I’m sure that you are aware by now that the USA was gripped by eclipse fever this past week. The path of full totality was about a 5 hour drive north of Pawling where I am located and everything had been booked solid in the region for months. A number of people really urged me take the drive for the experience and to be honest I did briefly think about it. However I had a busy work week in store so call me a wimp but I didn’t really fancy a 10 hour plus round trip in a day to experience 3 minutes of totality. Instead I really wanted to hike so decided to experience 95% totality from my favorite local viewpoint on top of Alander Mountain.

Alander Mountain

Alander is fairly unique to this region, after climbing through the inevitable trees you come to a grassy, rocky bald with a 360 degree view into the Harlem and Hudson Valleys as well as north into Massachusetts and east into Connecticut. Alander sits at the southern end of the Taconics and at 2241ft high not only is it a gem, its also a commanding presence right on a tri-state border – NY / CT / MA. I’m transported home at the summit because of the totally open views and in the last few years I’ve taken each of the 3 routes up there on many occasions. For this outing I decided to take the shortest drive from home and take the Alander Brook trail to the top. The trail also happens to be the shortest and the steepest route up! its a relentless 2 mile slog straight up the southern slopes of the mountain and in places it has been badly eroded from the heavy rains that we have endured in the last 12 months. Add in a heavy pack stuffed with photography gear and you get an idea of the effort. In the end it took me just over 2 hours to reach the summit area. I knew roughly where I wanted to go so after checking out the various viewpoints I settled down cook some food and wait for whatever was going to happen.

95% Totality

It was a beautiful afternoon – 71 degrees with whispy high level clouds, I had the summit to myself for a while then as the start time of the eclipse event drew near 3 other little groups disturbed my solitude and set about finding their own vantage points. Through my glasses I could see that the moon was beginning to take a bite out of the sun but noticed with dismay that the clouds were rapidly filling in from the south.

It was so quiet other than one, or maybe many very active woodpeckers off in the distance. I ate my dinner, drank my coffee and watched as a few buzzards rode the thermals below my position. The quality of the light was changing, it wasn’t quite twilight but I don’t quite know how else to describe it. Over towards the Hudson River a slight evening type haze developed and right over on the tops of the Catskills was a faint Alpenglow. Suddenly the temperature dropped and I started shivering, I was surrounded by twilight midges and then realized that the ever-present woodpecker as well as the buzzards had disappeared. I couldn’t see through the clouds but the time suggested that this was the moment.

I’m fully aware that 95% totality is nothing like the 100% experience but I don’t feel that by staying close to home I missed out. Maybe one day I’ll go for 100% but until then I won’t forget the tranquility of my trippy afternoon up on Alander

Photography on Alander Mountain

Although I’d just hauled all my camera gear up the mountain during the duration of the eclipse I only used my phone, with the lenses covered by the filter from some eclipse glasses, to take a few pictures. I preferred to sit back and experience it rather than lose the moment. However my plan for the rest of the afternoon was to hike down and head to a close by location where I know there is a smashing westward view over the Hudson Valley towards the profile of the Catskill Mountains. It’s somewhere that I’ve been planning to check out at sunset for quite a while now and with the bank of clouds I hoped for a decent show. I packed up around 4.30 and prepared to leave the summit but the sky was becoming really interesting and now I was torn, do I ignore and head down or do I seize the opportunity? The dramatic sky and crepuscular rays proved.to be irresistible my only regret is that I didn’t stay longer to explore more compositions because by the time I made it to Overmountain and my hoped for sunset view the sky had totally filled in and my chance was gone.

I’ve been on Alander in all seasons but never had particularly good enough or dramatic enough light. I have plans to spend more time on the summit and know that at some point I will be able to take the “killer” photo from up there, until then I guess you will just have to watch this space and enjoy a few images that I’ve taken from past hikes!!!

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One Life:

One Chance:

NO REGRETS

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Thank you for reading this far, words don’t always come easily to me, however I hope the photos make up for it and you are able to understand a little more as to why I take the photos that I do. Please feel free to subscribe for future posts or visit my website where you can purchase my work