Black skies and large cameras in the Adirondacks

Many great trips start with some good planning. 6 months ago my good friend Trevor Meunier said to me, "Lets shoot eclipse in the Adirondacks on 4x5 cameras". This ticked a lot of adventure criteria boxes at once, great hiking, film cameras, a once in a life time view, time away from the computer, it was an easy decision.

We got to planning; our goal was to view the eclipse from the North end of Avalanche lake. Situated between the shear rock walls of Mountain Colden and Avalanche Mountain, the lake looked like a great subject and a totally reasonable (we thought) hike in.

Cameras were picked, gear debated, some time seriously passed. We both knew we were each bringing a field 4x5 film camera and some kind of digital camera. The usual gear trap here is that inevitably you'll want to have more gear than you can carry! We were were quite constrained both in pack space and hike in weight. Trevor has a tidy Japanese wooden field camera, and I a Wista VX (are these things really 6 pounds? Maybe I should get a wooden field camera. 😱) I also decided on my trusty Pentax K3 iii and a few lenses, Trevor on a capable looking Fuji crop sensor. We both managed to save a lot of pack space using gear wraps, these were seriously excellent.

I did a lot of day hikes in the flat North Grenville region, we kept tuning our gear and time seriously passed.

Snow time

Fast forward to the week before the eclipse, we were expecting muddy hiking and relatively dry conditions. We were thrown a curveball Wednesday / Thursday, a huge snow storm rolled through the eastern seaboard.

Doing a final gear check, we threw everything in the truck and hit the road... we may have had a gear problem.

Driving through up state New York is a treat for a landscape photographer - we were on a mission to get to the trailhead so we didn't stop, but there's a wealth of old farms and rural decline that catches the eye, often judxtaposed near new builds. As Trevor said, there's kind of more of everything as soon as you cross the boarder.

As we got closer to our destination it became clear the storm was more active in the high peaks region than in Ottawa. Thick snow hung off of the pine trees, and heavy clouds hung around the mountain tops. We both became more and more nervous as we got close to the trailhead. Adirondack camp sites are first come, first serve. Having to adjust if we couldn't get a camp site or parking was going to throw a giant wrench in our plans.

We managed to get parking in a crowded parking lot. We packed up and hit the trail, along with a number of like minded hikers (though I suspect we were among the most gear laden on the trail.) The trail was beautiful, fluffy snow kept falling and the hiking wasn't too bad. Snow shoes are mandated in the park when there's over a certain depth of snow; this was a blessing and a curse, on one hand the packed trails were much nicer to walk on than mud, but my deep powder 32" atlas snow shoes made it slow going.

Getting close to Marcy Dam we ran into a ranger hauling a huge pulk - he put the fear into us that we might not find a site at Avalanche lake. Nervousness was starting to set in again, it wouldn't be a great situation if we got to the Avalanche sites and had to backtrack. This is also the first of many times a ranger would cotton shame Trevor and I (rightfully so!) PSA: do not wear jeans on a winter hike (although clearly we survived). 😅

Marcy dam

Marcy Dam was always intended to be a waypoint, but when the path opened up to the dam structure it became apparent it was so much more! The view opened up into an incredible panorama. Multiple mountains were visible, the gentle snow and clouds rolling through with a lovely stream running through the valley. More importantly, it appeared to meet our prime goal of being a most excellent spot for eclipse viewing!

The hunt for a place to camp was on, R&R was in our grasp once we found a site. Bouncing across a river crossing bridge, I thought we had a mile or more to go, only for Trevor to strike gold. There was an untouched set of sites right after the dam! We set up the Canadian outpost, with a couple from Ottawa joining us a half hour later. Hilariously the ranger came by a while later, asking them if we'd encroached on their site.

With the snow still falling, we set up camp. I'd borrowed a Gortex bivy sack from my friend Steve and a nice camping tarp. Together they made a really decent winter sleep system.

It didn't look like much, but it did the trick.

Ascent to Avalanche lake

With Sunday wide open, we grabbed some coffee on the dam, taking in the early morning sun. Not sure my photos do it justice, I think I was using a black mist filter which muddled the results, it was a nice view as the sun slowly crept over the peaks.

We decided to check out the North side of Avalanche lake and evaluate for the eclipse. Hitting the trail the first mile or so was lovely, gentle upwards hike. The snow heavy on the trees, path packed down well, it was great hiking conditions. We arrived to a trail marker, 1 mile to go, almost there we thought! The trail trail quickly changed it's grade upwards, and the gentle hike turned into a powerful ascent for almost the whole mile. I'm so happy we made camp at Marcy dam, the hike with heavy packs was no joke. Somewhere along the way I sustained a hiking injury from a loose boot + snow shoes (flatland shoe fit is apparently quite forgiving).

