APRS coverage in Butano State Park (California/USA)

APRS Stations near Butano SP (California)

It was 2 weeks ago, I went camping to Butano State Park in Memorial Day weekend.
Butano State Park is located a little south of Half Moon Bay near San Francisco Bay area.  It is a small state park and it is really nice and quiet place.   It was little chilly early in the morning and late in the evening.   However the camp sites were full and there were many people there.

Camping Site

Camping sites are nice.  Most of them have nice shade with big Redwood trees.  This time we could not get a regular sites that we can park our cars next to the campsite.  Our site was a part of "walk-in" site.   Even it's called "walk-in" site, the campsites are not so far from the parking lot.  It is probably a few hundred feet away from the parking lot.  Only problem is there is only one designated parking space near the camp site.  A group who has more than one cars, they have to park a little far on the load.  That is only bad thing we found out.   The regular site typically have two parking space for each site.

Also, there is only one bath room and it is not flash-able.  However it is reasonably clean and I do not see a big problem at all.

Hiking Trail

There are a several hiking trail.  People can arrange a short hiking to a full day hike depending on their demand.   I tried to test APRS with my Baofeng.  It does not seems to be a good coverage at all.   I did not get any packet and all packets I sent out were not recognized.   So it is not good area to use APRS.  (I just using Baofang hand-held radio and a better antenna other than the standard antenna.)

Mobile service is partially available near bathroom of a regular camping site, not the one in the walk-in site.

There is no issue to use simplex channels on 2m band during hiking.   The distance between two groups might be less than a few miles.   I have not tried any repeater from the park.

Water Treatment - UV light

Water Treatment - UV light

   One of outdoor equipment I got before is a water treatment with UV (Ultra Violet) light.  The idea of this is to kill almost all bacteria, viruses and protozoa.  The advertisement says 99.9%.   They have some data to show it works.  Typically, I am using a filter type purifier when I hike.   Actually, I did not have a chance to use this even if I own it.

   There are a couple reason I did not use:

1. If I camp on a trail, the amount of water I need is not small amount.  It only takes care of 1 litter of water at one time.   Therefore, if I need a few litters and water for the next days.   It will be a several litters of water.   To process such amount of water with this is not really efficient.  The filter type is probably much convenient.
2. I have never seen people who use this type of water purifier on a trail.   I guess the experiment data the vendor shows is probably true.  However, some of my friends had some questions if it really works or not.  Another words, people could not completely believe this product.

   On the other hand, here is the reason I got this product:

1. I thought it would be convenient to get some water other than a camp site.  Just getting some water on the way to a destination.  It won't be a lot of amount and this might be convenient other than using the filter type (pump type) in that situation.
2. The filter type won't be able to cover everything.  Especially viruses might be too small to filter them out.  So it is probably safer to use this type of product if I need to drink without boiling.

   In a reality, I typically have enough water of a day and I do not have to take extra water on the way.  Also, I have been using the filter type water treatment a several years and I did not have much problem in the past.  So I did not really think I really need such extra treatment.  I think people in the United States is safer side and the water treatment is much more popular than Japan.  On the other hand, at least when I was in Japan, the water treatment was not really popular and I had never used it on a trail.  Even though, I had never had any major issue without any water treatment.   I guess it is probably all right most of cases, but people recommend to use it just in case.  It is probably better to avoid any risk on a trail.

   As my conclusion, I probably won't use it proactively in the future anyway.   However I am curious if there is any way to check this is useful or working all right.   Currently I do not have much idea how I can verify this function.   But I just wonder if there is some good way to verify this.

   Does anybody have any idea about this?  

   I started thinking about this because I found it when I clean my outdoor equipment box this weekend.   I found it and I know I have never used.  I might try something in the future.

Start fire in outdoor

An oil lighter

   I had some bad experience to start fire on a camping stove during hiking, especially in winter.  However, it was not really critical for us because we always had some backup method to start the fire.   The problem is an attached ignition did not work in wet situation.  Once it gets wet, it usually does not work.  If people just rely on the ignition, then they might be in trouble in outdoor.  This is really common especially snow camping in winter and we always carry lighters for each person in our group.  Therefore, it was not really bad situation for our cases.

   Even though, we need to be very careful to pack / carry lighters / matches.   They also do not work when they get wet except water-proof type matches.  So it is always a good idea to put them into a plastic bag trying away from moisture.   When a person goes hiking alone, it would be better to carry more than one as well.   Since it is possible that one does not work some reason, such as running out the gas and etc.

Disposable lighers

   In many cases, I usually carry a few disposable lighters when I go hiking overnight.  It is a low cost and working well when it does not get wet.  In my past experience, I have never carry matches to hiking.   There is a water-proof type and it seems to be a good backup.  However, most of case we use camping stoves and not doing open fire.  Therefore, after using it, it will be a cinder.  We need to be careful to put it into a garbage bag.   As long as, people do a right way, it should not be a problem.  But using a lighter can completely avoid such situation.  Therefore, I personally do not see any point to use matches in outdoor.  Using a lighter would be much easy for most of people.

   The other experience was using Zippo lighter, which is an oil lighter.   Many people would use it because they say it is a better performance under windy condition.   I used to carry such type of lighter.  However, if hiking is a several days, the oil could evaporate.   Therefore, people might need to carry spare oil in this case.   When people using a stove with white gasoline.   The white gasoline could be alternate fuel for the lighter.  However, if people carry a gas canister, people need to have spare oil.  Nowadays, many people use a stove with a gas canister since it is easy and convenient especially short overnight hiking.   Thus, I would think just carrying a few disposable lighters would be a good option in many cases.

