Annoying The Rude As A Hobby

A third Utopian outing in Hubbard Park in as many weeks. I'm running out of adjectives to describe such weather.

Visit #877, Sunday 22 June 14, 5:00-7:40PM, 5.3 miles.
Temps in the low 80's, dry and sunny.

In March 2013, pre-blog, I reported how someone found the hollow post of the gate near the water treatment plant an attractive place to put their empty coffee cups.

I decided to rain on their parade. I got the brilliant idea to fill the post with Great Stuff foam.

Well, I must be playing whack-a-mole with whoever is using the post as a trash can because a few weeks ago I discovered the same problem at the gate at the north end of Merimere Reservoir. Today's fun would include annoying whoever they may be.

I walked the road from the park to the north end of the reservoir and picked up trash as I went along.

When I reached the gate, I assessed the situation. Could be the work of a new villain because the coffee cups are different. Here's the scene of the crime.

Of course, if you remove the top coffee cup...

...you merely find another.

And on it goes. I broke out my tool of the trade. I left the rest of the stack of coffee cups in the post as "filler" to build my base upon. Otherwise I'd spend a small fortune to fill the entire post.

I emptied the entire can in the post and was surprised to see I didn't get the nice muffin top I wound up with the last time I tried this trick.

Slightly disappointed, I moved on up the road toward Castle Craig. On the way up the hill, I spied something new. Someone had dumped two CRT monitors in the woods. I pulled them out and left my bag of trash with them so they'd be easy to spot. I'll notify the Meriden Parks Department to pick up the junk.

At this point I decided to turn around and take the road back to the park. On the way down, I noticed the sign warning of the sharp bend in the road was obscured because a tall but slender tree had split and fallen over.

The sign was even less apparent than the photos would suggest. Fortunately, I had my loppers with me and was able to restore the sign's visibility from a distance.

I retraced my route and when I arrived at the gate again I was pleasantly surprised.

There was my muffin top, baby! I'd forgotten the foam continues to expand for a while after being dispensed. I suppose it really won't annoy our coffee cup depositor; they'll probably just toss it on the ground now instead. But hey; I can dream, can't I?!

At the south end of Merimere Reservoir I diverted myself from the road and took the trail behind the water tank, trimming it as I did another trail in last week's report.

Back on the road, I walked the Soap Box Derby track and back to the park, depositing my last bag of trash.

Cheers!