I’m freshly back from the 2019 Dayton Hamvention in Xenia, Ohio.
That a Dayton event would actually be held in semi-nearby Xenia, and that there would be some confusion about naming and locations would be a feature (bug) of this event. The actual stated theme for this years hamfest on steroids was “mentoring.”
Hams (ie., licensed amateur radio operators) call their mentors “Elmers.” I saw a few with name tags declaring themselves “Elmer.” A word about hats and name tags: these are a nearly universal feature of ham accoutrements. The fisherman’s cap with a name tag affixed runs a close second. This fact will play into my recounting of the tale from this adventure, but all in good time. Jokes about Elmer Fudd played at the edges of my mind throughout, both because of the outfits, and also because of the odd socialization many of those I observed and met exhibited. The usual human range was in evidence; there were those who wouldn’t look you in the eye or say a word, and those who, once started talking to you, wouldn’t stop. I myself fall into the latter category, at least some of the time. There was plenty of mentoring going on. As a brand new Ham, I was happy to be Elmered whenever I was aware that it was happening. I saw and learned a lot. And, needless to say, I had no trouble spending a bit over budget on this adventure. I could’ve gone way crazier. That’s truth.
I didn’t even try to book a hotel. I camped, by choice. I camped at John Bryan State Park, on the banks of the Little Miami River. I got to the area a half day early so I could set up camp and do some hiking. Camping is reserved via the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The sites are non-electric, and the campground is fairly primitive. There are no flush toilets, and no running water for showering. Tree cover is minimal, also. My first night’s site was a bit more private. I had some choice about the pre-convention sites, but after the convention was scheduled to get under way, there was only one site available in the middle of a field on a hill. I took it. I drove from Rantoul, leaving at the reasonable hour of 10:00 AM. Google Maps estimated a drive time of 4 hours, and I dawdled. I arrived for check in at about 3:00 PM. One must add an hour, since in Indianapolis, one crosses a time zone. So it was about 4:00 PM, EDT. Still plenty of daylight to set up and walk. The pictures, worth a thousand words at least, show my solo camping rig and some snaps of the delightful walk:
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| Site 15, my ride… |
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| Cook kit. |
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| Sleeping quarters. |
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| Hiking down to the Miami… |
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| A creek! |
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| The trail meets the river. |
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| Looking left… |
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| Looking right… |
What’s that out there? Is that a big Blue Herron having some dinner? I took a crack at zooming in on the bird with my phone and shot some video…
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| close up on Herron |
There were a few other humans out hiking as well. A father with his kids, cavorting on the trail. Lots of mud. I walked without taking still photos. I eventually came to a bench and a waterfall. Shot a panning video of that scene and then headed back up, taking a slightly different way back. As I marched back up to camp, I mused on what the host had told me at the office when I checked in. He’d said, “Now, don’t get lost if you go hiking out there. People always get lost, and it takes us a while to come get them.” My reply was to the gist of ‘well, I’ve got a phone and Google Maps. Also, I’m not really new to woodsmanship. Seems like kind of a small park to get seriously lost in…’ But the trail markings are terrible. I had a map of the trails, but it, too, was terrible. All the trails were marked with the same dotted lines, it was blurry and badly printed, and the trails were color coded, named, and numbered… all inconsistently. So. I can see how people get lost. I was “a might bewildered,” to quote Daniel Boone, for a moment there. But I got back to camp without needing the assistance of the park authorities.
I crawled into the truck for some shut eye after dark. I was awakened in the middle of the night by some bodacious thunder storms. To pass the time, I fooled with my phone and Facebook. I was high and dry, but the thunder and lightning were intense. Dawn came all too soon…
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| After storms, daylight… |
So I got my butt out of the truck, pulled in the water jug and table, shook out and folded the tarp… and hit the 2019 Hamvention…
Parking. We were in a long que in our vehicles to get in, waved in by kids with some rudimentary training in the pointing with one arm while making circles with the other gesture that makes motorists just roll their eyes and groan. I was in a spot on a parking pin – testing hill about a half mile from the entrance. I walked to the end of the line and waited in this crowd:
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| The One Million (Old) Man March |
Stay tuned (or, uh, click) for part 2…
