Lynn Headwaters Regional Park

It felt good getting out to a new park. It had been quite awhile since I was last at a new park. I enjoy going with Ralph on these adventures and he had been busy doing some teaching the past month. This left me with doing repeats at Campbell Valley. Now with his teaching done, we were able to head out on the first nice day. It had been 14 years since I was last here. That time my son Ethan and I hiked to Norvan Falls. It was a tiring hike but the waterfall at the far end was quite pretty. Though not a lot of elevation change the route is long. This time Ralph and I would be staying at the entrance area and setting up antennas.

We left my house around 11am and decided we didn’t feel like a coffee so we drove straight to the park. The highway was congested for one section due to a traffic accident, but otherwise it was a fast trip. After crossing the 2nd narrows bridge, I was looking for the exit but the off ramp for Mountain Highway is changed and is now much earlier than one expects, I missed it. Fortunately, the next exit is Lynn Valley Road which was where we were headed to anyways, so missing the turn likely cost us only a minute of travel time.

We soon entered the park and made our way to the end of the road. There are a number of parking lots along the way and they were mostly empty. This time of year, there are no parking fees as the crowds are way down as most of the back-country trails are closed. We reached the end of the road to find that that lot was full. I pulled into an empty handicapped spot and unloaded Ralph’s gear. He was going to use a grassy area just past the service buildings which we could see from the road. Once unloaded, I drove back to the next lot and parked there. There was a small grass patch next to the lot which would work well for me and so I backed up to it and started setting up my station. The grass was just wide enough for the antenna, and the stall next to my car provided a nice level spot for my table.

I was soon ready to go and I called Ralph but heard nothing from him. I checked the spots on 10m and started listening for an activator. I could just make out fellow club member Jim who was activating Campbell Valley Park. We completed a contact giving us a park-to-park. I then tried Ralph some more and eventually saw that my handheld volume was at 0, I turned it up and got Ralph. With the number of variables with our technology, it is more of a surprise that we don’t have minor issues like this more often. We then proceeded to make our 11 contacts across 11 radio bands. Finished with those contacts we both started calling on 10m. We were far enough apart today to not cause any interference with each other which was a nice bonus.

I soon had a number of pile-ups on the band as I was calling. Stations on the east coast were coming in strong and I was making numerous contacts with hunters in New York. This kept up until it was time to check in with Ralph. He was having a slower day but we both felt like continuing for another 15 minutes. Things seemed a bit slower after that but by the end and after 40 minutes of calling I had 43 contacts in my log beyond those with Ralph. So, it had been a great session. I packed up and called Ralph to see if there were any open parking stalls in the end lot. There were, so I drove down and parked. Ralph loaded his gear in and then we set out to explore the area and gather a few photos of the river and foot-bridge over it. The area is very pretty even in the winter period. I could imagine it to be very scenic in snow. The river was flowing moderately fast and the remains of a small weir made a pretty waterfall just upstream of the bridge.

We both quite enjoyed the activation in the park. Ralph was in a more shaded area than I was and he had started to chill which was part of the reason we stopped as early as we did. There is also the rush-hour traffic which we hoped we could beat. Our goal is not to maximize the number of contacts just to make enough and to enjoy the time at the park. To that end, we reserved some time to wander over the river area and grab a few photos before we left. It was nice returning to the park. I suppose I need to come back and do some of the walks along the river with my camera. With this park done, we have visited all of the listed parks in North Vancouver. The next group will be West Vancouver where there are eight more to see.