It depends on the park. I just hit 100 activations at Acadia National Park, US-0001. I think I have only overlapped on the same general spot one time. Almost all of my activations involve hikes (3-10+ miles), but I have also biked, cross country skied, kayaked and Nordic ice skated to places in the park. I try to hit each of the small SOTA summits in the park each year, and I have operated from each of the separate islands in the park.
Acadia isn’t really even all that large. Some western parks could easily swallow all of the parks in New England. I still have lots I want to do just in Acadia and it happens to be my backyard.
US-0001 is on my bucket list. I love the big parks, there are always several really different environments to explore, especially if there are hills. Are you active in SOTA or more casual?
I am active as I have time for. I would love to go run across the presidential and hit everything around Katahdin, but I don’t have the time for the driving. In summer I spend more time cruising my sailboat and that eats into potential inland trips. For now I am opportunistic and try to do stuff near where I am or where I am going for work.
The driving is my issue, too. The closest SOTA reference is about 40 miles from me, and I’ve done the peaks that aren’t on private property around me. Now I’m looking at at least an overnight, possibly two-night, trip to get to even the short hills in NH.
I just end up doing SOTAs that also happen to be POTA references. Mt. Tom in MA is a place I hike a fair amount, for example, and I activate both, although the AZ for the SOTA ref isn’t in the actual park, so I do POTA, tear down, then summit and do SOTA if there’s time and interest.
I at least have the seven one pointers here on Mount Desert Island, and another handful about an hour drive away. After that, it’s a getting close to a few hours each way to a trail head of anything larger. If I had more time I might do little overnights here and there to get a few Maine 10 pointers. I will probably get some in when the timing is right, but it wont be often.
I did get on little W1/EM-048 out on Isle au Haut last summer, but it was a complete radio black out that day. I carried a radio, but no activation. It ended up being a pretty interesting semi bushwhack and 11 mile hike.
That happened to me on a California POTA trip, I did 12 miles in Portola Redwoods near Palo Alto and tried TWICE…nada. I couldn’t even hear @Jim WB0RLJ. I think the trees were absorbing my signal, and I couldn’t find a position to do a satellite shot to spot even if they weren’t.