The Ten-Point SOTA Return To Slide Mountain, & “There Won’t Be Snow In April In The Catskills”

There was snow. I only wore my crocs, my hiking shoe of choice but not for a foot of slushy, melting spring snow. It was 50 degrees. The peak of Slide was 2.8 miles away.

Rock hopping up the base of the mountain made the early part of the trail easy.

The trail was soupy, but easily passable nearly a mile in. For Summits-On-The-Air, you need 1000 points in order to be eligible for “The Mountain Goat” award. Most mountains in Massachusetts are worth only 1 point. Slide in Shandaken NY, around 4200 feet tall and the highest peak in the Catskills, is worth 10 points for a successful SOTA activation. And it is not that bad of a hike.

Except on the fourth weekend of April when you do not anticipate a foot of snow. Luckily the well-worn trail was fairly packed down. Still, it was slippery. One teenage girl we passed on her way down stumbled as she went by us. “They don’t call it Slide Mountain for nothing!” She exclaimed. AA1F complained that she had stolen his joke. I giggled a little. That is until I was on my way down the peak, and wondered if I was going to break a leg.

Nellie, our dog, took the lead.

The strategy for the activation was not a good one. First, we did not have cell service, which meant we could not spot ourselves. We had brought four radios with us, including the Yaesu FT-891, Yaesu FT-818, and two handhelds (FT-4Xs). I would try a qrp activation while AA1F hung out on 2M. Here I am putting up a 20M resonant dipole antenna. In fact, the instructions on how to make it are here.

Here is a picture of the dipole in the evergreen.

When I noticed the snow at the trailhead, I decided to bring up a sleeping bag for Nellie. Unfortunately, I did not bring the well-insulated sleeping pad for her. The earth will suck a lot of your heat (and a dog’s too!) if there is not a good insulating layer between you and the ground.

AA1F was making contacts and I was still putting up my antenna.

It was slow going though. AA1F would hand over the HT after every contact so I could jump on and make one too. I could hear stations loud and clear on the 818. The problem was, they just couldn’t hear me.

But in the end, I made my four contacts, earning 10 SOTA points. As did AA1F. It means I have hiked 63 mountains in the last four years for the SOTA program, and only have 245 points after 4 years of trying. Luckily for me, there are a lot of mountains around.

Oh, and no, I am not Sasquatch. You may notice that my photos are posted without applying any filters. That photo (taken be AA1F) of me looking like a bigfoot…strange, right? Let’s just leave it as it embodies my wild spirit.

Cheers!

KM1NDY