Bolivar Park

The day was bright, sunny and moderately warm and I had little planned as I was heading out on vacation the next day. So, to fill a bit of time in the early afternoon I set out for Bolivar Park. It was another new park to me and I was looking forward to getting another unique in the log as I only need 5 more to reach my Sapphire level certificate. When I checked the route the night before it had me travel 176 to highway 17 but today due to traffic the route took me along highways 99 and 91. I made good time though the navcom was a bit out of date with the exit from highway 91. Fortunately, the signs were clear, one always needs to apply local situation awareness to any navcom direction.

I made the park in 30 minutes as planned and I parked in the large and almost empty lot. I then went for a walk around the main portion of the park. The lot is in the midst of three baseball fields, there is a kid’s playground in the middle as well. Though it claims washroom facilities, they were all locked up. Past the ballfield to the east is a large dog park and further east on the hillside is a forested wooded area with numerous trails. I spotted a picnic table next to the play area which would be a good spot to operate from and then returned to the car for my radio gear.

There were a few people walking around along the trails and some in the dog area but mostly it was empty. Ideal for me. I set up at the table and scanned the bands I heard one park activator on the 10m band and I was able to work him in quick order. There was no one heard on 12m and 15m had no activators. I didn’t bother with the lower bands and just selected an open frequency on 15m and posted my activation. In a few minutes I had the start of a continual flow of hunters trying to reach me. In twenty minutes, I had 20 contacts, more than enough for the activation. A few minutes more of calling and I encountered a lull in activity.

Rather than continue on 15m I opted to move to 12m and started calling there but after 10 minutes I had no takers. Being overly quiet on 12 I moved up to 10m and posted a spot. It took a few minutes but soon I was having people respond t my call. Signals seemed a bit weaker here but I still managed around 10 more contacts. Then things dried up again and as I had been out there for 50 minutes I decided to pack up. Though the breadth of the hunters’ locations was not as wide as last time out I still managed contacts with stations in Alaska through West Virginia and down to California. They were quite varied in strength reports today. It seems like the conditions were quite variable.

Done with radio, I packed the gear and started for home. This time the navcom picked a third route. Through the midst of Surrey along Fraser highway to 168th and then along it until home. It actually did move along quite well and skipped all the slow points along the regular routes. It really is nice having a traffic aware navigation tool. It was all good until the last intersection at 168 and 24. My timing had me arrive just as the kids were being picked up at the local high school! It actually took several lights to get through the intersection. Sounds like downtown Vancouver, fortunately it lasts only around 10 minutes. Now to start packing for my vacation.