Back In The Saddle and Busy

The recent spring rains, including Saturday's impending rain, will definitely top off Merimere Reservoir and virtually eliminate the drought conditions of the past 2 years.

Visit #1073, Saturday 13 May 17, 8:45-11:05AM, mileage unknown.
Temps in the 60's with rain developing mid-morning.

Visit #1074, Sunday 14 May 17, 7:00-9:15AM, 4.4 miles.
Temps in the 40's with rain tapering off later in the morning.

My apologies for lack of a blog post last week. I had the flu and was glued to my couch. When I recovered in the middle of last week, I took a mountain bike ride through the trails below Castle Craig and found a number of trees had fallen from recent storms. This week, with the help of my occasional co-conspirator Paul Bernier, we were going to spruce up the trails.

Thanks to Paul for his assistance this week, and for manning the camera!

We started by following the trails on the south side of I-691 where we quickly ran into a fallen tree I didn't encounter last week. My chainsaw paid off here.

We hiked over I-691 via the walkbridge and discovered some new graffiti, which I'll address next week.

We reached the trails higher up and encountered the first of a few fallen trees which were encroaching on the trails.

The next tree had mostly smaller branches so I handed the loppers to Paul and let him get to work.

The next tree was closer to the Halfway House.

We returned to the parking lot and dropped off our trash bags for the week.

The last tree for Saturday was at the north end of Hubbard Park and due to the soon-to-start rain, we chose to drive to the north end for a shorter hike to the fallen tree.

But I wasn't done for the weekend. Since I was in a chainsaw state of mind...

In my last report, I found mountain bikers had been building a ramp off a large rock on one of the lesser-used trails. I intended to remove it.

Walking across the north end of Merimere Reservoir, I passed this gaggle of geese, including their future turd dropping progeny.

I started early Sunday morning in less-than ideal conditions, and had to ford the Maloney Canal, which was raging with runoff from Saturday's rain.

I hiked up the trail with the chainsaw and reached the feature.

I handily dismantled the ramp, while still under construction.

To warn mountain bikers their ramp was gone, I littered the area approaching the jump with brush. I have no clue whether they'll be smart enough to get the message.

When I reached the top of the trail, near the fork to East/West Peaks, I walked the road down, and picked up trash along the way. I brought the bag home for disposal.