Semiahmoo Trail

During my activations in th Parks-on-the-air program I noticed that a lot of American activators were often in multiple parks at the same time. Most of those dual sites involved an historic trail that ran through a park. It got me wondering about two trails I knew about. I checked with the Parks Canada Site and Semiahmoo was a listed historical trail. It therefore was eligible to be added to the list of parks. Upon emails with the BC mapping manager the trail was quickly added to the list.

I wanted to be the first to activate it, but we also added Redwood Park to the list and I had only time to do one on the day after the parks became active. I decided to do Redwood first. Fortunately, the next day Semiahmoo trail was still not activated. So, to there I went. It being quite close to home I was soon arriving at the open green space that was the only open spot along the length of the trail. This location is in the midst of houses and an elementary school.

I parked alongside the road and got out to look over the area. The green space has an access point on both sides of the open area. I walked in on the first (northern) walkway, between it and the grassy area was a small ditch which I stepped over, the grass was still a bit mushy, and I picked my was across carefully. I saw that the other side had no ditch and would be easier for the cart to cross. I returned to the car and moved it to the other entrance. I then loaded the cart and wandered to the entrance. There is a ditch between the field and the road/trail, so the entrance areas were the only way to get my cart over.

I walked to the middle of the grass and selected a spot within 30m of the trail. I then selected a spot for the tripod and mast, being careful to observe the 3 phase power lines running along the near side of the road. I soon had the station operational and that’s when I noticed the S5/6 noise floor and on 10m. I decided that if I was going to be successful, I would need to use my noise cancellation unit at this location and so I got it out of my case and placed it into the signal path. I was able to reduce the local noise by two S-units.

I dialed across the 10m band but heard none of the activators I then tried 12m and finally 15m. On 15m I could hear several hunters but not their targets. I decided that 15m was likely going to work for me and so I selected a frequency and after a short while I had to move a bit to avoid some others who came on the frequency.  I began calling and soon after I had a station from South Carolina respond to me. He gave me a decent signal report, but the local noise was making hearing him a bit challenging. Next came a California station with a better signal.  I soon had two of the big names in POTA hunters come by and get the new park in their logs. Over the next half hour, I worked stations from New York and North Carolina through Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Arizona, with more in between. It had been a harder challenge in this location and there were several stations I couldn’t pull out of the mud.

While operating a local resident drove by turned around and parked behind my car. He was quite interested in my set up. I motioned him over as I was completing a QSO. I then took a few minutes to chat with him and explain the activity he thought it quite interesting and was wondering if the numbers of Hams were down. I mentioned that the numbers are doing OK though many of the newer hams are using the bands to support their other hobbies such as 4x4 driving. I gave him one of my prepared info cards so he could look up more details.

By 30 minutes I had 23 in the log, more than needed and so I decided to pack up the station. The wind was picking up and the day was much cooler than yesterday. I also wanted to spend some time wandering the trail to gather a few photos.  Once packed and loaded into the car I continued along the tail to the end of the road. It used to connect to 28th Ave at that point but for many years now it has been closed off. I parked there and got out to gather some photos of the foot bridge that was placed here for trail users to walk across the busy 148th street. After crossing the bridge and gathering photos from several positions I returned to the car and drove to the trail crossing on 32nd ave. where I took a few more photos. I then drove to the north end of the trail followed by the 24th Ave crossing. I made my way along to the end of the trail near 20th Ave. The trail is well maintained and quite extensively used – at least by dogs and their servants.

It had been a successful day and I succeeded in being first to activate the trail. I gathered a few photos of sections of the trail I had never seen before which was an interesting experience. Done with the trail, I returned home for a late lunch. When I went to post my log into the POTA site, I noticed that the third park we recently added had now been activated by a POTA member. I guess getting two of three first person to activate will have to do. Now to find a few more sites that are worth adding to the list.