Drizzle ended when the drive did and mine was the first car in the lot. I gathered my things and started up the tower trail. Oops. I turned back to grab the crappie pole. Back on track, snow and puddles and slush filled the way. Slick spots were few, but I tromped across lots of shattered ice bits deposited by tree limbs periodically letting loose cascades of tinkling cylinders. During the half-hour climb I also heard metal bars ringing as if struck by other metal bars. When I arrived atop the foggy summit, I discovered decimated ice sheets shed by the communications and fire towers, with some shards nearly an inch thick. I rejected passing through the active debris field to my usual sitting spot and set up well away from danger in the lee of a small shed. I quickly strung up a 17m dipole and switched on my Rock-Mite to launch the operation. Unfortunately, the radio failed to deliver any audio to my headphones. Puzzled and annoyed but undeterred, I replaced one dipole for another, ...
I was a SOTA neophyte when I discovered this summit not far from home. It took a fair bit of head scratching to work out what HP meant: High Point. At 340 m (1115 ft), it's not all that high a point, but a summit is a summit and this one has become a favorite. The Town of Shapleigh has managed 300 acres here as the "Williams Property" ( brochure PDF ) since it was donated to the townspeople in November 2011. There's a nice description of "Williams Town Park" on Maine By Foot . Despite its ease of access and proximity to population centers, the summit has only been activated 10 times through 2021 . It was the first summit I activated specifically for SOTA, when I took a long lunch for a warmish January trudge over snow to the quiet peak. That inaugural activation began with a summit-to-summit contact via satellite with KE9AJ, an auspicious start. I managed 4 more satellite QSOs that day, plus I made eight contacts on 30 meters for an acceptable first effort...