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Hike to Sky Pond
12 May 2014 | by What a beautiful day in New Hampshire! Tim W3ATB and I hiked to Bald Ledges, a little past Sky Pond. We had a fantastic time. We worked the Netherlands, Belgium, England and WA8REI in Michigan.
Sky Pond is a tiny lake in the wilderness of New Hampton. It’s about 12 miles from home. We had a picnic lunch on the shore and then hiked about 20 minutes to the ledges. The view there is stunning.
Toward the northeast, we can see Lake Winona in the foreground and both the White Mountains and Ossipee Mountains in the distance.
I set up the KX3 with a 33 foot sloper to a pine tree. Band conditions weren’t very good, and I worked 17 meters, because that’s where I could hear the most activity. I worked PI4DX in the Netherlands, OS11M, a Morse Heritage special event in Belgium, and then my old friend Tom G3HGE in England. As I was working Tom, a large hawk flew back and forth at eye level out several hundred feet from the ledges. I described it to Tom but I called it an eagle by mistake. He was impressed with the description and wanted me to send a photo!
I packed up my gear and walked up the ledge to see how Tim was doing. He was running the HB-1B on 20 meters and there wasn’t much going on. We went up to the QRP frequency and there was Ken WA8REI just finishing up a QSO. What a thrill to receive a 579 from Ken in Michigan and chat with him for a few minutes. We first met at Lobstercon in Maine. I handed the key to Tim and he and Ken chatted for a minutes before signing. It was a perfect ending to a perfect outing.
The black flies are just coming into their own in New Hampshire. Soon they’ll pretty much control all the outdoor activity. We might not get out much for the next couple of weeks until they die back. Then we’ll have mosquitoes to contend with. All better than snow!
3 Responses to “Hike to Sky Pond”
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- Matt W1MST, Managing Editor
winter->mud season->black fly season->mosquito season->leaf peeper season->winter
at least that’s how I remember it.
Jim,
That photo from the ledges is just stunning. Thanks for sharing, OM!
72 de Larry W2LJ
Good morning Jim, yes it sure is nice to see the snow gone along with the cold temp’s as well. We are still into a slow spring arrival so not to worry yet about the bugs up this way but they are coming! Very nice photo’s of your trip.
Mike