PLATTSBURGH — Thousands of total solar eclipse chasers, both new and experienced, flocked to Plattsburgh City Beach and adjacent Cumberland Bay State Park Monday to witness all of the beauty the rare celestial event had to offer.
“There’s nothing like totality,” Mary Harris, a visiting retired teacher from Connecticut said at the state park 40 minutes before the big event.
Harris said she and friend Clare Wurm, also a teacher in Connecticut, had witnessed their first total solar eclipse in Tennessee in 2017 together and it was so cool they “just had to see it again.”
Wurm, who similarly called that first experience “life changing” and “amazing,” said they booked their hotel in Plattsburgh 10 months ago in preparation for their trip.
“We were just looking for a town right in the middle of the (totality) zone,” Wurm said about their decision to come to Plattsburgh ahead of other areas along the path of totality.
“And so I don’t know, it’s just kind of what I landed on.”
When they got in over the weekend, Wurm said they questioned why they had never been here before.
“It’s so great; amazing countryside,” she said. “All the mountains, and the lake, it’s very beautiful.”
“It (Plattsburgh) is very convenient,” Harris added.
“It has every convenience you could want. Where we stayed, we could choose any place to shop, do whatever you want.”
The pair commemorated Monday’s event by making posters for other eclipse viewers to sign their name and write where they are from — a tradition that began in Tennessee in 2017 and continued in Plattsburgh.
“We’re both teachers, so we do that kind of thing,” Wurm said.
“So this year, we’re like let’s do that again, that was fun.”
BEACH
Neighboring Plattsburgh City Beach drew upwards of 5,000 eclipse viewers.
Michael Jacobs of New York City, who typically photographs sports and wildlife, was one of them.
He made the trek up here in hopes of getting a once-in-a-lifetime shot of the moon eclipsing the sun.
He said he originally planned to be in Niagara Falls, which is also on the path of totality, but the predicted cloud coverage there changed his plans last minute.
“I’ve been driving from Niagara Falls to here over the past three days, following along where the clouds would not impact the eclipse too much,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the weather and sky was shaping up to be perfect for eclipse viewing in Plattsburgh. However, as the afternoon wore on, more clouds came in and began making Jacobs a little nervous.
“It won’t be perfect, but I’m here, it’s a beautiful day and there’s nice people all around.”
Jacobs said he had never been to Plattsburgh before but similarly said he would return.
“It’s a great spot.”
Nick and Heather Crosetto of Westchester County in New York brought their three children to the beach as well.
This was going to be the first time they all saw a total solar eclipse together.
Nick Crosetto said he has had his eye on coming to Plattsburgh for a while.
“We’ve been kind of tracking this eclipse since the one in 2017. I have been thinking we got to check it out, because it’s so close to home,” he said.
“In January, we were like, what the hell, let’s just go.”
While this was their first trip to Plattsburgh, Heather Crosetto, wearing a shirt that said “Hello darkness my old friend” with an eclipse graphic, said they have visited the Adirondacks before.
“We’ve been coming up here for years,” she said.
Nick Crosetto also said the trip perfectly coincided with his son’s current school curriculum, which involves learning about Lake Champlain and subsequently, since their visit to Plattsburgh, some at-home lessons about the myth of the lake monster, Champ.
“I thought I saw Champ but it was just some people in a rowboat,” he said laughing.
“We’ve been having a really fun time up here, actually.”
Nelson Martinez of the Bronx in New York City, was giving people a chance to see the sun through his telescope.
He said he and his friends took a trip to Montreal over the weekend and stopped in Plattsburgh on the way back for the eclipse.
“We figured if it was super cloudy and we didn’t get to see too much of the eclipse, at least we had a nice weekend vacation,” Martinez said.
This was also Martinez’s first solar eclipse and first time in the area. He said he liked it here because he’s not a “big city” fan.
“I’m dying to get out of the city, so I’m scouting for areas,” he said.
TOTALITY
When the total solar eclipse finally began around 3:26 p.m., the temperature had noticeably dropped by a few degrees and the sky had turned dark with yellow hues over Lake Champlain’s horizon.
Totality drew claps and whistling from the thousands in attendance at the beach with one person saying it was “the coolest thing they had ever seen.”