The Unofficial 2025 Alexandria Bay QSO Party & Our Failed Radio-Free Thousand Islands Vacation

There is a saying we all have probably heard. If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. I learned to stop making real plans a long time ago. The fleeting nature of life is drilled into me. Another nuance to this exists though. Of course the ruined plan is catastrophic. However, the perfectly executed plan can be excruciatingly boring. Fortunately I consider my life choices to be merely suggestions, and then wait with a curious mind to see where the universal tides actually take me.

AA1F and I practically threw a dart at a map when deciding to vacation at Kring Point this year. Vacations, real vacations, not just an extra day or two here or there, are extremely rare in my line of work. I decided I needed a week off this summer, oh maybe a month or so ago. About three weeks ago I bothered letting AA1F know I was taking a vacation. A few days later we decided we should actually go somewhere…you know…in the middle of the busiest vacation time of the year. And I haven’t even told you our constraints…

These days we really never board our pets (a cat Officer Clyde and a dog Georgia the Peaches). Clyde (or “The Officer” as we often call him) is fine by himself for a weekend, but if we want to go for longer we need to bring him along. Georgia is a bit of a challenging pet in many ways and we really do not trust her in anyone else’s care. Or what I probably should say is we don’t trust anyone else to care for her. I bet anyone reading this who has a German & Dutch Shepherd mix whom is commonly thought to be a Belgium Malinois is nodding their head empathetically. This is all to say that the two of them would be coming with us.

Oh, and this was going to be a mostly radio-free vacation. I mean, of course we were bringing a radio (or three) but we were not centering this vacation around ham radio as we did this one, or this one, or others.

Finally, AA1F and I like our privacy. Oddly, to us that tends to mean a camping vacation. Hotels sometimes feel like luxurious prisons with questionably clean pillows. A home rental is, well, someone else’s home. But the communal, publicly-owned property of a state park has a true sense of anonymity to us. Because we were bringing Clyde thus requiring four hard walls, we needed to choose between an RV site (and we’d drag our trailer) or a cabin that allowed pets. And it needed to be within a reasonable driving distance from Boston. We settled upon finding a cabin at a state park. And that left a measly six 6 potential destinations with vacancy on the entire eastern seaboard as far south as Virginia according to ReserveAmerica (the public clearinghouse for most state run camping sites).

Having never heard of it before, and having exactly zero antecedent desire to vacation in the Thousand Islands region of New York, we went ahead and put a reservation down for the week on this plumbing-less little house in Kring Point State Park. There wasn’t even a picture of the cabin that we could scrounge up online. From start to finish — from the moment we decided to go somewhere to when we received the reservation confirmation email — took less than a half hour. I couldn’t even point to Kring Point on a map except to tell you it was somewhere in the “North Country”, as the higher latitudes of New York are called. My expectations were exceptionally low.

Imagine my surprise when we pulled up to a little two-room cabin that was sitting on arguably the best piece of real estate in the entire park! The cabin sat high on a rocky outcropping that led into an outpouching of the Saint Lawrence River that I would come to learn was called Goose Bay. Being in the middle of a heat wave, AA1F and I jumped in the warm but refreshing water moments after unpacking the van and settling in the animals.

Since we already had to pack up a ton of annoying stuff (think litter box and an extra large dog kennel for the cat, a hot plate and coffee maker for the non-existing kitchen, a bunch of fans to attempt to cool us, and a lot of other things), we did not want to have to bring our kayaks with us too. Nor did we think Georgie would handle a kayak well. Yet the idea of being in a cabin next to the water without appropriate access in 90 degree heat was particularly unappealing. We decided to rent a boat and learned that Riverbay Rentals would drop one off at Kring Point for us for the entire week at a very reasonable price. I was disappointed to learn they did not have any pontoon boats available, but cemented a reservation for a 16′ aluminum fishing boat instead.

