One of the regular participants in a local net informed me that the Michigan POTA activators were having a meetup at a nearby park on June 8th 2024. I was planning a camping weekend, but due to some minor health issues could not get out on Friday as planned. Come Saturday, I was feeling better and decided to take a one day overnight trip and stop by the meetup on the way.
The meetup was organized at Sleepy Hollow State Park. This is a park that I had never activated. So my ride to the meetup meant that I can get to activate the park as well as meet the fellow POTA activators. I packed up my motorcycle with all the camping supplies: Tents, sleeping pads and bags, rain gear, emergency gear, small power bank; camping cooking kit including small kitchen stove and utensils and some food including dry noodles and some coffee; toiletries etc. Usually, I find that just camping by itself is a challenge to get all the gear on the motorcycle. It was more challenging this time as I had also included my KH-1 and my KX-3 along with other requirement such as the antenna. I went with the 17ft whip for its compactness and convenience of setup. I know not how I managed it; but I got all of it on the motorcycle with room to spare, The simple overnight stay meant that I did not have to carry much change of clothes that made my load a little lighter.
I left early Saturday morning; the weather was perfect for riding -- well at least in the morning; rain was forecast for the afternoon. My plan was to try to make a quick stop at the meetup and then head to one of the many parks within riding distance and set up camp before the rain. My primary choice was Newaygo State Park.
I reached Sleepy Hollow Park meetup site at around 1030AM. I was greeted by a sea of friendly faces. I went around talking to other activators trying to remember the callsigns and names. I recognized many of them from my activations and hunting. A few members peeled off to work satellites, I started working CW on my KH-1. The bands were a little rough and I got my 10 contacts with the help of the other hams in the gathering (wink! wink!). I cannot thank the organizers enough for this great gathering and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think it is a great success with about 50 operators showing up.
The picture above shows me activating at Sleepy Hollow park using the KH-1. The packed motorcycle is partially visible. The KX-3 is in the top box; the tent and other camping essentials are in the pillion seat; rain gear and other emergency riding gear on the passenger side side box; clothes; chargers etc., on the other pannier and the tank bag had food supply for the stay.
As the meetup wound on, I lost track of time and I was a little late in departing the park. I had about 110 miles to go to Newaygo with rain coming in around 30 minutes. It definitely was not looking good. The forecast called for extended rain amounting to nearly half an inch of total precipitation. A front was going to move through slowly and would take about 5-6 hours to clear. I decided to be flexible and make decisions based on what I encountered.
The weatherman was right! The rains came at the appointed time and was heavy at times. I was riding north on US-127 about 50 miles south of Mt. Pleasant MI. The visibility was down, but the light weekend traffic made it a little less difficult. Newaygo State Park -- my primary destination that had a primitive campsite -- did not seem the ideal choice now. I was neither sure of the availability cell phone coverage there; nor of ground conditions at the campsite. I wasn't going to risk it. I decided to reroute to my alternate -- Wilson State Park which was right off of US-127 and near a small city center. It added about 30 miles to my ride; but this was a developed park that had a shelter area. My plan was to get to the park; wait the rain out under the shelter and then set up camp once the rains cleared. A little stop to don the rain gear, take in some gasoline and I was off on my merry way.
I reached Wilson State Park a little after 3PM after riding for a little over two hours... an hour and a half in drenching rain; The raingear did its job; it kept me dry but did not do much to keep the cold out. I checked into the campsite with help from the very friendly folks at the camp office. Because it was still raining, instead of going to my campsite I went to the shelter and pulled out the KH-1 to start an activation. Based on the radar images, I had about 4 hours to kill before the rain let up. The miserable band conditions meant that I needed almost all of it. I was getting a few contacts every hour. I used the breaks between response to eat some snacks and get some energy to beat the cold out. When the rain let up a little, I decided to walk over to my campsite and found that it was fully flooded. So, back to the camp office I went and requested a change to a dry site which was thankfully granted. Between 3PM and 630PM I netted about 6 contacts in all! The band conditions were bad and it did not help that I had to be under the shelter.
A little before 7PM the rains stopped and it started to mist. I took this opportunity to go to my campsite and get the tent set up. The tent got a little moist before I could get the rain-fly up, but nothing enough to bother. This meant that by the time the skies cleared, I was fully set up in my tent and able to get out of my heavy riding and rain gear. This was a great relief as I was soaked on the inside from all the sweat with the effort involved in setting the camp up. The crisp fresh air was heavenly...
Once the rains let up I was able to set up the whip outside the tent and use my KX-3 to complete the required 10 contacts before the end of the UTC day.
It was now 7PM local time. I had an hour before the new UTC day began. Despite my snacking, I was starving...I took the time to cook some noodles. The warm noodles was heavenly. A little after 8PM [ the start of the new UTC day] I started CQ sequence again. The 40m band was now popping under the grey zone. I was quickly racking up contacts including some of the hunters I had met earlier in the day. After ensuring I thoroughly taken advantage of a two day activation on a single evening, I decided to call it a night around 9PM. I was totally bushed and went on to have a great nights sleep.
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| Daybreak upon the campsite |
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| Sunrise over Budd Lake |
I had great fun on this trip: the opportunity to meet fellow activators; get about 400 miles on the bike (mostly dry) and nab 3 new to me parks made it worth it...
Hope to catch you on the air soon!
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