Hatley Park and the Esquimalt Lagoon

I was back in Victoria for our quarterly visit—a lovely escape from the usual business and rhythms of everyday life. On this trip, I had my sights set on some serious ham radio activity: adding a new destination to my growing list of activated parks. Reviewing my options back home, I spotted the Hatley Park area, which conveniently overlaps part of the Esquimalt Lagoon Migratory Bird Sanctuary. Two parks for the effort of one! It sounded like a brilliant plan; all I needed now were cooperative band conditions to officially claim them both.

The morning of my first full day in Victoria broke with decent weather and good band conditions. Once breakfast was finished, I organized my equipment and punched the destination into my navcom. The map routed a 30-minute drive, and I was off on the adventure. Traffic was pleasantly light, allowing me to make great time to the parking lot. Noticing it was paid parking, I carefully paid for two hours, making sure I entered my license plate correctly before heading out for a short walk to scout the grounds.

The scenery opened up dramatically: the huge shoreline of the lagoon lapped at the beach to the south, vast grassy fields dotted with geese stretched out to the north, and a majestic castle stared down at me from the hill above. It was a delightful setting and an ideal location to set up my radio. Returning to the car and finding no picnic tables or benches nearby, I decided to set up right next to the vehicle and operate out of it for the day. While writing log entries from the car seat is a bit awkward, it isn't a bad setup overall, offering great comfort if the wind or rain picks up.

I soon had the radio up and running, scanning the bands. I spotted a few stations on 15m, but could only hear the hunters rather than the actual activators. Switching to 20m, I heard more activity, but the band noise was stubbornly high and I didn't feel like fighting the conditions. Returning to 15m, I selected a clean frequency and started calling.

Almost immediately, I received a response from a chap in Texas, quickly followed by Ohio, Manitoba, Indiana, Louisiana, Virginia… The stations rolled in fast, and I had multiple groups vying for my attention simultaneously. The band was blazing hot, and because this park doesn't see many activations, it quickly became a sought-after location. It turned into a thrilling sprint, and after just 40 minutes, I had 36 entries in my log—not a single one of them a park-to-park contact! That felt rather odd, since fellow activators usually make up a good portion of the numbers. My fellow radio club buddy, Jim, tried to reach me, but we couldn't connect on 15m. After a brief try on 40m, however, we made a solid connection. Things finally quieted down around 1:00 PM, and I decided to pack up rather than kick off a new round.

Tearing down the station went smoothly, and soon I was back on the road. I wanted to visit the far side of the lagoon to snap a few photos from that angle, so I drove around the west side and parked at the far southern edge. The lagoon is separated from the Strait of Juan de Fuca by a narrow causeway carrying a road with plenty of side parking. I selected a spot and stepped out to explore.

Before long, I noticed a chap named Fil Dadic operating a small remote-controlled car. He was expertly driving it over the rocky beach while filming the action with his smartphone. I watched him for a while, and during a pause, I asked if he was making a YouTube video. He was—in fact, he runs a successful channel and website at www.poorboysrc.ca, making his living off the platform with over 700 videos to his name.

Leaving Fil to his filming, I continued along the causeway, stopping a few times to capture more photos while carefully dodging the numerous bird droppings that littered the sanctuary area. I suppose it would be silly to complain, though, seeing as it is an ecosystem explicitly set aside for the birds, which numbered in the hundreds scattered all across the landscape.

Once I reached the end of the causeway, I pointed the car back toward the hotel. The drive went off without a hitch, and I was soon back home reflecting on the day's events: a fantastic "two-fer" with plenty of contacts, incredible scenery, abundant bird life, and a pleasant chat with a professional YouTube content creator. On to the next adventure!