A New Year, And Well On My Way To World Domination

A unique view of Castle Craig from the steep slope below.

Visit #842, Tuesday 31 December 13, 12:35-2:20PM, 3.0 miles.

Temps in the high 20's, mostly sunny.

Visit #843, Wednesday 1 January 14, 2:05-4:05PM, 2.2 miles.

Temps in the high 20's, clouding up prior to a 6" snowfall.

I'm proud to say that with the arrival of the new year, this blog has reached 1000 views. Next will be my IPO. Move over, Facebook and Twitter; here I come!

This week was similar to last week in that the holiday meant more time off from work and more opportunity to tend to the park.

As you can see from the photo above, the slope below Castle Craig is steep. It's also comprised of large, loose rock. Walking on it is treacherous. During the course of the year, too many people toss their empty bottles and cans from Castle Craig, and the litter can become an eyesore when viewed from the trail adjacent to the slope. Now is the perfect time of year to clean it up.

It was perhaps my 5th or 6th visit to the slope in almost as many weeks. And a profitable one as well. For strangely enough, as far off-trail as I was combined with all the rocks, I managed to find a quarter.

And that's not all; while returning to the park after my work, I came into another windfall; a dollar among the leaves.

Another thing I noticed while returning to the park: the lock at the south end of Merimere Reservoir, which I had reported being cut TWICE in almost as many weeks, has been replaced thanks to the Meriden Parks Department.

Here's hoping third time's a charm.

This will likely be the last bag of trash I collect from the slope for the season.

I returned on New Years Day to police up a patch of land before the predicted snowfall. People park around the perimeter of the playscape and toss their empty containers and other trash over the fence, onto the hillside adjacent to I-691. I was able to make quick work of the strip of land on the left in the photo.

I finished so soon that I took the time to pick up trash on both sides of that road WITHIN the park. It would be buried under snow by tomorrow, so now would be the time to do it. I collected 7 bags of trash and a few larger items, and stacked them in a convenient spot for the parks crew to pick them up.

By the time you read this the ground may be obscured by snow and forcing me to take a vacation from my work, delaying my world domination...

Cheers!