Once you get in, this isn't a bad spot to operate from. But oh, getting in!

I’m not a mountain-biker, but boy, do I love those guys. The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, and for state parks and forests in my area there are often just a small number of marked trails, mainly loops that cater to casual hikers and dog-walkers. When the bikers move in, they create intricate meshes […]

I’ve hiked Gilbert Hills for many years, long before I became active with POTA. One reason is that it’s close to my QTH, and Gilbert Hills and nearby US-8383 Wrentham State Forest (it’s right across the street from Gilbert Hills) are my ‘home’ parks for all sorts of POTA experiments and casual activations. Another is […]

I’d overnighted in South Hadley, Massachusetts after spending the previous day, the 31st of October, hiking and activating US-5636 Mt. Greylock. I mention the specific day because in Massachusetts the state parks shut down quite a few of the roads on their properties on October 30th. At Greylock this meant that what I’d intended to […]

I was completely unprepared for what was around the corner...

Near the end of the last ice age quite a bit of North America was covered in a thick layer of ice, in some place reaching a thickness of two miles. Around 12,500 years ago the planet began to warm rapidly, and the ice began to melt. Vast ice water lakes formed behind enormous dams, […]

In the summertime you’ll be lucky to find a parking spot at this popular park in the eastern part of Massachusetts. You might recognize Hopkinton from the town’s distinction as the starting line for the Boston Marathon, held in April each year. Even though the marathon course does not pass all that close to the […]

You can’t go too far down the road in New England before running into a cranberry bog. Cranberries love the cool weather and grow on ground that might not support other crops, plus they are an easy crop to harvest. The first bogs in New England were planted on Cape Cod in the early 1800s. […]

At just six acres, this might qualify as the smallest POTA reference I’ve activated. I had great expectations going in – this is a small park on the site of the former Canton Airport, and on a satellite view you can still make out the outlines of the primary runways in their typical WWII-era triangular […]

I’m slowly learning that Apple Maps does not really show you the way to POTA happiness. On some cases it can barely show you the way to the parking lot. The picture above is what you’ll be looking at when Apple Maps announces that you’ve “Arrived!” at West Hill Dam in her chipper little voice. […]