I don’t suppose that it’s surprising that Wisconsin should have a couple of weeks of deep-freeze weather in the middle of February; just inconvenient. Yesterday was warmish, the forecast predicted more and better for today; it might be Radio Weather!
A few minutes before 7 I was at the local Kwik Trip filling up multiple containers of coffee and thinking about where I should go; in the end I prioritized “well plowed” and headed up to Buckhorn. I have only activated it once, but it seemed … roomy, … and it’s not all that far away, so, why not? It’s a beautiful morning, the temperature never went below freezing overnight, blue skies … . The air smells slightly springlike; green-growing-ish, even a few hints of piney here and there.
Buckhorn State Park, US-1443, was in fact well plowed, though not completely; some areas were gated off for the season.
I went to the same parking area that I activated back in December.
Up went the vertical antenna; connect the antenna cable, battery, microphone … get out the logbook … I can’t recall, offhand, the POTA number for this park … and when I try to look it up on my phone, nothing. Whoopsie. Restart the phone. Nothing. A few bars of signal, but no connection. Browser returns
:: net: ERR : INTERNET NOT CONNECTED
Oh, did I prepay for my service this month? (the exact date I need to do this seems to vary from month to month). Um, no, not yet … . Well, that explains it.
I just started a new logbook at WFD, so I have no written reference. A few logbooks ago I had a few pages of this sort of information on the back pages, but that was then … . I got nothin’. I tried a few half-hearted CQs in the hope some hunter would tune by and hear me; one good hunter station with a computer could tell me the park number and spot me … and maybe I should have persisted longer, but after 10 minutes or so I gave up.
Down comes the antenna, put everything back in the radio pack, refresh my room temperature coffee, and set a course for the Dollar Store where I bought my phone and buy my monthly minutes.
So, that’s the story. It was still a wonderful day to get out into a park!
The moral:
Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
Or something like that.
Thanks for visiting driftlessqrp!
Comments
One response to “Spring(ish) at Buckhorn State Park”
I know I’ve done something like this of late…what was it?…at any rate, for me, it probably stems from wanting the adventure more than the proof or categorizing of such! But having the notebook system seems to give one a reason to go, or at least give it some kind of value. Though in truth, just enjoying the outdoors and recalibrating one’s body and mind to the natural world is beyond categorizing ;)!! Glad you got out!