Tag: Wildcat Mountain
-
A springlike afternoon at Wildcat Mountain
Even though it was late in the day, it was just too nice a day to let the opportunity to play radio slip away! I thought a lot about where to go: new park? different park? but in the end, I went with nearby and familiar. Other than that, everything went well! The X6100 was…
-
Winter Field Day, 2025
– a retrospective When I was mostly awake in the dark on Saturday morning, I felt for my watch and found the lower-left button and pressed it once, to shift from local time to what I still often think of as Greenwich Mean Time. Next, the upper-right button to illuminate the face. Eleven-hundred something. Five…
-
Ice Cave – status report
After a hike on a new (to me) trail, a return to an old favorite! The Ice Cave trail is a short and enjoyable hike all-year-round, but its special time is winter, when there may be an actual Ice Cave. I must have driven past it 7 or 8 times in the last few months,…
-
A wintry activation of US-1480
It was overcast, seventeen degrees, and flurrying gently when I rolled out of the driveway en-route to Wildcat Mountain State Park, and the sun was about to get above the horizon as I was driving along the county highway. As I promptly realized when I got to the park it was just too cold for…
-
Back on the air at Wildcat Mountain
It was cool and damp, and the sun was not yet up, when I headed off along the back roads toward my favorite activation spot, hot coffee in hand. Last year on June 25th I activated Wildcat Mountain State Park, US-1480, and started an unbroken string of activating only that park; not by planning or…
-
Well, here’s something new: a Wildcat Mountain trifecta
I enjoy hiking in a lot of different ways; sometimes all-eyes-and-ears observing the sight and sounds of life all around; sometimes meditative and full of the spirit of shinrin-yoku; often a mixture of both; sometimes (not often) it’s just pushing along to get to the end of the trail. Today, I don’t know quite why,…
-
April omnibus post
Spring is getting pretty firmly established here; though we are still getting some light overnight frosts, the daytime temperatures can get into the 60s. The lakes and streams are still low; we need more rain! Home DIY is taking up a lot of time, and the expanded garden is making increasing demands. I managed to…
-
Staying in that rut
After the last post I resolved to go to a different park next time; alas, that resolution evaporated last Saturday morning just after I got my coffee (big cup and full vacuum bottle) at the local Kwik Trip! Onward to Wildcat Mountain! The moon was setting, near the horizon, as I drove westward, and soon…
-
In a rut
A few days ago I noticed (looking at my POTA stats) that since last June the only park I have activated has been good old K-1480, Wildcat Mountain! Not sure just how that came about; I started 2023 with a string of new (to me) parks. I think I need to get back into that…
-
Winter Field Day 2024 at Wildcat Mountain
WFD is, first & foremost, an emergency communications exercise conducted under less-than-optimal conditions (at least for those of us in the Northern states, lol). This year I made a virtue of necessity and used my lack of planning (see the previous post) as part of the exercise; after all, emergencies do not give us advance…
-
A hiking-centric Christmas in the Driftless
The weather has been anomalously warm the past few days (mostly in the 40s day and night), overcast, with generous amounts of dense fog, and no serious social obligations anywhere, so we have been getting in a hike every day ! I try to always have a radio packed, in case I suddenly feel the…
-
A post about many things
re: Field Day 2023 The December issue of QST arrived a while ago and I invested maybe 15 minutes looking through the fine print for my score: 440 points. I think that my claimed bonus for Public Information Display was rejected; not unfairly mind you, it was a bit skimpy. Eh, surest way to fail…