This. Was. FUN.
What else really is there to say? Wisconsin fall camping, portable radio, good people, good food, great times.
This is campout was organized by Micheal KB9VBR and a few of his friends. For the past few years, they have enjoyed a late season campout in a Wisconsin state park. Come mid October, the crowds at the ever popular state parks drop off quite a bit. Giving an opportunity for those who don’t mind the fickle late fall weather full run of the campgrounds.
Me personally, my prime camping season comes in the fall. No heat, no bugs, no people. Generally speaking, I am not a people person. I treasure my solitude.
With that said, I had an absolute blast hanging out with a bunch of people that I met for the first time. While typically a bit guarded, I had zero hesitation coming out of my shell to spend time with strangers. It was pretty easy for me to let my guard down. After all, they were into fall camping and POTA. How bad could they be? Spoiler Alert: they were all great people.
First thing first. The Camping and Park.
First time I visited the Northern Highland American Legion State Forest campground. It is your typical Wisconsin state campground setup. Loops of rustic campsite with a level spot for your tent or camper, a picnic table, and a fire ring. Water sources and vault toilets located in convenient locations.
The campground is located on a the shores of a lake with a nice beach and boat landing. The is also a nice multi-use trail system adjacent to the campground in the state forest. All around a very nice campground. The campsites were not too packed in. Plenty of room.
The fall colors were just a bit past peak, yet absolutely beautiful. The wether was so so. The temps were good for tent camping. If you are set up properly. Lows were in the 40’s so tolerable for most. Could have done without the rain, but hey… it's camping. You get what you get and you don’t have a fit. (That’s a line a former coworker says to her kids. Love it.)
The rain, for me anyway, let me know I was with my people. It takes a special breed to go out camping in late fall for a POTA event. Add a little rain in the forecast… yeah, I found my tribe. If a little cold weather and liquid sunshine won’t stop someone from having fun camping and playing radio, they are going to be fun to hang out with.
It was truly a great time hanging out with about 25 other camping and POTA enthusiasts like myself. All great people.
My Camp Setup.
I kept it pretty simple, while using this camping trip to prove out some new-er gear. For a shelter, I brought along my pop-up ice fishing shelter. I picked this up last year and used it a few times and have been pretty happy with it. I brought is along since I would be using it for a few days of continuous use in fairly milld weather, it would be a good shake down for it.
Overall the shelter worked out great. Just enough room for a standard size sleeping cot that takes up about half the shelter. The other half was sued for a radio station and stowing gear.
Pretty happy with how everything worked out, especially during the rain.
One thing I was curious about is how well the shelter would hold up to rain. Ice fishing shelter are great for snow, but it usually doesn't rain while you're out ice fishing. I was quite pleased to see it held up pretty good during the rain. Just a few drops here and there from the roof of the shelter. And a bit of seepage through the seems along the bottom of the the shelter.
An Army style cot from Coleman fit nearly perfectly along on of the walls for the shelter, giving me plenty of room for a camp chair & table, plus packs of radio gear. My 20 degree quilt was enough to keep me warm with the lows in the upper 30’s. I did run the small propane heater one or two nights for a half hour or so before bed to take the chill off.
Radio Gear.
For HF radios I had my Yaesu FT-819 and FT-818 along for the ride. To accompany them, I brought an assortment of antennas, masts, and batteries. Along with 2 solar panel options, that with the overcast conditions didn’t provide a lot of benefit; but it was a good opportunity to work with them nonetheless.
Also with was my Yaesu FTM-300 manpack that I used as my basecamp radio. I had that running when I was in camp beckoning APRS and monitoring our designated camp simplex frequency.
In all I couldn’t have asked for a better time. While the rain wasn’t the best for camping, it did help me put some of my newer gear through their paces. Temps were ideal for me. The location was great; but not as great as the amazing people.
Good camping, good radio, great people.