And when the dinghy shown above arrived, I couldn’t help but think I made a huge mistake. How in the heck was our seventy-pound shepherd, who had never been on a boat a day in her short life, going to manage not to tip us over? Or fall in? And Alexandria Bay is notoriously dangerous for boaters as AI will happily tell you when asked: “Numerous Shoals and Obstructions”, “Narrow Channels and Crowds”, “Industrial Waterway with Freighters”, “Tides and Currents” (okay nice try Google AI, there are no tides on this part of the River), and “Border Considerations”. Yup, the Saint Lawrence Seaway is divided with an invisible line into Canada and American portions right down its middle. It is not considered beginner-friendly boating. And in particular when that beginner is floating along like Huck Finn in a bathtub.

But I am actually not a beginner boater. I grew up on a boat in Lake George (NY) as my Mom loves to remind me. And although its been since AA1F and I were more or less kids, stealing my parents boat, (often to come back to find them angrily waiting on the dock) since I’ve driven one with any regularity…And despite a tough start piloting this little aluminum deep-v fishing vessel from the boat ramp to the dock, nearly hitting the yellow pontoon boat on my first one (or five) tries at docking… Well, it turns out, I absolutely fell in love with this capable little skiff!

Go ahead and click on that video above. Its the self-discharging bulk carrier called the Algona Niagara. It is 740 feet long and 78 feet wide. We encountered her on our first ride up the river. Honestly, it scared the breath out of me. I moved as far away as I could in this extremely narrow portion of the river and cut the engine to a crawl and AA1F took this video as she uneventfully passed. Industrial Waterway with Freighters? Check. Time to head back to shore!

Fatigued by the sun and rolling waves in a way only boaters would know, we made it back to our dock without incident. I set up my recently acquired Chameleon Lightweight End-Fed Sloper (LEFS) 4010, an antenna I am learning to appreciate, by dangling it from the ceiling light fixture and then wrapping it around all four walls on the inside of the cabin. That’s right…inside.

(I know, I know, a RADIO-FREE vacation! But what’s the harm in a handful of contacts just to prove the antenna works?)

You can see Officer Clyde holding court below.

Eventually we ate dinner. I walked down the main road of the park to my sunset kitchen where I washed the reminders of our goulash away.

After wrapping up the evening by bobbing like apples in the bathwater of Goose Bay off of our own private pile of bedrock, AA1F and I again fired up the radio station. You can see we brought the Icom IC-705, a radio I tend to ignore. However, every time I do use it I remember all of the things I like about it, especially its flawless pre-set FT8 interface. To ensure correct clock time on the computer, we also brought a Mifi device to access the internet. A Bioenno 3aH battery completed the kit, and we ran WSJT-X at a full 10 watts.

We also brought along the Yaesu FT-891 and did make a few 50W SSB contacts with this antenna set-up as well. And when we checked the Parks-On-The-Air stats on Kring Point State Park (US-2091), we learned we “only” needed 227 contacts to take the top spot for number of QSOs… Oh crap. There went the idea of a radio-free vacation…

We did eventually hang up the radio and go to bed. And by we, I mean mostly AA1F because he did a pretty good job of hijacking the station most of the week. And then quite unusually for me I woke up at sunrise and snapped some morning photos outside the door of our cabin.

Later on, a great blue heron was hanging out between the two shrubs also seen in the center of the above picture.

He took off…

Back in the cabin, Georgia was raring to go….

We did some quick research looking for a destination we could boat to and realized that Cedar Island State Park in the Chippewa Bay was about 6 or 7 miles away. And interestingly, it was a POTA that had only been activated once before.

We packed up a few provisions and shoved the 891 into a dry bag (we weren’t taking chances with a QRP rig like the 705) and took a quarter mile walk to our dock. AA1F took the helm.

Georgia, surprisingly, was taking to boat-life quite well. Once the engine became a steady roar and rhythm of the waves became predictable, Georgie was out like a light on a mat on the deck. It probably helped that Officer Clyde had been keeping us all up all night with his feline antics.

We made it to Cedar Island without event, navigation made easy with a GPS unit mounted on the console.

We paid the ranger seven bucks for the day and moved our boat over to a private dock.

And found a suitable picnic table. We nearly had the park to ourselves.

I set up the Chameleon antenna…

…and then posed for a picture (although Georgia refused to be overshadowed of course! She has a thing for hopping up onto picnic tables.)

