A tale of two activators on the same hill that couldn’t find each other on the myriad woodland paths.
I knew Robert @M0RWX was activating summits around me in FL/VO but we didn’t make a formal plan to meet up… mistake number 1.
So Sue and I set off for the “nice gentle walk” up Tête du Midi FL/VO-030. Only 15 mins later Robert messaged to say he was parked just up the road. I suggested he moved to our parking spot and follow on behind.
Almost immediately after this our nice big path evaporated! After some slight bushwhacking we picked up an indistinct trail.
Robert sent me screen shots from his hiking app and I did the same… still we didn’t meet up.
Eventually we gave up trying to find each other and activated separately on different sides of the summit in the AZ (it’s a reserve and no path goes over the true summit).
Only after we packed up did we then finally meet up at a major feature (a refuge hut).
We all set off down together only for me to lose the indistinct trail again… resulting 15 mins of more bushwhacking before we found it again!
Reminds me of the time Martyn and I were activating Great Rhos at the same time as Rod and Viki. Visibility was minimal and despite talking on the radio we failed to meet. Caused some confusion on 2m with two female operators at the same time. Still to manage to meet Rod and Viki in person.
Especially when the promised path has disappeared!
Fortunately the solution is just a few minutes bushwhacking.
The French know how to “do” forest… generally it’s fairly open, unlike trying to traverse UK conifer plantations which would give the Amazon rainforest a run for their money in terms of density of branches!
France seems a bit of a LoRa desert, in contrast to Germany, Netherlands, Belgium… I was in the western Loire in August and there are not many iGates in that area either. Also I presume you’ve switched to the EU LoRa frequency?
