Issues

A shady Yellow Trail provides respite from the beginning of a late season heat wave.

Visit #967, Saturday 15 August 15, 9:15-11:30AM, 4.9 miles.
Temps in the 80's, sunny, with high humidity.

Thanks to Paul Bernier, who joined me this week.

During last week's trail maintenance, I discovered someone has been bending over smaller trees until they break. I've found them before. In fact, I've found them as far back as 2012 but they've been popping up unusually frequently as of late. Someone has issues...

Anyway, my itinerary this week was to walk the road from the park up to Castle Craig then down the White Trail where the two bent trees were found, and remove them. When Paul called to offer his services this week, I amended my plans. We would park north of Merimere Reservoir and hike a counterclockwise loop instead.

Whether due to the lack of rain or perhaps Merimere Reservoir has been called in to service as our primary water supply, the water level in the reservoir is dropping considerably, exposing the reservoir's "alligator".

As Paul and I walked the road collecting trash, we found one of the street signs marking the sharp turn in the road, was toppled over. I'm wondering whether it was done by our "tree bender"?

I'll contact the Meriden Parks Department so they can reinstall the post.

Further up the road Paul found the remains of some furniture perhaps left over from the last time we found abandoned furniture on the road side.

Too large for a garbage bag, I put the pieces in my backpack.

Paul and I reached Castle Craig and began the descent down the White Trail where we encountered the first of the bent trees. I let Paul do the honors.

There's no other explanation as to what could have caused this:

Further down the trail we reached the second bent tree, which was overhanging the trail. I took to the saw on this one. You can see the size of the found furniture pieces in my backpack.

 

Done.

Paul and I cleaned up the rest of the trails and dropped off our trash at the water treatment plant.

Heading north on the road around the reservoir, we found a THIRD three by the roadside mysteriously bent over.

Just prior to reaching the north end of Merimere Reservoir, we came upon our Find of the Week:

Count 'em; three condom wrappers, 2 still with contents. Anybody who carries 3 condoms is either confident, arrogant, or a Boy Scout!

We finished our day's work with one more bag of trash.