Climb every mountain or maybe just one.
Well, it is that time of year again, the middle of August, which means it is time once again for the Mt. Kobau Star Party.
My husband Dave, is an amateur astronomer and every year he tries to get up Mt. Kobau for a few days with a group of like minded people. It is not too far from home, so is a very handy site for him to get to. Usually he goes alone as I am quite often busy with other things, but, if there is nothing on our agenda, I go with him.
Taking our aged motor home and our two small dogs, we pack up what we will need for a few days, and head to Osoyoos. We make a stop there for a Timmy’s coffee, the last I will see of it until we come back down. Then, we head up highway 3, and to the Mt. Kobau turn off. From there it is an hour and a half of slow going over rocks and potholes, to the top of the mountain. The views going up are spectacular and at least one stop is made for photographs of the valley below. Spotted Lake and Osoyoos Lake lie sparkling in the sun surrounded by countless rows of mountain ridges in colours of blues and purples.
Just when I think my bones, and the motor home, cannot take any further jarring, we come to the last leg of the road. Here we encounter signs, “ 5k per hour, telescopes do not like dust”. “No headlights, you will disturb the astronomers” and, finally, “Welcome to Mt. Kobau Star Party.” A few minutes past the signs, we come to the parking lot, where many people choose to camp. Other people go further up the road to camp anywhere there is a flat patch of grass. There are tents, campers and all sorts of rigs and we find a nice flat patch to park our RV.
Mt. Kobau is off limits to camping but, because the astronomy group has been camping there for many years, special permission has been given to allow the event to take place one week every August.
The first thing you notice on getting out of your vehicle is the silence. The air is still and perfectly quiet. Very few birds come this high but crickets and chipmunks chirrup all around us.
We set up housekeeping and then take stock of who and what is around us. First thing I notice is the astronomy dress code. This seems to be quite regimented. The first requirement is a silly hat! Most of the guys seem to favour the Tilley type hat, however it seems that it has to be well worn and floppy round the edges. Tilly advertise that their hats can pass through an elephant and come out unscathed. Most of the hats worn here look like they have suffered that fate!
Luckily my spouse has his required headgear. Some of the guys have baseball hats but these are covered with badges of past star parties they have attended. Dave has a baseball cap of his own with twenty something badges, but he prefers to wear the Tilley version.
Next requirement is the socks and sandals footgear. Grey calf length socks seem to be the order of the day, topped by shapeless shorts. Mostly Tilley type shorts but obviously there are rules that they must be old, misshapen and un-ironed. T.shirts of various earth tones finish off the uniform, but I do notice that many of the men sport a short, white beard. The younger guys seem to be clean shaven, but neat little beards seem the order of the day for the over fifties. It is very hard to distinguish my husband from all the rest of them, they look like they have been cloned!
After the initial hand shaking and welcoming of old friends, it is time to do the tour of the telescopes. Obviously the money these guys save on clothing, they put into their telescopes. Most of the scopes are worth more than the vehicle housing them and there is a lot of drooling by the other members over some of the better instruments. Many are home made but, this does not mean cheap, ten thousand dollars does not buy much when you are looking at the precision needed for the best stargazing. Once the telescopes have been much admired, they are covered until late evening.
I have no interest in the stars, apart from admiring their beauty. Standing for hours, craning my neck to look through an eyepiece at some fuzzy light has no thrill for me, however, for those who love doing this, it is a beautiful, remote place to be.
Of course there is no electricity up there so we rely on our battery operated RV lighting. However, we have to block out all the possibility of letting this light escape and spoiling the viewing time. Window blinds are not enough, we need total blackout. Dave came prepared for this and brings out his black out material, which is black poster board, already labelled from his last trip up here, so he knows which window each sheet goes on. They all get stuck on with decorator tape, including the ceiling vents, so the interior of the RV is a completely sunless environment. We spend most of our time outdoors, enjoying the wonderful weather, and all our cooking is done outdoors, on a Coleman stove. I don’t want to heat up the interior, so cooking outside is better, also roomier.
All is great until evening falls. At over six thousand feet, it gets quite cool after dinner and uncomfortable to sit outside after 8.00pm. I retire, with book to the RV \which now feels like a cave, and put on a light. I do not want to run down the auxiliary battery so make do with the one light. I read till about nine and then it is lights out and I go to sleep. Dave skulks about outside till whatever time and then he joins me.
My early night leads to an early awakening, Dave is already up and I hear the kettle singing. Apparently he felt too cold to do much viewing and had come to bed fairly early. I guess most of the other guys were a bit tougher as everyone else seemed to be asleep and it was really quiet. After tea we took the dogs a walk.
Whichever way you walk leads to beautiful views, we finished up at the Kobau lookout which is the highest point and has 360 degree views of breathtaking splendour. I wish I was artistic so I could capture the colours and contours of the rolling hills, alas, that is not my talent. Dave enjoys his camera, and took lots of photos, but it is hard to capture the extent of the vastness of the hills. He did however get a super close up of a visiting stag.
During the three day visit I read several books, walked the dogs and really relaxed both body and soul in the peace and quiet. Dave enjoyed visiting with friends and talking to like minded people. Both of us felt refreshed after our complete change of pace. No phone, no computer, nothing to do but enjoy a few days of nature at its best. Dave and I have completely different hobbies, however, we both love getting closer to nature and this time away from the daily grind seemed to bring us closer together.