Port Season

En route to the Owl Conservatory on Tuesday, September 22, I realized I had come during the autumnal equinox -- that vaguely uncomfortable and oddly awkward cusp between the dog days of summer and beginning of fall. Our merry band of wilderness rangers came to refer to this two-week period of time as “port” season.

Port season (as in “porto”) heralds the advent of fall colors, the departure of seasonal employees returning to college, and the grim realization that summer has passed. Yet, we’re not quite fully into autumn, either. Strange things occur during port season. I find it’s usually best to fly under the radar for a couple weeks.

Complicating an already funky fortnight, my trip north coincided with a full moon and -- as luck would have it -- a total lunar eclipse, a blood moon, no less. The upside?  Our property, located in rural woodlands, is one of the best possible places to view a full moon. When the sun sets, darkness consumes Shugart Flats within minutes.

This rare double feature, a total lunar eclipse along with a “supermoon” (when a full moon makes its closest approach to Earth), hasn’t happened since 1982 and won’t happen again until 2033. The eclipse marks the final act of a tetrad, a series of four lunar eclipses begun in 2014, and perhaps the end of some bad juju as well.

Shugart Flats, with no streetlights or other artificial illumination, was utterly devoid of light when the moon rose early, providing a fine viewing of the lunar orb. Unfortunately, no hiking on this trip due to fire closures and dubious weather patterns on the crest, but lots of fall colors and some awesome moon shots, no pun intended.

The autumnal equinox is an odd two-week stretch that occurs ever year. The total lunar eclipse and supermoon are less common. The two together make you want to lay low and cozy up to a fine bottle of 20-year-old ruby port, preferably from Portugal: no better place for that than Shugart Flats among the whispering pines.