Well, shucks - after Rich's story, I hesitate to share my rather banal experience. But, what the heck... Mid-June, 1973. East foothills of the Henry Mountains. I've been hiking since 2:30 AM, crossing the "Dry Desert" (no kidding, that's the name on the map). Ran out of water late afternoon, haven't found any since, and I'm getting nervous. Full Moon rises, enabling me to continue hiking well after dusk to locate the only water source for miles, a natural spring. Only with the help of the moonlight am I finally able to find the spring, around 11:30. Exhausted, I sleep for about two hours, but then I awake to an ethereal but delightful chorus of coyotes wailing and frogs croaking. It sounds as if I'm surrounded by dozens of coyotes and hundreds of frogs, only a few yards away. I can't see them in the moonlight, but they're there. I'm strangely comforted by the music and soon I go back to sleeping soundly. Kate Beckinsale doesn't show up at all. Kim

I really like Kim's story. Sometimes my "moon memories" aren't really in the "best" category, but they stick with me for some reason anyway. When I was about eleven or twelve years old, growing-up on the east side of Salt Lake, I had a friend on the block who's mother owned a nursing home. In back, they had a flat-topped carport with a gravel roof. My friend and I would sometimes sleep-out in our sleeping bags on top of that carport, looking at the sky and talking until we drifted-off to sleep. I still remember one night in particular. It was a day or two past full moon and we had been riding our bikes around the neighborhood until laying-down around ten or eleven. The moon was well up in the east and I could see every detail around me in the moonlight. Bats from the cemetery next door were patroling for insects, easily discerned in the half-light. That night I remember waking up every couple of hours and seeing how the moon had shifted position since the last time I wakened. I remember noting how it apparently "rolled" as it crossed the sky, and how the "woman" in the moon turned into the "rabbit" by the time the moon was low in the west before dawn. There were also a few bright meteors that night so maybe it was an August moon and I saw a few Perseids. Youth is so impressionable. That's one of those memories that could have happened yesterday, it's still so crisp and clear. --- Richard Tenney <retenney@yahoo.com> wrote:

Great stories Kim and Chuck. I was just stalling with the dream/fantasy until I could think of something good. So far not much sparkin' up in the old gray matter...

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What a great story, Kim. Only next time, take enough water!! Best wishes, Joe

Oh, and of course there was that time in front of my high-school (mid-'70's), when a pickup truck with the starting defensive line of our crosstown-rival's football team in the back, happened to drive-by the day before the game. They were all lined-up and- yes, we got "mooned" en masse. Where's the BB gun when you need it? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

Thanks, Darin. I, too, saw a partially-eclipsed moon rise a few years ago. It was September, and we had earlier planned a short vacation to Yellowstone NP. The Moon was to rise partially eclipsed prior to totality. Knowing that, I planned to set up cameras and a small scope at a favorite spot on the Madison River. Sure enough, the Moon rose just as I had anticipated, directly above the river so that its light was reflected off the water. Even though it was not unexpected, the beauty and eeriness of a full moon rising with a large "bite" out of it was still dramatic and "eerie," as you put it. That area had a large number of dead trees from the fires of '88 still standing that just added to the other-worldly quality of the scene. Clouds rolled in and we missed the total phase, but the beauty of what we were able to see more than made up for the clouds. Still, no Kate Beckinsale. Thanks, Chuck, for starting this thread. I enjoy reading such stories from others and hope y'all don't mind that I share some of mine. Kim -----Original Message----- Best moon rise About 20 years ago, I was hiking in the Wind River range in Wyoming with a friend. We had been out about five or six days. This particular evening we were camped on the shore of a small lake and looking at the moon rise. It was a dull red color because of all the fires burning that summer. As we watched it rising over the lake and reflecting in the lake, we noticed that it looked weird. It took quite a while before we realized that it was an eclipse happening. Neither of us had been aware that an eclipse was going to happen so with the red color and the wind in the tree tops and the slow distortion of the shape, it was an exceptionally eerie occurance......