There’s A Reason I Walk Up These Hills…And When I Figure It Out I’ll Let You Know! SOTA Of Overlook Mountain (Again) And Testing The 2M Slim Jim
So that is the Overlook Mountain House. Or it was. Or one of a few of them. An interesting site with a lot of destructive fires sitting on a very high perch. This blog has a lot to say about it: http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/overlook/overlook.html. Its our third time up Overlook Mountain W2/GC-112, chasing its four rather easy points for Summits-On-The-Air. And now that it is winter bonus season, we get seven points for this five mile round-trip activation. We did it at the end of last year too.
You may recall me mentioning that the trail up Overlook is a 2-mile long graded road. It is wide, well-maintained due to the fact that it is an active communications tower site, and a straight shot from the parking lot to the top, so impossible to get lost even in the dark. The summit is divided into two distinct features separated by a half-mile walk, the lower elevation Overlook Mountain House ruins, and the true summit area with a fire tower, ranger cabin, privy, and picnic tables.
The uncannily warm early March day caused a slushy melt to overlie the entire icy trail road.
A footwear traction system was a necessity in my opinion, although we saw folks hiking in just boots. My preferred brand are the Kahtoola MICROSpikes which I have worn for years now.
The skeleton of the Mountain House is startling. Almost because you don’t realize it is there until you can nearly touch it. There is something disconcerting about being taken by surprise by such a large structure in the middle of the woods. Unexpected. And rather breathtaking. You can’t help but wonder about ghosts.
Our first time up Overlook we spent a lot of time playing in the hotel. The last two trips, we pass it by looking forward to getting on the air. This is the backside.
Apparently this is the Overlook Mountain Lodge. This picture came out oddly flat and gray. I did not use any filters or adjust it in any way. I can’t tell if I think its eerie, or just sad, lonely, and neglected looking. The bones of these buildings are so stately and strong seeming. Solid shells gutted of any potential. Yet refusing to give up or cave in. Time will win out eventually I imagine.
By the time I made it to the summit, AA1F was set up and on the air. We have long given up trying to match paces up these hills.
The trusty 20M EFHW antenna was strung up between a few trees. A contest obliterated 20M and cell service was patchy. AA1F combined chasing POTA and calling CQ to obtain his necessary 10 plus points for an activation of both SOTA and POTA (Catskill Forest Preserve K-8070). If you look closely, you can find the antenna balun below.
My kit, on the other hand, looked a bit different than usual. The baggie contains this diy roll-up Slim Jim 2M antenna, a 25 foot length of RG8X coax, a female (reverse) SMA to pl-259 coax pigtail, and the Yaesu FT-4X handy talkie. I did bring a length of paracord and a logbook.
I pulled the Slim Jim up into a tree.
You can see 6 loops of RG8X ziptied together to form an RF choke. The coax heads back to a sleeping pad (for insulation against the cold ground) that Nellie is holding down.
A bit closer view of the operating station, and of Nellie keeping a watchful eye on AA1F.
Finally, me on the air!
I was able to make 5 contacts on 146.52 FM simplex in 41 minutes without spotting myself on the SOTA website (or anywhere else). Contacts ranged from 14 miles to probably 59 miles away. In the map below, you can see the location of the ham operators that I contacted. The 69 mile contact probably really was 59 miles, as he was actually operating at High Point State Park in New Jersey I believe, not at his QTH. All in all, I think the Slim Jim Antenna was a success! I was able to hear all of these operators loud and clear. Another completed SOTA activation of the Overlook Mountain during winter bonus points season!
So, what is the reason that I walk up these hills? I don’t know. But I have learned to walk up them in small chunks. Picking some landmark, and convincing myself to just go a bit further to get to it. You see, I actually don’t like walking up hill. I am slow sometimes (AA1F just chuckled at the “some” part of that last statement!) I want to give up and turn around sometimes. I can’t figure out why (or how) I am going to keep moving forward. So, I walk short distances, over and over again, until I make it to the top. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. On Overlook, there are roadside utility poles spaced about 100 or 200 feet apart up the entire trail. I convince myself to walk to the next utility pole. Over and over and over again. I think to myself, I hate walking up hill. But I keep going. Just like I have for the fifty plus mountains I have climbed in the last two and a half years for SOTA. Or the hundreds of mountains I climbed before I knew SOTA, or even ham radio, existed. And even though I hate climbing up hill, I hike the same way I eat elephants, and I always know, that no matter what, I can make it another mile.
Life throws a lot at you sometimes. But, us hikers are blissfully aware, that the trail eventually flattens out.
Still Standing.
KM1NDY
(“yeah, yeah, yeah”)