I was searching the POTA database of parks the other day and noticed that there was only one park left in Tennessee which had not been activated. That park was Lick Creek WMA. I decided that I would be the one to get the ATNO (All Time New One) “licked”.
Lick Creek WMA is about 2.5 hours from my home QTH, so this one was going to be a “most of the day” adventure. I was able to convince my partner, Ëric, to accompany me for this trip (and I am still trying to convince her to get licensed). The parking for the WMA was at the dead end of a rural residential road, and access to the WMA was a muddy 4×4 trail. I decided to walk the trail, since my truck does not have 4-wheel drive, and I really did not want to get myself stuck and have to knock on someone’s door to get some help.
I set up my 40/20 EFHW and the Yaesu FT-891, along with a little stool to keep my backside off the soggy ground. Since this park had never been activated, I was a little concerned that I would initaite a pile-up that I wouldn’t be able to comfortably handle given my lack of a substantial writing surface. To address this, I chose to hunt for other POTA activators to get the bulk of my needed contacts. I jumped around the 20 and 40 meter bands and snagged as many other POTA activators as I could as Park to Park contacts. I only needed to call CQ a few times, and I was able to supplement the P2P contacts with enough QSOs to activate the park (15 total QSOs). With the sun starting to set, and the cold creeping in, I packed up my gear and headed back to the truck.
On the return trip, I had the opprtunity to take the Benton-Houston Ferry across the Tennessee River. This is the last ferry operating on the Tennessee River, and for $1.00 I was able to shave about 45 minutes off of my return trip. Plus, it was really neat!
