[Elecraft] Appalachian Trail on 7-7-07

[Ron Polityka]

Hello,

 My trek out onto the Appalachian Trail was a very good one on 7 July 2007. 
I packed up my car and started driving north  and missed my exit. Really did 
not feel like hiking to Round Head off of Rte 5011 or just taking a short 
hike to the pond on Rte 183. So I drove North pass Hamburg, PA and headed in 
the direction of Hawk Mountain. About a mile down the mountain driving 
towards Eckville, PA the Appalachian Trail crosses the road.

 I arrived at the parking area around 09:15 AM or 13:15 UTC. I got my pack 
on and started hiking North on the AT towards clearing around 2 1/2 miles up 
the mountain. This is around 1 mile from Dan's Pulpit lookout. On my hike up 
the steep section of the trail I came across two thru hikers that started in 
GA. The to were from the Harrisburg, PA area, local PA boys. We talked for 
about 15 minutes and then we hiked together. Once at the top of the mountain 
they continued on North. It took me an hour to do the hike but 15 minutes 
was spent talking to the thru hikers, so overall it took me 45 minutes to 
hike up 2 1/2 miles of rocky trail.

 I started to setup my station.

Station:    Elecraft K1
                Black Widow Vertical
                Li-Poly battery
                Palm for logging with the PortaLog program

  Started out on 20 meters calling CQ at 10:30 AM or 14:30 UTC.

This is my log.

#1    N4KZ            20m    KY
#2    K1LNX/4      20m    TN
#3    KS4L            20m    AL
#4    AB4VF         20m    FL
#5    K3PBY/4      20m    FL
#6    N4UN           20m    AL

16:30 UTC

#7    WA1CFX     40m    ME    Lobstercon
#8    W3WH         40m    PA
#9    VE3MS        40m    Ontario
#10   K1ESE        40m    MA
#11   WA8REI     40m    MI

17:55 UTC

#12    N9IV         30m    IN

18:15 UTC

#13    W7A          20m    AZ

18:50 UTC

#14    WA8REI    40m    MI

Called CQ for 20 minutes more with no response I packed up the station. My 
total is now 820 QSO's from the Appalachian Trail. I was on 15 m at 16:00 
UTC for 20 minutes of calling CQ. There were no replies. I did hear a 
station in SC talking to a station in IN on 15 meters, they were the only 
signals on the band.

 While I was operation on 40 meters in the afternoon, there was a large 
crashing sound coming towards me. There were four deer that ran about 100 
feet behind me up over the top and down the other side. Needless to say that 
caught me by surprise. Then about 5 minutes later another 3 deer did the 
same thing but in front of me and they were about 50 feet away. All day I 
was watching a Hairy Woodpecker, a Pileated Woodpecker and a Blue Jay. All 
the bird were doing is going from tree to tree eating bugs. I was just 
hoping that they did not mistake my antenna as a tree, especially the 
woodpeckers.  :-)

 The weather was a sunny 75'F with a cool breeze blowing. I was under trees 
so it made the day very enjoyable. During the day several people came hiking 
thru heading towards Dan's Pulpit lookout. One hiker stopped and talked to 
me for a few minutes. He just came up the steep trail and took a 5 minute 
break. He was section hiking and he started out on Rte 61 that morning and 
was heading towards Rte 309. 28 Mile hike, wow. He said that his wife will 
be there around 8 PM and he was averaging 2 1/2 to 3 miles an hour. He had a 
GPS unit on and I guess he was Speed Hiking.

 Anyway it was another Great Day outdoors with the K1. Look for me at the 
end of July as Bumblebee #17 from the Appalachian Trail.

72 and Thanks,
Ron Polityka
WB3AAL
www.wb3aal.com
www.n3epa.org/

K1 - SN 01011
K2 - SN 01392