Castle Wildland Provincial Park (CA-2972)

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by Vince (VE6LK)

It’s time for another return trip to the correctional institution that I spoke about in my last post. And that means only one important detail: more time to POTA en route. This trip will carry me, via a ‘short’ 325km detour from the direct route, into Castle Provincial Park and Castle Wilderness Provincial Park, with a stop or two along the way.

The Research and planning

Castle Provincial Park CA-2971 is within the larger Waterton Biosphere Reserve CA-0109, so any activation I can do is automatically a 2fer. Looking more closely at the map, I see Castle Falls CA-2969 is within Castle PP, and that makes it a 3fer. I printed off the park info sheets from POTA.app, studied some satellite imagery, printed some, and bundled it all together. I have been in this area once before, camping in August (and the bugs were awful, yuck!), so at least I knew three things…where I was going, an expectation of cell service (not great off the main roads) and bugs would be minimal to non-existent, given it’s mid-November.

In thinking about a route that needs to get me closer to my hotel and one that increases the number of unique parks I’ve activated, I decided upon Beauvais Lake Provincial Park CA-0632, another 2fer with CA-0109. A satellite view shows easy-peasy road access, and even if the main gates are closed, I’m still on the property, so it will be a valid attempt/activation.

But I also really want to get to the Castle Wildland Provincial Park CA-2972, as it’s never been activated before. And while there is road access through the entire Castle area, I opt to take paved roads as winter driving and gravel (and no cell service) can be unpredictable at best. I’ve also never been to Castle Wildland, but in my mind, I’m imagining views reminiscent of Waterton Lakes or Glacier National Park, given the very close proximity. As it turned out, I wasn’t too far wrong.

I also tacked on one park at the last minute and was happy I did so, even if I could not activate it.

Continue reading Sometimes you need a little cryptaesthesia →

Here’s what I love about the Elecraft KH1:

It’s always with me, tucked away in my EDC pack.
It’s super quick to deploy.
It lets me hop on the air–anytime, anywhere–and work my friends when they’re activating a park or summit.

Yesterday afternoon, I activated Lake James State Park (US-2739) for about an hour. The pileups were deep, and I was so focused on working stations that I missed a text from my buddy Vince (VE6LK), who was activating a park in Alberta, Canada.

By the time I saw Vince’s message after packing up and turning off my camera, it was too late for a P2P contact—he’d already packed up as well. However, he mentioned that he planned to hit another park and promised to let me know when he arrived.

True to his word, Vince pinged me while I was checking out at a Lowe’s hardware store in Marion, North Carolina. He had reached Castle Wildland Provincial Park (CA-2972) at Butcher Lake, roughly 1,900 miles (3,058 km) away.

My KH1 in it’s Tufteln-modified Pelican Micro M40 case.

I quickly hopped in my car, drove to the middle of the parking lot to escape RFI, and deployed the KH1 in about 30 seconds.

Vince’s signal was about a 529, and I was surprised when he answered my call. He later mentioned it was one of those near-ESP-level contacts!

We completed the QSO, and I did a little happy dance in the parking lot. I absolutely love how accessible and capable the KH1 is.

Here’s what Vince’s view looked like:

And here’s mine:

Let’s just say Vince’s view was orders of magnitude more bucolic!

72,

Thomas (K4SWL)

Spoiler alert: Vince plans to post a full field report from his three-park rove yesterday. He worked some amazing DX, and conditions were clearly fantastic! I’m really looking forward to reading it! Stay tuned!