Stratton and Equinox: 18 Luxury SOTA Points
Summits On The Air. My ham radio sweet spot. I live at the edge of the ocean, but my heart is in the hills. I have made the trek up a mountain 71 times in the last four years for this game. Usually on foot. And I am not even 30% of the way to achieving the Mountain Goat. So when I get the chance to take an easy out up a peak, I do it. And a nice Independence Day Weekend Getaway to Vermont sounded like the perfect SOTA slackpack.
Stratton Mountain W1/GM-007 in Windham County VT was the first stop. I know you are a little more used to me being covered in mud and filth, playing radio while lying on the ground on a tarp, but on rare occasion I enjoy some manmade luxury. Turns out the Stratton Mountain Resort is actually quite a neat summer destination.
The village is transformed into an outdoor plaza, with hiking and biking replacing skiing as the major mountain activities.
One of the major draws was that dogs were wholeheartedly welcome.
But what really cinched it for us, was that dogs were whole-heartedly welcome on the gondola! Our trail dog Nellie is starting to get on in years, and 4000 footers are getting harder for her. The fact we could load up the pup onto the lift was a giant bonus.
AA1F liked this blurry photo, so here it is. Don’t let Nellie’s excited smile fool you. She was in near panic mode at the experience of “flying” up the mountain. She was much calmer on the return trip.
Sticking with the luxury theme, we found a picnic table in the activation zone to operate on. I strung the 20M EFHW in the conifers and we went to work. In short order, I made 18 contacts. Which also counted as a POTA of Green Mountain National Forest K-4527.
Here is a view of what I was looking at.
After bagging an easy peasy ten SOTA points, we raced off back down the gondola, in a hurry to get to our next summit.
Equinox Mountain looms over the cute town of Manchester VT. This ski village is another worthwhile summer destination. But other than to grab a bite to eat, we did not linger long. Our goal was to motor up the Skyline Drive for an additional eight SOTA points.
Here I am working a 2M FM activation with a handitalkie from the Equinox Mountain summit parking lot.
I made my 4 contacts by FM, while AA1F made a couple dozen on 20M by phone. These two successful activations puts me at 295 SOTA points, currently in 18th place for the W1 (New England) region. And to think I still need 705 more points for my Mountain Goat award!
“Hike Your Own Hike” has been around since well before the internet. I don’t know how the kids use the saying anymore, but back in my day it meant that your hiking journey was uniquely yours. Your walk was not to be credibly judged, critiqued, frowned upon, or even approved of by others. Hiking was a unique expression of your personal freedom. A synergy between you and the trail. And during a time when there was absolutely no technology capable of getting you rescued – no cell phones, no sat comm devices, and no solar chargers to keep batteries energized. If you set out down a path, you were either skilled enough to get home or maybe your family sent a rescue unit out to find you.
You see, there was a time when the woods were actually the unknown. And those of us who ventured into them were risking, well, our lives. And we did not take kindly to others telling us how to live our adventures. We did not passively learn from the experiences of others by watching videos or reading blogs on how to do things. These did not exist. Or Monday morning quarterbacking. Rather we made all sorts of mistakes learning how to do things in real life. We failed over and over and over again, until we didn’t. We almost killed ourselves trying, and not an insignificant number of times. There was no substitute for pure, raw, hard-earned experience. And, if we are honest with ourselves, there is still not a substitute for pure, raw, hard-earned experience.
Hike Your Own Hike. SOTA Your Own SOTA. Play Radio The Way You Play Radio. Live Your Own Journey. Choose Your Own Adventure. First Do No Harm. And Do Unto Others…
This is my adventure. Some days I walk up the hills. Some days I drive up. Sometimes I ride up in a gondola. Sometimes I operate from a cliffside boulder. Sometimes I operate on a picnic table. Sometimes I operate from a parking lot. And no matter how I choose to live my own life, each and every unique experience is feverishly, wildly, and preciously mine.
Until the summit calls me back again.
KM1NDY