Feeling Warm

Saturday dawned, and it was a raw morning indeed. Gotta keep moving if I want to feel warm.

Visit #1105, Saturday 4 November 17, 7:15-9:00AM, 3.2 miles.
Temps in the high 30's, partly sunny.

After last week's windy storm, I took a bike ride along some of the trails in Hubbard Park to check for any storm damage.

This tree is adjacent to the Halfway House. I'll remove it properly next week. I found at least one more as well, near the water tank.

On Saturday I inspected the trails on the south side of I-691 to catalog any more storm damage that will require chainsaw work, which I'll perform next week.

I headed west on the main trail toward the walkbridge over I-691. While on that mountain bike recon last week, I noticed some rocks on the trails with painted arrows. I brought spray paint with me this week should I encounter any others and surprisingly, I did. Glad I was prepared to deal with them.

 

Further up the trail I found my first tree. You can see the top half of the tree on the other side of the trail. I moved it as far out of the way as I could for now. The large part of the tree landed on the cable guardrail and should be removed.

 I keep finding Christian graffiti, as I did twice in October, and don't know whether it's from a persistent Christian vandal or all from one episode. I found more today.

Sorry, Luke.

I followed the trail all the way to West Main Street at Belmont Avenue. Good thing I did, as I found another fallen tree. The tree wasn't moving.

I policed the parking area and found evidence someone else had their own approach to getting that warm feeling in the colder temps of fall.

I turned around and pointed myself back toward the park. My route led me off trail chasing litter. I followed a stream which feeds Mirror Lake, for a couple hundred yards. It was an interesting diversion.

As I headed toward the Soap Box Derby track, I ran into the Lawn Fertilizing Patrol of Hubbard Park performing their daily rounds.

My first bag of litter was almost full so I dropped it off before continuing.

Just before reaching the Soap Box Derby track, I found another person's ahem, "prescription" for feeling warm, Methadone.

On the Soap Box Derby track, I discovered another victim of last week's wind and rain.

There's a trail on the left, just 50 feet or so further, where I could see yet another fallen tree.

That's five trees for removal next week.

I walked a clockwise loop around the retention ponds and back to the parking lot. Along the way I picked up the last person's feeling warm solution.

As I reached the gate at the head of the road to East and West Peak, I remembered a sticker which has been bugging me for some time; another type of graffiti to me. It has been on that sign for quite a while. Time to remove it.

Nothing left but tan lines.

I dropped off a smaller bag of trash, feeling warm (and fuzzy) at doing a good deed for the week.

On the drive out, I remembered reading in the newspaper that a tree had fallen during last week's storm and damaged the bandshell. Fortunately, it was one tree I wouldn't have to remove. Good to see the Meriden Parks Department responding so quickly to repair the damage.