From the Wayne National Forest website:

The Wayne National Forest is a patchwork of public land that covers over a quarter million acres of Appalachian foothills of southeastern Ohio. The Forest is divided into three units managed out of two Ranger District offices located in Nelsonville and Ironton, with a field office in Marietta.

The Forest features over 300 miles of trails for hiking, all-terrain vehicle riding, mountain biking, or horseback riding in season. The trails are open to ATVs, mountain bikes, and horseback riders from mid-April to mid-December each year. Come visit the Wayne and hike or ride our trails!

From the North Country National Scenic Trail website:

Come to the North Country. Trek the hills and valleys. Stand on the shores of lakes & streams from glaciers 10,000 years before. Clear-flowing water, red/gold of autumn, a fairyland of snow, open prairies, and distant horizons paint the land. Historic sites along the way tell how America settled and grew as a nation. From North Dakota to New York (and soon Vermont), adventure is never far away.

Pictures

Burr Oak Lake and the Pumphouse
Two views of the pumphouse: 1 | 2
Eric's station
Hiking along the Lakeview Trail: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Description

On Saturday, May 1, 2021, one member of the Southeast Ohio Radio Adventure Team performed a successful two-fer activation of Wayne National Forest (K-4521) and North Country National Scenic Trail in Ohio (K-4239) as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA; link) program. Eric McFadden, WD8RIF, performed the quick two-fer activation at Tom Jenkins Dam on a sunny, warming late morning. This would be Eric's nineteenth POTA activation of Wayne National Forest and his eighteenth POTA activation of North Country National Scenic Trail.

Eric arrived at Tom Jenkins dam at about 1315 UTC and, finding the parking lot nearly empty, quickly deployed his 28½' wire vertical on the Jackite 31' telescoping fiberglass mast and drive-on mount. Because of the cool temperature, Eric chose to set up his KX3 inside the car. Eric was on the air at 1326 UTC.

As at previous visits to this location, Eric found he had good cell-signal and he was able to spot himself on the POTA Spots website and to use POTA Spots to identify possible Park-to-Park (P2P) QSOs.

Eric began operations by looking at POTA Spots to identify possible P2P QSOs but found no CW activations.

Finding himself a frequency on 40m, Eric spotted himself to POTA Spots and began calling "CQ POTA". QSOs came steadily, if not quickly, and within about twenty minutes Eric had made fifteen QSOs.

After the run on 40m, Eric again looked at POTA Spots for possible P2P QSOs but again found no CW activations he could hear well enough to try to work.

In all, Eric made fifteen QSOs. All of Eric's QSOs were CW and were made at the 5-watt level.

Eric also submitted his log to the World Wide Flora and Fauna in Amateur Radio (WWFF; link) program for an operation at Wayne National Forest, KFF-4527.

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