Pack Mule activation #003 is US-6992 JL Curran State Park (my closest park), and this one took three trips into the same park to finish.
Yesterday, 2026-04-10, I hiked about 0.75 mile in by one route and used the Packtenna 29’ random wire along with the FT-891. The weather was absolutely amazing, and I really did not want to leave and go back to work, but the bands were rough and I only made 11 contacts before I had to pack up. Since Pack Mule requires 22 contacts, this started as an incomplete activation rather than a failed one.
Today, 2026-04-11, I went back to the same park by a different route, hiking about 1 mile in. This time I brought Rory, my 6-year-old German Shepherd, and he had a great time. Once we were settled for setup, he did really well mostly just lying next to me while I operated. I used a 25’ Rybakov-style whip setup; 20m was crowded with a few QSO parties and I only had an hour or so in the park because my brother (KC1YED) was coming over to visit, so I moved to 40m and completed the activation.
This afternoon, the weather was still too nice to waste, so I went back into the same park with my brother, and his 9-month-old pup. With the younger pup along we took another different path and hiked about 0.6 mile in, then added a bunch more contacts, still from US-6992.
Each trip used a different path into the park, and even after three visits I’ve probably only explored about 25% of it. Total submitted contacts: 65.
