Another enjoyable activation carried out during our road trip through New England, with a slightly longer hike than anticipated but more than made up for by an encounter with a likeable fire warden in his tower.
Ascent
There’s easy parking for 4 or 5 vehicles at the end of the Hobbs Road out of Effingham. Follow the Dearborn Trail at the end of the parking lot and it leads right to the summit, climbing 400m in just under an hour. Nothing technical, just lots and lots of colourful leaves.
Summit
There’s a couple of picnic tables under the trees, with enough space for any amount of wire antennas, and a great big fire tower with a cabin on top. Cellphone signal was OK.
Contacts
For some reason I really struggled today, despite it being a Saturday, and despite everything working well. Maybe it was just propagation. After half an hour I’d only made 4 contacts including KG6CIH Chris whom I’d worked yesterday on Mt. Harris, so with the summit in the bag we pulled down the Spooltenna and climbed up for a chat with the fire warden.
| Time | Callsign | Band | Mode | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17:15 | VA2EO | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 17:17 | KG6CIH | 7MHz | SSB | S2S W1/AM-010 |
| 17:43 | WC3B | 14MHz | SSB | |
| 17:47 | OK2PDT | 14MHz | SSB |
Descent
A little less strenuous than the way up, otherwise just the same path but in reverse.
Summary
This was one of those outings where we hardly made any contacts but had a great time thanks to an unexpected encounter. Chip, the fire warden in his tower, was a mine of information and great to get along with, so we talked for almost an hour on everything from the current government shutdown to the quality of American food. Meetings like this really make the road trip and I’m sure I’ll remember today for years to come.
