Event #3771

Total Eclipse in a Park - MOONday

West Tyson County Park, 131 N Outer Rd E, Eureka, MO

Registered Boxes: All Traditional HH/Cootie/Flea Postal LTC Event Box Traveler Other

Starts	Mon August 21, 2017 7:00am
Ends	Mon August 21, 2017 3:00pm
Owner	MO UR4Me
Admins	MO UR4Me
Signups	47/100
Location	West Tyson County Park, 131 N Outer Rd E, Eureka, MO View Map
Add to Calendar	Google calendar ICS file (e.g. Outlook, iCal, etc.)

Description

Experience 2 minutes and 13 seconds of TOTAL DARKNESS and other once-in-a-lifetime phenomena during the 2017 Solar Eclipse, which will occur mid-day on Monday, August 21, 2017.

COST UPDATE: Eclipse glasses $1 each for first 60 who signed up ($5 for special ones); $5/person for camping/lodge (SUNday) and suggested donation of $8/family to cover other (non-letterbox) costs.

WHAT IF IT'S CLOUDY?
Eclipse veterans like to use the phrase “experience totality” rather than “see totality,” because many of the other phenomena Can be experienced even if clouds cover the Sun. For example, it will get dark, the temperature will go down, any wildlife in the area will exhibit changes in behavior.

WHO: Unlimited day-trippers, up to 20 overnighters in the lodge and 20ish campers for Sunday night.

WHAT: 40+ new letterboxes from carvers across America, to find along beautiful but rugged trails, broken into loops, including a moonlight set of boxes to find at night with flashlights.
Clues for existing boxes will be incorporated into your clue packet.

WHEN: The entire event is taking place SUNday through MOONday. The Eclipse is on Monday afternoon at approximately 1:15pm. It will be worth taking the day off work to be in the Path of Totality!
There are separate AQ events so I'll know who to expect when. There is no particular time that you need to show up by on Sunday; being August it may be hot so hiking in the morning may be preferred. So I'll have the clues available when the park opens at 8:00 a.m. for anyone who wants to get an early start; just look for the yellow tablecloth at the camping area. The trails are rugged so you may want to break it up and then go find some air conditioning or a pool in the afternoon. See parking information below.

WHERE: West Tyson County Park in St. Louis County.

WEAR: We have eclipse glasses for the first 60 people who sign up, for $1 each at the event, so you don't need to find your own. A few are "wacky" pairs for $5 if you want to get even crazier.

THE PATH: Yes, it’s really called the Path of Totality. If you are in this path, and not ten feet outside the path, you will experience total blockage of the sun. You can learn more about it here Eclipse 2017 Info The Path stretches from Oregon to South Carolina, so hopefully this will not be the only event planned for the day. Here is a closeup map of the St. Louis area St. Louis Eclipse Map

DARKNESS: The partial phase will start at about 11:48am and totality starts at about 1:15pm. West Tyson County Park will get over 2 minutes of totality!

ECLIPSE VIEWING - We’ll be hanging out at the camping area and you can spread out however you want. Bring a lawn chair or blanket. There will be at least 5 picnic tables in the shade and there is plenty more shade. The themed event boxes will be down here too. If the sky is cloudy, we can use the Route 66 Museum's indoor conference room and watch NASA's webcast from another city in the path.

LODGING OPTIONS - See SUNday event at https://www.atlasquest.com/showinfo.html?eventId=3879

MOONday POTLUCK LUNCH - At the campground at NOON. Bring whatever you want (but not the easy stuff if you’re a local, please. Let out-of-towners have those). There is a BBQ at the campground if anyone wants to use it, plus 5 picnic tables and I’ll have extra tables as well. If you need to cook something, you can put a crockpot in the lodge that morning and then bring it down, or let me know and I’ll bring it down while you’re ‘boxing. There are 4 outlets in the lodge porch and I’ll bring power strips. Coolers can just be dropped off in the camping area that morning; I’ll be around. The eclipse will start at about 11:45 and totality is at 1:15ish.

EVENT BOXES - Bring your stamping stuff to the campground area; there will be some themed event boxes there. MO UR4Me will provide the tunes!

PARKING – The reason I reserved this particular park is that there is limited sky, limited parking yet unlimited beautiful trails with plentiful hiding spots. So it’s not an ideal location for ‘noxers when Route 66 State Park is next door and wide open. Since we’ll have people in the park Sunday night, they’ll already have a parking spot. The rangers “dummy lock” the front gates and then open them officially at 8am. So I encourage day trippers to just come anytime before 7:45 and let yourself in. You’ll grab a parking spot and can hit the trails while it’s cool out. I don’t anticipate many others even trying to get into the park, but there were a few people driving around and stopping at different spots at around 1:00 today. But don’t worry, I only saw 8 total people there today and they were all after 9am; it’s not super busy on weekdays. But even if others do come, there is still plenty of parking around. There will probably be many hikers/bikers on Sunday afternoon, but we’ll all fit.

SHUTTLE: I’m going to have one spot at the campground cordoned off for my mini-van (shall we call it the Silver Shuttle?) so that I can shuttle people wherever they need to go. So worst case scenario: park by the entrance and I’ll come pick you up. No problem.

Aug 23, 2017: Awesome video by RIclimber
RIclimber and MysteryChick made it home safely and he just sent me this link to his video! I'm so glad that he thought of videotaping US - you can see the darkness take over, hear the birds stop and the cicadas start and the tree frogs join the chorus later, plus all our exclamations! He set it to public, so hopefully you can view it even without a Facebook login. THANK YOU, Jonathan!!

https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.winokur/videos/vb.504758769/10155606187113770/?type=2&theater&notif_t=video_processed&notif_id=1503501724493707

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