8/19, Saturday. My nephew finally arrived after a 12.5 hours delay, tired, and me too. I managed to secure a ride for my planned eclipse outing after last minute cancellation yesterday. After cleaning up, it was already 1pm. I abandoned the idea of checking out this year's PCT Day. Cancelled my rental car reservation ($80/day). Instead, we headed into town. First stop, Ken's Bakery. Always excellent here.
Walked to REI, but didn't buy anything. The store was very busy. Probably thanks to the eclipse tourism.
Walked to Powell's City of Books. Lots of people here too. Since he finished his book on his long journey here, I bought a book for his return bus trip. Checked out Powell's Rare Book Room. The photos here are the oldest book (De Bello Judaico @1480) and the most expensive book (on Lewis and Clark expedition @1814 for $25000) in Powell's collection.
We finished the day with a beer flight and more food after a walk by the waterfront. No one checked his ID. One more dish after this photo was taken.Packing for the eclipse camping trip. The Six Moon Design backpack I bought him two years ago, finally could put in proper use.
8/20, Sunday, met with Marc at Gateway TC hoping for a 4th person to sign up my last minute trip. Drove to Red Lake TH. ~2 hours, no traffic. Part of the drive was on Hwy224, parallels Clackamas River, quite scenic. The last mile is gravel, but wide and in decent shape. Already about a dozen cars parked at TH. Our goal is Potato Butte, but that's for tomorrow morning.
The first mile and half goes up, cross power lines, and continues until the Lake Basin, where the grade eases. Red Lake to the right. Averill Lake is bigger, and looks pretty, right by the trail. A few tents here already. Continued to Wall Lake. Again, a number of tents were at different corners. We pitched tents close to a small group (they arrived on Thursday, and hung big bath towels and this Sun Shower) at the SE side of the lake. The lake is pleasant, but without much view.
My nephew was not feeling so well, so he stayed at the camp. Marc and I headed east to scout the turn-off to Potato Butte, and check out more lakes in this scenic area. The next, Sheep Lake is nice. I would have camped there. It has some meadows on both ends (a bit damp). After that, there are more up and downs than I thought. No one camped at Middle Lake. Marc turned around at Lower Lake, which is big and quite pretty, and can be reserved (yes, FULL). I continued on to the road towards Ollalie Lake. 
The road here is still wide, but more rough. A lot of cars parked by the road. Saw some just camp by the road (no water), some at First Lake (you can swim there), and then Head Lake (view of Jefferson). Ollalie Lake is beautiful, overlooking Jefferson, at the moment hazed over by forest fire. Saw a couple walking with 2 mules here. This is a "resort", campsite and cabins (FULL), a general store, a ranger cabin. Busy. Some tent site has great view. Swimming is prohibited in Ollalie Lake (water source for the resort), but you can row canoes here.To continue my loop, I looked for PCT. There were quite a number of people at the PCT TH. One guy (R.J.) was a trail angel, ferrying thru-hikers around Jefferson Wilderness (closed due to fire). He had to bail out of his own thru-hike earlier this year due to foot injury, and was helped by a trail angel. He offered me a Coors Light. My water bottle was running low, so it was timely. PCT southbound here is almost due west. At some points you had good view of the south: Jefferson, Ollalie Butte, Ollalie Lake, and the burned acres (from old fire). Mostly in the woods. Even though there are many lakes close by, the trail doesn't go by any, other than Scharf Lake, very small and busy. Not pretty at all. There's a confusing turn with multi trail junctions, where I headed back to camp.
Relaxed at the camp. Waited by the shore for sunset. One old guy in the group was telling stories, and shouted at the bugs on the lake a few times. A young couple also pitched tent in this area. The girl washed dirty dishes in the lake, which I felt compelled to talk to her. They also left the fire smoldering all night, which I only found out the next morning, and they were gone. That's how forest fire starts sometimes. Left them a note.8/21, Monday. Warm night. I got out to see stars around 4:30, already too late. Moon had risen. Even thought it was new moon, there was a glow in the horizon. Still could see milky way. The lake wasn't still, so only the brightest stars were flickering in the water.
My nephew was having diarrhea. So the two of us had a late start, after some cleanup. Around 8, we headed towards Potato Butte. We passed by a good size meadow. A lake is a short walk away, not seen from the trail. Then the trail gets steep.
The first lookout is a rocky overhang, view of Jefferson, and 4 lakes below. 
We continued to the top, and found Marc. A bit wooded here, but you can see Hood between the trees. There was one tent. No birds here. We all waited here for the moon to move in, slowly. It went from the top right to the bottom left. The first 20 minutes, couldn't tell that the moon was there. Only when the sun was more than 90% covered, the sky started to dim. 
For a whole 2 minutes, it looked like dusk in all directions, with orange glow 36°. Temperature dropped significantly. Wind picked up. Took off the eclipse shade and took a couple of photos with my phone. When the light began again, people were walking about on the butte and chatting. We didn't wait for the eclipse to finish, and hiked down. Packed out, and back at TH around 1:30pm. No traffic, per se, all the way. A bit slow making a left turn at Estacada, and a bit rush hour traffic back in Portland. Marc dropped us off downtown, where we caught a train home around 4pm. All worked out exceedingly well.
Looked up online for my last solar experience, and confirmed that I saw an annular solar eclipse on Sep 23, 1987. Next annular eclipse will pass central Oregon on Oct 14th, 2023. Next total eclipse on this continent will be on April 8th, 2024, more to the east.
8/22, Tuesday. Back in office, half of my co-worker stayed put. One went up north the weekend just to avoid the eclipse. Oddly enough, everyone I know who made an effort to go to the totality zone didn't encounter traffic. One went to the coast early morning on Monday, even though it was cloudy, the clouds stayed low, so didn't obstruct the view. She reported seeing sea birds got frantic. One went to Round Lake, which is only a dozen miles from me. A Seattle friend of mine drove down to Portland on Sunday, and headed to north Salem Monday early morning, went back to Seattle ahead of the crowd. Funny that another Seattle friend of mine who didn't care for the eclipse got stuck in traffic driving through Oregon from California.
Went to a meetup after work with my nephew on open source software. We both enjoyed it.
8/23, Wednesday. Put him on a bus north. Despite of a late start, he arrived more or less on time.
