Warm Summer Hike

Ducks cruise about Merimere Reservoir on an idyllic summer day.

Visit #1019, Saturday 18 June 16, 8:20-10:40AM, 5.5 miles.
Temps in the 70's, sunny and dry.

I arrived at Hubbard Park to a rapidly building crowd, despite the early hour. The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network was hosting one of their signature, PurpleStride (sic) events, the largest in Connecticut. You can check out a few photos of their event on their Facebook page. The crowd was just building as I arrived. It was impressively large when I returned to the parking lot after completing my weekly activities. Sorry; I tried linking to the PCAN web page but the links won't work.

I wanted to cover over some graffiti I found last week in Hubbard Park. It was old and overlooked by me since I mostly travel this particular trail in the opposite direction. But to get there I had to walk the road from the park up to near Castle Craig.

The lock on the gate at the south end of Merimere Reservoir has been cut yet again, despite having a protective shroud welded around the lock earlier this year.

The lock's design, while an earnest attempt, was lacking. But let's think positive and call it part of a learning curve. With the lock secured, it hangs too low, allowing bolt cutters to easily grasp it in their jaws.

The next step in the evolution of this shrouded lock is to SHORTEN THE LOCKING PIN, effectively making the shroud deeper and more difficult to grasp with bolt cutters. If that fails, I'd recommend moving the shroud and hasp to the bottom of the vertical gate member, too low to the ground for bolt cutters to reach, nor to get leverage. Here's an example from West Rock State Park.

Further on up the road, where a gate blocks a dirt path to the Maloney Canal (presumably the responsibility of the Meriden Water Department), I found the lock on the barrier had been cut and the bar removed. I think it would be a safe bet both locks were cut by the same party at the same time.

I reported on this gate's haphazard lock earlier this spring.

Back to my walk up the road.

The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network was hosting a 5k run as part of their schedule of events. At roughly the halfway point they set up a water station.

I'll be curious to see whether this event, and next week's pet fair, lead to a lot of litter from these waterbottles. I plan to keep an eye on it.

I reached the trail with the graffiti and covered it with gray spray paint.

Later I found #15 of this season's example in the Year of the Missing Glove.

I picked up so much trash this week that I had to transfer it to a 30 gallon bag. I dutifully brought it back to the park and dropped it off.