Avalanche lake was as described - beautiful lake framed by two rock walls. We took some photos while the cold wind whipped up the lake. We met youtuber Backpacking and Bacon, maybe we'll show up on his video feed some day?

The lake looked like it wasn't going to be as good for the eclipse as thought, too wide, too cold, lots of shadows, unhappy hill access; we decided Marcy was going to be our subject. Choosing Marcy also made logistics for hiking out way easier.

We made our way back, grabbed lunch and Trevor hiked back to the truck for a lens we'd left behind and some other supplies. I spent the sunny afternoon on the dam, keeping off my injured foot, enjoying the view and talking to the ranger that had set up there, monitoring access to the high peaks. Around this time my phone ran out of battery; being unplugged in the forest was just the recharge I'd been looking for.

One of the great things about winter camping is that you get to sleep so early, it's dark and cold, what else are you going to do? Trevor woke up super early for astro, sadly my bivy sack was a little too comfortable so I didn't quite get up in time to partake, getting up for a late 4:30am. Getting out a bivy sack at this time at night with a wrecked foot and dead hiking legs, I was about as graceful as a baby deer being born; I'm surprised I didn't get lodged in a snowbank like some kind of Canadian Mr Bean.

Trevor got some great photos!

We had started to shovel off the dam deck the day before, we kept at it and basically just hung out until the eclipse, keeping the conversation going with the ranger and some great folks we met, it was truly a good time.

Totality (was totally awesome)

The totality came and went so quickly, it's amazing how quickly darkness falls when it happens; it really is something you have to experience. Trevor and I were both scrambling with our cameras, I made a mess of some 4x5 film, then switched over to my K3 iii. Trevor's Fuji had long since died, he was slinging sheet film as fast as he could go, cursing his light meter. Chaos on the dam! Reminds me of that old tired Mike Tyson saying, "everyone has a plan until they're punched in the mouth." We had plans, but the eclipse waits for no one; you only get 3 minutes. Exposure is all over the place, clock is ticking. Without a doubt, shooting an eclipse is a photographic punch in the mouth. 😅

This is my main digital photo from the totality, I call it "The Observers". I'm going to be tweaking this for some time to come! Hopefully I'll post up the 4x5 photos in a separate post when I get them developed and scanned.

In hindsight, Trevor's choice of litho film was really clever (I'm sure he was thinking this). It can be developed under a safelight, so you can effectively push or pull it when you develop it, correcting the exposure on the fly. Lesson learned for next time!

The last minute of it I gave up trying to take photos and just enjoyed the spectacle.

After the totality we packed up and slowly made our way out.

Gear thoughts

I think we were actually pretty well prepared overall.

What worked well

• backpacks - I have a 65L pack that I feel really pulled it's own this trip. Trevor's ginormous lowpro seemed to be the ticket too.
• simon stove - alcohol stoves are kind of archaic but mine did great. Also a source of conversation, most people have moved on to MSR mini gas stoves. (Note, bring a alu foil wind shield next time)
• tripod and photo gear. I had started to up sell myself to get a carbon tripod, but my trusty alu travel tripod worked great.
• aquatabs - we saved a ton of money not buying a filter.
• MREs.

What I'd change

• smaller snow shoes - my atlas snow shoes are seriously boat anchors. Omg.
• hiking pants. They are both vastly superior to jeans, and getting well meaning comments from rangers got really old (I did have some super tech long thermal underwear, but how were they to know?)
• sunscreen. So crispy.
• better fitting boots.
• a 110mm or 75mm large format lens. We had one 90mm lens. We made it work but in hindsight more wide options would have been good.
• 16 stop eclipse filter. I found this a to be a totally obnoxious filter to work with, I should have brought a 10 stop.
• bring a simple watch. My fitbit lost time after I powered it off over night. In a way it was incredibly charming to be super disconnected, but having a watch for the totality sure would have been ok. I'd probably wear my g-shock or Seiko 809 if I could do this again - simple, light timekeeping.
• hiking legs. I've been hiking a lot over the winter and it definitely helped, but even more trail fitness would have been good. Seriously gassed by the end of the hike, and may have earned the name "Rob Zombie" (I think was at most at the early signs of zombification.)

What we didn't need

There's always something you bring you don't end up using.

• Crampons: I bought some nice crampons that stayed in the truck.
• Peak design camera clip: in pack mule mode, having the K3 swinging off my shoulder was uncomfortable, ended up not using this.

Flickr album

An album from the trip can be found here.

Wrap up

The Adirondacks are a real treat, and not that far from the NCR, more trips need to happen! It's a really excellent resource, well trodden yet quite wild. I'd love to bring some lighter gear, hiking pants, and better boots and try to get up to a peak.

If you get a chance to go, talk to the rangers, they're a wealth of stories and info, my hats off to all the work they do.