Cannon Island Drive. There I could now see a second trail. I also spotted the person hiking back up the snow.

The bridge seemed to be the best viewing location. Closer than the channel, but with a better angle and fuller view than Cannon Island drive and Silver Bay.

It occurred to me that even better would have been Picnic Rock, but I wasn’t about to try and race up there.

I spent a half an hour or so watching the ascent through binoculars and my camera. Heat shimmer type effects made the view less sharp than I might have liked, but it was clear enough.

They spent longer than I expected at the top, but I was patient and managed to catch them dropping off the summit.

I’ve been up in parts of the area they hiked up and came down during the summer. When there’s no snow on it, it seems very steep in places.

They did not seem to be travelling as fast as I expected. I’m not sure if that’s because they were going fast and I was just viewing from far away so it didn’t look as fast (which seems likely), or if the snow was deep enough that it kept them from going too fast.

I finally made it to the rock outcrop on Japonski Island and was able to relocate the Metzgeria I was interested in.

After a stop to visit with a friend, went to Sea Mart just after the sun had set. There was still nice color in the sky, and I wasn’t the only one who appeared to be appreciating it.

Later this evening I headed out for the lunar eclipse. I’ve previously photographed a much full lunar eclipse, though that one was at a much less friendly time (if I recall, the midpoint was 2 or 3 am).

For this one, the moon was fully eclipsed between approximately 10:30 and 11:30pm local time.

I had been working on projects inside, and didn’t get out quite as early as I intended. The moon was in the southeast, so not the most conveniently located for finding a nice foreground object to pair it with. (The eclipsing moon by itself is somewhat interesting. I took straight photos of the moon previously, but this time considered others with more appropriate gear will achieve much higher quality images than I could do with what I have. So it made more sense to me to try for more of an environmental shot with a landmark or something.)

I drove around downtown. The newspaper photographer was already at the church, so I didn’t stop there.

There wasn’t a place I could easily access to put the moon and the bridge in a satisfying composition.

I ended up going for pictures of the Cablehouse (home to KCAW). I rarely shoot photos of buildings square on, and was reminded why architectural photographers like tilt/shift lenses.

From there I moved to the City Building. It was less compelling, so I didn’t stay with it long.

I also tried the Totem Pole in Totem Square.

From there I went to Totem Park. The angle wasn’t the best, but I tried a few shots from in front of the visitor center.

By this time, fullness was nearing completion and I started going for shots of just the moon.

My last stop was out Sawmill Creek Road. I (correctly) figured it would probably be over Sugarloaf rather than one of the more striking rocky peaks. I did not bother with wider angle shots here. I just made some photos as the shadow started to recede. It was remarkable to me how much difference there was in brightness between the shadow and unshadowed parts. It was more than my camera could really handle. However, looking through binoculars, my eyes were able to see both the bright and shadow parts. I have images shot at different exposures and may at some point try to composite an image that renders more like what I observed with my eyes.

Fitness note on my Verstovia walk: Carrying a pack (though not my larger one), I made it to the viewpoint in less than 23 minutes. The time was faster/better than I felt. I wonder if biking to the trail was part of what made my legs feel more tired (instead of being the warm up I was thinking).

Also, the fitbit was a bit all over with heart rate. It was showing 103 when I’m sure my heart was higher, then suddenly spiked to 146 (which might have been accurate – I had started pushing harder when my heart rate was lower than I wanted to target). That said, I suspect the overall average was reasonable. It’s possible that my heart rate is varying a lot with the variation in steepness of the trail, but I suspect not quite in the ways I was seeing while looking at the fitbit. I think it might not be a good tool for trying to maintain a heart rate in a certain range. I may try something else if I decide I’m serious about wanting to take that approach.

My iNaturalist Observations for Today