US-2424 Callahan State Park

Autumn 2024 has been a great time to explore new POTA sites. The weather has been unseasonably mild, with temperatures reaching into the high 60s many days, and plenty of sunshine. Even better for POTA, most of the parks are closed for the season, which means that you pretty much have the place to yourself. It's a very good opportunity to spend time in a place without a lot of distractions, and you can get a good sense of the park itself and also the operating opportunities.

There are three primary parking areas for Callahan, one on the north side of the 800-acre park, one on the south side, and one in the middle. The southern parking lot is the more popular, it is larger and has several trailheads nearby.

The middle lot is the one that Apple Maps will take you to, and it is a little confusing. The address for the park is that of a small farmhouse on the property, and you'll see an official sign for the park out front. Even though it looks like you can turn in here, the drive doesn't really lead anywhere. The actual parking lot is 100 feet or so further north along Parmenter Road.

I pulled into the northern lot since the area looked a little less swampy to me on the topo map. There's a clear sign for the park at the turn off of Parmenter onto Broad Meadow Road, but then things get a little murky. My advice is to set your GPS to Gulbankian's in Marlborough, and once you get there, keep going straight into the parking area.

The parking area itself is small but there's space for several vehicles. This part of the park seems to be a popular spot for dog-walkers, so the lot will be a little more crowded at morning, noon, and in the evening when pets are out for a stroll.

The park is flat and the trails are broad and an easy walk. There's a mix of tall pine and hardwoods, plenty of opportunities for antenna supports, and in most places there's not a lot of undergrowth, so you won't be wading through briars to get to a good location. I picked a sunny spot in a little break in the trees, just off the path, and set up the EFHW more or less on a north-south line.

One caution on the north side is that there is an exclusion area, not part of the park, in the center of the northern section. Be sure to check your GPS before setting up. You can hike in that direction, to the southeast, and end up in the other half of the park in about half an hour.

This was an easy activation on a sunny day. It's a moderately popular POTA site, as of today (Thanksgiving 2024) there have been about 60 activations, and a few kilos have been posted from here. I logged fifteen or so CW contacts and packed up to head home. I call these little activations "lunch trips" since I typically pack a sandwich and head out the door around noon local time. The entire activation takes less than an hour, including setup and teardown. On a summer day I'd spend more time in the park hiking, but in the late fall and winter it's more about getting in, getting activated, and getting home to sit in front of the fire.