Wednesday 22 May 2024

Day 1 & 2...

Unlike my previous trips to the West Coast, this trip started in brilliant sunshine!  I chose my departure day to coincide with people returning home after the May long weekend here.  There was very little west-bound traffic, as opposed to the miles of cars returning home.

My only 2m contact to date has been with Bob, VE3YX, in Deep River.  I passed a pleasant 20 minutes chatting with him on the Point Alexander repeater on Highway 17.  I guess nobody monitors repeaters these days.

My first night stop was at Chutes Provincial Park just outside of Massey, Ontario.  This park is conveniently also a POTA park, CA-0181.  After camp was set up I managed, under very bad propagation conditions to get 11 contacts in the log.  Between local QRM from RV generators and the QSB it was a tough activation.

Very early the next day say me activate CA-1329, Brennan Harbour Conservation Reserve, near the town of Spanish.  This was my first early shift activation, and this was the very first activation for the park.  It's difficult to find.  Again, the propagation wasn't the best, and once again only 11 contacts went into the log.

The drive that day was pretty uneventful, not much traffic at all on the roads.  My lunch stop was at Batchawana Bay Provincial Park, CA-0147.  Things had improved and while eating lunch put 17 contacts in the log.

My second night was spent at Lake Superior Provincial Park, but the weather was so bad no radio was attempted.  The wind and rain howled all night, luckily I didn't get too wet.

Today I'm off to Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park, outside of Thunder Bay.  It is a POTA park, so I will attempt to get it on the air tonight.

Off we go!

Camp, the first night

The view of Batchawawa Bay

Batchawana Bay beach

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