Many thanks to Rod VA3MZD who shares this five park POTA bicycle rove report with us.  If you have an article in your head and want to have it posted here, let’s keep this community going while our friend Thomas continues to help his neighbours in the wake of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina. Draft up your story in an email with reference points to the pictures you want embedded and their captions, attach photos to the note and send it my way to vincedeon at gmail dot com and note QRPer in the subject line to get my attention.

By Rod Murray VA3MZD

Last year I reported, in a guest post here on QRPer, on the five POTA parks near my QTH that are linked by the Elora-Cataract Trailway, a rail trail that runs east from the quaint tourist village of Elora, Ontario, through the town of Fergus, where I live, through Belwood Lake Conservation Area and continues for approximately 45 km to the village of Cataract, on the Niagara Escarpment, well to the east. The trail passes through or near four POTA parks in my immediate vicinity, made easily accessible by foot, bicycle or vehicle, as one chooses. The Trailway is also part of the Great Trail of Canada CA-5082. In one of these nearby parks, Belwood Lake, it’s a 2-fer, making 5 parks in total.

In my original report I had also set a goal of one day activating the one nearby park I had yet to visit, and also to activate all five local parks in one day. With the summer quickly coming to a close here in South Western Ontario, and the fact that the one park I had yet to visit would close for the season in just a few days, it was time to attack my two goals with a rove! So I made plans to rise early, hope for cooperative weather and complete my 5 park cycle trip. Could I do it?

One morning in late August, after coffee and a healthy breakfast, I packed up my new Go Box, which includes a well tuned (tr)uSDX, 3Ah Bioenno battery, N9SAB QRP 20m dipole, and an Android phone running FT8CN app for FT8. A few cables, some parachute cord, water and snacks were also loaded into the bicycle panniers and I was off, shortly after 1200 UTC, or 8 am local time EDT.

My first stop would be Belwood Lake, a pleasant 10km ride east on the rail trail, after first descending into the Grand River Valley, through the town of Fergus, back up the valley’s north rim through farm fields and forests towards Shands Dam, which is the structure that creates Belwood Lake. The Lake forms part of the Canadian Heritage listed Grand River. It was an easy pedal as I was pumped to get this rove started. I quickly deployed my 20m dipole under a giant white pine, and set up on one of the picnic tables at Belwood Lake Conservation Area CA-5319, adjacent to CA-5082, The Great Trail or the Trans-Canada Trail as it is also known.

The (tr)uSDX quickly began to receive signals and the FT8CN app decoded them and in short order I added 10 QSOs to the log. I topped off the activation with a 2fer on SSB when I saw Gordon KW4CZ and Sharon W4SHA spotted on 20m and logged their P2P QSOs. I rapidly dismantled the antenna, packed up the radio and loaded the panniers, then headed 15 km west, back through Fergus to Aboyne, my next stop on the Elora-Cataract Trail.

The Wellington County Museum and Archives, located about 500 metres off the rail trail in Aboyne, is housed in the historic Wellington County House of Industry and Refuge National Historic Site. This 19th century limestone building sits high above the Grand River as it cuts its way through the bedrock. The Museum, POTA Reference CA-5928, has picnic tables and mature evergreen trees that make a POTA activation quite pleasant, especially for deploying wire antennas. Up went the 20 metre dipole and in 40 minutes I had another 10 FT8 contacts in the log.

With three activations down and two to go, I rode another 5 km west along the trail, through the historic mill town of Elora and into the Group Campground of the Elora Gorge Conservation Area, POTA Reference CA-1392.

Here, sitting on the cliff edge, looking down into the Gorge where the Grand River cuts a 22 metre chasm through the limestone, propagation took a sudden turn for the worse. It took almost two hours to add 10 FT8 contacts to my logbook, and the day was marching on. It was now early afternoon and I had one more activation to complete.

I had never activated the Elora Quarry Conservation Area CA-5600, a former limestone quarry, now a scenic spring fed swimming hole on the banks of the Grand River, east of the village of Elora. The park is only open from June through to Labour Day, which is always the first Monday of September. Entry requires advanced booking and I’d chosen the late afternoon, fortunately.

Before leaving The Gorge I contacted my wife Colleen and we agreed to meet along the rail trail, to share a late lunch. I hadn’t realized how hungry I’d become, and hot too! The afternoon had turned quite warm, almost 30C.

I departed the Gorge and raced 5 km eastwards through the village again, towards the Quarry, making the rendezvous with my wife. We entered through the park gate on our bicycles and, in the heat of the late afternoon, decided that a swim was the first order of business. It’s a scenic place to cool off and so I did just that.

After a short swim and a lovely lunch, I set up my radio and antenna back up top of the Quarry’s edge and in half an hour, was able to log 10 FT8 contacts. I had finally achieved my goal of activating the Elora Gorge for the first time and completing a Five Park Rove of my local parks! In addition, the (tr)uSDX had performed well with FT8CN to decode and log the contacts.

My enthusiasm was somewhat tempered by the fact that I still had 5 km to ride to make it back to the QTH and complete my 40 km ride. It was a personal achievement about which I’m rather proud. The next morning I uploaded my 5 logs and then discovered that I had received a new POTA award. The Rover Warthog Award is given to those who activate 5 entities in one day. Bonus!

Thanks to all the Hunters and Activators who helped me achieve one of my POTA goals this summer! As I write this, the cooler, wetter Autumn weather is now entrenched in Southern Ontario and the opportunities for cycling and POTA activations are becoming fewer. I challenge others who still have good weather to continue getting out and activating, by bicycle if you can!

73 and POTA on!

Rod, VA3MZD