Stemler Cave POTA Sunday Morning
I woke up a bit early on a Sunday morning without any commitments until the afternoon. The early fall weather was perfect so I headed out to a park I hadn’t activated before, Stemler Cave Woods State Nature Preserve (US-7872).
Stemler Cave Woods is a nature preserve area in Illinois about 20 minutes southeast of St. Louis, just northeast of Columbia, IL. There are three trails, mostly through wooded areas but there is a more open prarie area in the southwest part of the park. A small gravel parking lot on the northeast side has space for four cars. The park has no facilities, although there is apparently a single park bench along one of the trails. The Google Street view image from last year shows that the grass near the parking lot had been mowed, but it was left to grow when I visited. That changed my activation plans and I setup using the whip from the MC-750 on my car. If I visit again with more time and a lighter camp chair I might hike into one of the more open areas to setup a vertical. A wire antenna tossed over a tree branch would also work well here. I operated on 20 meters SSB and quickly made 17 QSOs in under 20 minutes.
