by Teri (KO4WFP)

It is Friday, December 29th and my winter-break POTA trip is drawing to a close. My brother Joseph and I are spending Friday and Saturday nights at an Airbnb after six days of camping. However, before we do that, I have two more parks to activate today – Green Swamp Wilderness Preserve (K-5330) and Lake Apopka North Shore (K-8353).

Overnight, a cold front began its march through Florida. We woke to temperatures in the low 50’s and a brief glimpse of the rising sun before clouds took over the sky again.

The drive to our first park – Green Swamp Wilderness Preserve – was a pleasant one. The preserve is divided into five management districts. We ended up in the West Tract as that is what I chose in Apple Maps. There are 65 miles of hiking trails though the tract is also used for hunting, canoeing, fishing, camping, and equestrian activities. There is a variety of habitats in the preserve – sandhills, flatwoods, oak hammocks, river swamp, and cypress ponds.

I chose an oak tree just inside the West Tract entrance perfect for the Tufteln EFRW antenna. A sunny location was necessary as the temperature was chilly in the breezy conditions. As I set up, two ladies rode in with their horses. Salty, a red roan, was unsure of Daisy and I at first. However, he eventually settled down enough to walk by and check out my POTA flag. Being a horse owner previously, I have a soft spot for these intelligent and sensitive creatures.

When Salty moseyed on, Daisy and I got down to business. I went straight to 20 meters which had no noise at all. In 35 minutes, I had 20 contacts. I needed to wrap up the activation soon to have sufficient time to fit in the second activation today but thought I’d check 17 meters for any DX contacts. I had four contacts on that band including Etor FH4MN in France!

In short order, I packed up my equipment and we headed to Lake Apopka with a stop at Costco for gas. On the drive, we saw five sandhill cranes. I had heard sandhill cranes at Little Manatee River State Park while walking Daisy one day. But I never spied them. These cranes were wary of me and the pictures I snapped weren’t great.

We finally arrived at Lake Apopka North Shore which features an 11-mile wildlife drive. The park reminded me of the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge back home in which I’ve spent some time. Lake Apopka is the headwaters of the Ocklawaha Chain of Lakes. The North Shore area consists of former farmlands that are now used to clean up Lake Apopka’s waters by circulating the lake water through restored wetlands thereby filtering it before it is returned to the lake. Those former farmlands polluted the lake with phosphorous which caused a host of problems.

We opted to take the wildlife drive through the preserve. Along the drive we saw numerous birds including American coots, American purple gallinules, egrets, herons, ducks, and other birds. We also spied an alligator as well as an otter running along the dyke on which we were driving.

As you can see from the pictures, there aren’t many trees along the drive and whatever trees are there, they are not that tall. I stopped after the first mile of the drive at Conrad Road which runs off to the left at a water gauge station. There were actually trees here and, though they weren’t as tall I would have liked, they would work.

Funny story: When we stopped at this junction, we parked next to a family that had just gotten back into their car from a hike. The man leaned out his car window and asked if we wanted to see “some big-ass alligators”. Trying to not burst out laughing, I told him we were from Savannah, GA and had seen plenty of big alligators there.

It wasn’t long before the EFRW was installed and Daisy and I were settled. I scheduled both of the day’s activations the night before; however, it appeared the Lake Apopka activation didn’t upload. I then discovered the cell service at this site was abysmal – neither texts nor phone calls would go through. Arrgg! One last thing to try – maybe there was enough service I could spot myself. Surprisingly it worked.

I started with 40 meters and had no luck on that band. I moved to 20 meters and in 30 minutes, logged 14 contacts including another contact with a French op – F5VMN – which surprised me on that band. (He did give me a 339 which I thought was great for 5 watts at that distance!) At this point, I had to call QRT.

We arrived at the drive around 2:45 PM. The drive is estimated to take one to three hours (though I didn’t know that beforehand). We stopped at 3 PM for my activation. I was on the air by 3:20 and off by 4:05. All visitors are supposed to be off the drive by 5 PM when the gate closes. We were cutting it close if the drive takes an hour as the least amount of time. I put away my equipment in 10 minutes and we were on our way. We did make it to the gate just at 5 PM but only because I drove a little faster than the 10 mph speed limit which made my brother quite nervous.

It was a busy week, driving and tent camping for six days. It was time to return to civilization with a stay at an Airbnb in Umatilla. Joseph was ready for a meal we hadn’t cooked at the campsite so we celebrated with a burger and fries from Five Guys. Oh, the joy of not fighting mosquitos and the creature comforts of a climate-controlled space, readily available electricity, and a bathroom you don’t share with lots of other people.

As I reflected over the week, it had been a wonderful experience. I learned a lot about camping and improvements I wanted to make. I had nine (yes NINE) valid activations due to the kindness of operators hunting me. I experienced the beauty of natural surroundings I had not visited before. I had the privilege of sharing time with my brother Joseph and my POTA pooch Daisy.

But wait! Just like a Ginsu knives commercial, there’s more. The trip isn’t done yet. I planned to squeeze two more activations in on Sunday, December 31st, on the drive home. Stay tuned…

Equipment Used

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• • Elecraft KX2
  • KOSS SB-40 headphones
  • CW Morse SP4 POTA/SOTA Key
  • Tufteln 9:1 EFRW Antenna
  • Tufteln RG-316 Coax
  • Tufteln Knee Board
  • SOTABeams Mast