Esta Semana en Hubbard Park

I realized I used the word "idyllic" too frequently in the last few posts. I'll abstain this week, despite the appropriate weather.

Visit 1091, Tuesday 1 August 17, 6:30-6:55PM, mileage n/a. Temps in the 80's, sunny and mildly humid.

Visit 1092, Sunday 6 August 17, 7:00-10:00AM, 5.6 miles. Temps in the 70's, sunny and dry.

I discovered a host of new graffiti last week. It would be easier to split up my time between eradicating the graffiti and removing the fallen tree I found last week-it would take too much time otherwise. So a mid-week trip to Hubbard Park was in order.

On Tuesday I rode my mountain bike to Hubbard Park, packed with my graffiti removal kit.

As I arrived, I was reminded why I don't venture too far off the trails to pick up trash during the warmer months. I trust you'll forgive me.

The large brush didn't quite remove the chalk as well as I expected.

The Goof Off worked reasonably well on the magic marker using the toothbrush, but waiting for the fluid to do its thing was time consuming.

I left everything as-is and walked up the I-691 underpass to work on the other graffiti.

The same methods here produced similar results. What did I expect?! Since I didn't want to wait for the Goof Off to work, I used the spray paint on the magic marker. Instant success.

Then I remembered my "Teacher's Pet" days. Add some water to the chalkboard and it will clean up to like new. Fortunately, I had a full waterbottle on my bike. You can see the left-right difference below.

Then I finished off the wall. I checked in on Sunday and there was no memory of the chalk.

On to the rest of it.

Luckily, my gray spray paint closely matches the roll-on paint I previously used. It dries to a flat finish.

Here I just wanted to use up the remaining spray paint in one can.

I left the park and rode home but realized I forgot to check the walkbridge over I-691. I reasoned if there was a bloom of graffiti on the Soap Box Derby track, there would probably be some on the walkbridge as well. So, I returned to Hubbard Park on Friday in an undocumented visit because it only took me ten  minutes to clean up any graffiti I found.


On Friday I packed merely one piece of sandpaper, and it was all I needed.

Graffiti wasn't all I found on Friday so it's a good thing I made the trip. I'll remove these stickers next weekend. Why does someone carry this stuff in their pockets?

With all the mid-week maintenance done, on Sunday I could focus on the fallen tree on the Green Trail. I had initially planned to visit Hubbard Park on Saturday to avoid the crowds on Sunday's Puerto Rican Festival (hence this week's blog title), but that wasn't going to happen now, unless I got an early start, which I did.

I hiked up to the fallen tree and got down to work.

The hemlock was harder to cut through than I expected either due to the rotten wood or lousy chainsaw sharpening skills. I expended roughly 30 minutes on this tree, but I got the job done.

I hiked up to the Halfway House, up toward Castle Craig, then picked up the Blue Trail along the cliffs of Merimere Reservoir. Enjoy the view.

I hiked this trail today because I was informed there was another tree down on this trail that needed removal. The caller gave me a good description of the tree and the location so it was easy to find.

This didn't take nearly as long as the fallen hemlock.

Further along the trail, I found some dead overhanging branches and cut all of  them down as well. No "after" photos, though.

At the end of the trail I picked up the road and walked back to the park, depositing my trash for the week.