Knox Mountain in October
Judy and I hiked up to the cabin at Knox
Mountain today. It was a perfect fall day.
Overhead there were still some trees in
brilliant gold.
But undefoot there was a carpet of color on
the trail. Most of the leaves had fallen and
there was that typical pungent odor of fall
leaves in the air and the crunch of leaves
below.
Along the brook, the colors were dazzling. It
seemed like pure gold was floating on the
water and the walk was magical.
At the cabin I set up the ATS-2 on 20 meters
with a halfwave vertical wire in the tree on the
hillside above the pond. The band seemed quite
short. There were some European stations
but they were much weaker than usual. On
the first call I worked W2TMT in South Florida.
Tom was a solid 599 and he gave me the same
report. We chatted for five minutes or so and
signed. Next I worked OE6JTD in Austria. Joe
gave me a 539 but then QSB plagued us and he
had a very hard time copying me. Finally, a quick
QSO with Paul, KB9ILT in Illinois. He gave me a 449
and was a 579.
As I made a few QSOs, Judy sat a bit below the
cabin and did some knitting in the warm afternoon
sun.
After operating for a while, I packed up the gear
and headed back. The brook was more anxious to
reach the bottom of the mountain than I was...
I would have had to run to keep up with it.
Instead I was content to wend my way slowly and
savor the sights and smells of fall... soon to disappear
for another year.