For years, Joyce/K0JJW and I have talked about following the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. The main idea is to do a road trip, starting in St Louis, near the Gateway Arch and follow 3,700 miles of river, prairie, mountain, and forest to the Pacific Ocean. (The official trail has been extended all the way back to Pittsburgh, but we are ignoring that section.) Someday finally showed up on the calendar, starting on Sept 5th and likely going through mid-October.
The plan: follow the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, in our Class B camper van (her name is Rocky). We won’t follow the original trail exactly because much of the time the Corp of Discovery was in the middle of the Missouri River. Rocky does not do well in water more than 6 inches deep. And we won’t be hunting elk for meat or paddling a keel boat upstream. But we do want to learn what the expedition actually did, and see the country they traversed on this most incredible journey. (Here are some Basic Facts about the Lewis and Clark Expedition.)
Mostly it’s the idea of going and finding out. The Corps of Discovery had instructions from Jefferson, a boat, some trade goods, and a lot of uncertainty. We have GPS, maps, (mostly) paved roads, cell coverage most places, and a fridge full of cold drinks — not the same trip. But there’s still something to pointing yourself west and letting the trail teach you as you go, together.
With Amateur Radio
Of course, we will have our ham radio gear with us. We plan to activate a few SOTA summits but most of the radio action will be Parks On The Air (POTA). We plan to camp at quite a few parks that have a specific connection to Lewis and Clark (and there are many to choose from.) Not only that, the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail is itself a listed POTA entity, US-4572, running the full length from St. Louis to the Pacific. Add the national forests, state parks, and historic sites along the way, and there will be many POTA opportunities.
Our operating plans are quite open and will be variable. We are trying to see and do a lot of things on this trip and have attempted to budget time for POTA but we will have to see how that really works out. Most likely, we will be on SSB and FT8 on 20m, 17m, and 15m. And 2m FM if anyone happens to be around on that band.
We will post our activations as soon as we have a plan (look for K0NR) but it may be last minute. And we will spot ourselves once we are set up and on the air.
We hope to have a lot of fun tracing the route of the Corps of Discovery and we would love to have you join us on the air!
73 Bob K0NR