We each completed our activations with a fairly modest number of SSB contacts, had our picnic lunch, packed up, and headed back to the cabin. Where AA1F immediately proceeded to get on the air once again. You can get a better idea of how I attached the antenna to the light fixture and then used the curtain rods, door frames, and other features of our two rooms to secure the radiating wire.

Eventually AA1F needed to take a ride into town for provisions for us. Being in Amish country it wasn’t surprising to see a horse and buggy off the side of the road. I am including this because a lot of people don’t think this form of transportation still exists in real life.

AA1F drove into Alexandria Bay…

…While I practiced snapping sunset shots from nearby Morgan Island — attached via a footbridge to Kring Point — with my old Nikon DSLR I thought to bring with me.

The Alexandria Bay creatures do come out at night… in packs…

We decided it was just about time to tuck in for the night!

Morning came and I drove us by water back into Alexandria Bay for burgers, chicken fingers, and fries. Believe it or not, it was the only meal we did not cook for ourselves the entire trip.

I docked rather flawlessly if I do say so myself! (Isn’t she a beautiful vessel? Definitely growing on me!)

Our next stop would be the American side of the Thousand Islands Bridge. This suspension bridge starts in the U.S., to Wellesley Island (which is partly American and partly Canadian), and then continues on to the Canada mainland.

And we made it!

Georgie was taking it all in.

We did some more sightseeing. Below is the famous tourist attraction Boldt Castle on Heart Island.

A family of swans floated in front of Wellesley Island.

AA1F and I made a pit stop at Deer Island where we were initiated into the Amateur Radio Secret Society, complete with Wouff-Hong and Rettysnitch rituals that we can never again talk about… Okay, I am just kidding. We never went to Deer Island, nor did we get initiated into a Ham Radio Secret Society. Unless you count our FCC license testing. And of course, as surely every one knows, Deer Island does not belong to an Amateur Radio Secret Society. Deer Island does, however, belong to the Skull and Bones, a very different secret society based (ironically) also in Connecticut. The arrows point to their lodge / boathouse below.

And a closer view…

Our next stop was very serious. We decided to make a run for the border.

A bunch of nerves and expecting a fleet of warships to descend on us at any moment, we carefully watched the GPS as we traveled through open waters towards the red dotted line that marked the border between the United States and Canada. We crossed it, paused briefly to make sure we got a good photograph of the GPS, and then high-tailed it back into the good ole U. S. of A. Whew, close one!

Ok, not really. The border rules as I understand them, and as told to us by the marina we rented our boat from, were that you were fine to boat on the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence Seaway. As long as you do not stop! No anchoring and no going on shore. If you do either of these things, you need to notify Canadian Border Patrol immediately. AA1F and I did have our passports on us just in case. We still felt a bit like renegades though sneaking across the border. Even if it was for only about 45 seconds.

We went back to Goose Bay, passing by a boater community adjacent to Kring Point State Park.

This story ends with a photograph of the sun setting off the shore of Morgan Island. The land mass across the river is Canada’s Grenadier Island.

Or maybe it should end when we return to real life, with AA1F stopping of at the farm to harvest his garlic on our way home.

Either way it doesn’t matter. The story is not a real story. It is an amalgam of some of the events of our trip to Kring Point State Park. The timeline and sequence are not correct. I have mixed and matched the images to try to tell a cohesive tale. But I didn’t need to tell God my plans for this trip because I didn’t have any. And I am trying like heck to capture the ephemeral. Contain it. Put these memories in a bottle that I could open and relive at will. It’s already fading and the images are flat. Like the plot of a fantastical movie, I am no longer sure Kring Point even exists anywhere besides my imagination. Go ahead and tell God your plans and make him laugh. Or maybe if you listen hard enough God will tell you his plans — a tiny cabin, an aluminum skiff, a giant river in the North Country of Upstate New York. And maybe, just maybe, you too will get a glimpse of Heaven.

You Are In My Thoughts,

KM1NDY

P.S. We made 335 contacts between the two of us for this “non-radio” vacation. AA1F is for now the reigning holder of the most POTA contacts at Kring Point State Point.

P.P.S. That plant below is Blue Vervain. This particular plant species is exceptionally meaningful to me. It was growing at the edge of the water below our cabin. Hello Verv.