 Probably good for a family camping, might be a little big for backpacking....

   Anyway, people do overnight hiking, it is always better to carry a few lighter packed separately in a group.  Then we might be able to avoid a situation “no fire” in camping!

Light for camping

 LED Lantern

   Light for camping is changing a lot in the past decades.   The big thing is LED technology.  In 90’s, we were still using a candle for a light in a tent.  We just spent some time in a tent to talk and drink some alcohol beverage in a tent when we did backpacking.   At that time, LED is not an option for light in camping.  We were using a legacy “light bulb”.  Since the power dissipation was not small and we had to carry a few sets of spare batteries for backpacking.  That is one of reason we used to use a candle in a tent.  It was longer life and was good enough for a small tent.  Now, LED power dissipation is much smaller and we usually does not have to carry any spare battery if we install a brand new batteries and the duration of backpacking is not so long.   Probably a small LED lantern would be a good option using in a tent nowadays.   On the other hand, in a past decade, I did not have many chances to go backpacking with other people.  Also, only overnight hiking I had done was Mt. Whitney and Mt. Shasta, I usually left very early for the summit attempt.  Therefore, I was not awake in a dark during backpacking in a decade.  So that I really did not need any extra light other than my head lamp.

   However, a family camping is different.  In many cases, parents usually want to talk and drink alcohol beverage after dinner.  It is one of purpose and fun thing during a family camping.   Most of people get used to be very light environment in their daily life.  Even if they are in camping, people tend to desire bright light.   Also, the social event happens not in a tent, it is usually happen around a camp fire or a picnic table at a camp site.  Then people tend to carry a nice gas lantern, a large LED lantern and etc.   I only have a small LED lantern and it usually does not work well if people have a large lantern.  So I only use it in our tent only.  Actually only time we use it is preparing sleeping.  So it would be very short time.

Gas Lantern

 Gas Lantern

   It is very bright and reasonably lower running cost, one gas canister would be plenty for a few nights.  Only concern is it is using fire, therefore the gear gets hot.  It needs cooling down before packing.   The mantle is very sensitive and it is easy to broken.  So it is probably necessary to prepare a few spare since once it is broken, it does not work anymore unless it is replaced.   Also, due to high temperature around the mantle, the cover is usually glass.  So it needs to handle carefully including packing.

LED Lantern

   The power dissipation is much lower than a legacy light-bulb.  Therefore, we might need many spare battery for camping.  It might be better to use re-chargeable battery with solar panel.   Then, people do not worry about the power during the camping.  We might be able to charge during daytime.   A good thing is this type is not getting hot.  Therefore, it is much easy to handle and place almost anywhere.  Also, it is much safer than the gas lantern especially with some little kids.  I might consider to buy one for a family camping.

LED Head lamp

 LED Head lamp

   This is very good comparing with the legacy light-bulb.   When I was using this for running before sunrise, I did not have to replace the battery for a few months.  This means, as long as people put a brand new battery, they do not have to carry spare battery in many cases.  Even if people using it for a light in a tent, it might be all right just a short backpacking.   When I used a legacy light-bulb head lamp, I need to have a spare battery.  Especially if we really using it in a dark, we might need to replace the batteries during walking.   That is a big improvement in a past decade.

A wild bird is in an extinction crisis

 Marbled Murrelet ~ extinction crisis 

   During climbing / backpacking, people usually do not use water for cleaning their tableware, silverware and cookware so much.  Typically, they use paper to wipe and clean them.  I usually carry bath tissue for this purpose.   However, many people still wash them with water during a typical family camping.  Also, people use some disposal stuff to avoid cleaning.  I think this is okay as long as they keep clean around a faucet.  For example, using a bucket to wash them instead of using water from a faucet directly.  Because using water from faucet directly, some of food wastes could be on the ground.  Many faucet at a camp site typically does not have a sink.  Therefore, there might be higher chance to spread the food waste without using bucket.  

   I found out a policy change in a state park when I camped there in May this year.   They started charge a large amount of fine if people leave some food wastes at a camping area.  It is a kind of common sense for all campers.   But there is another reason people need to pay special attention for their food.  Because some of wild birds are in an extinction crisis.  Some of foods and food wastes that human bring to a campsite is a big cause of braking the food chain.  One of big problems in the park is ravens.  Its population is getting increased due to some food / food waste around the camping area.  Then they will eat eggs for those wild birds.  Originally, the population of raven in the area was not so many.  But many people start coming to the camping area and leave some foods / foods waste, therefore ravens are also coming to the area to look for those foods and their population is getting increased.

Raven

   That is the reason the park decided to define a new regulation to control those foods in the camping area.  As a part of changes, I also saw a sign which says “DO NOT WASH xxxx”.  Even though I still saw some food wastes around the faucet.   I guess this is because it is hard to identify who did in the faucet which is in a common area.  If it is a camp site, it is obvious who did.  Also, most of people do not take this very seriously because they probably do not know the background of the regulation.   For our group, we often attend a ranger hosted camp-fire many times.  At the camp-fire, a ranger kept explaining what actually is going on.  So people really understand the situation and understand why we need to do.  The problem is many people are not aware what is going on.

   We probably better to pay more attention what is really going on the area where we enjoy our outdoor activities.   It is not so difficult to manage the foods and food wastes during our camping.  Cleaning them is one of areas we might need to consider different way during a family camping.   Just using a bucket, will help not to spread food waste as well as saving a lot of water during cleaning.   Also, it might be a good idea to wipe them before washing.