The Long Slog

My chainsaw stops for a relaxing beer at the Halfway House, during a hard day at work.
(No, it wasn't my beer. Not only do I not drink, I wouldn't be dumb enough to drink while operating a chainsaw. My chainsaw however, is not that smart.)

Visit #1126, Saturday 10 March 18, 9:15AM-1:00PM, 4.3 miles.
Temps in the low 40's, partly sunny.

I know what you're interested in-WHO won last week's contest?

Out of the thousands of responses  ;-)  I picked a winner at random. Actually, there were only two responses but hey; "you can't win if you don't play"!

Here are the entries I received:

"The wind was blowing so hard, the Castle barely hung onto East Peak! "

"The wind was blowing so hard...it turned my clothes inside out and discouraged any trail-blockers from completing their devious tasks !!" (It's an inside joke.)

The winner received a $25 gift certificate to their favorite local eatery, which I can't reveal since they haven't picked up their prize yet!

I did receive one non-qualifying entry. It came from a cat.

Had Garfield won, he would have received a gift certificate for one of his favorite foods; lasagna, doughnuts, pizza, or cake.

Last Friday's nor'easter of high winds and rain were followed by a second round this past Thursday, except this time it was snow: nine inches plus of heavy stuff. It caused a lot of downed trees and branches, as I would soon find out.

I planned on cleaning up after last week's damage but now I had a double dose to contend with. I wasn't going to make anywhere near the progress along the trails I had hoped. It's going to take a bunch of weeks to inspect and clear all the trails, so be patient.

I started at the Soap Box Derby track.

Here you can see the tree which fell last week, lying parallel to the road. Since it was covered in snow and not blocking the trail, I wasn't going to worry about it. I'll take care of it later.

I found this fallen branch last week. Even though it was under snow, I wasn't going to wait until it was revealed in its entirety to remove it.

I regret not bringing my loppers; most of the branches were smaller in diameter and would have been cleared much faster with them, and there were TONS of smaller, snow bent branches blocking the trails. I'm wiser now.

I made it to the Halfway House where my chainsaw took its beer break, then we looped around on the Yellow Trail to head back to the parking lot. It's going to take a handful of forays onto the trails to tidy things up but I'm into this for the long haul so be certain it WILL get done.

Back at Merimere Reservoir, I was amazed at how high the water level is. The photo doesn't capture it, but it's within 2-3 feet of the top of the retaining wall, something I've never seen.

Back at the park, I dropped off my chainsaw's empty beer bottle and what other little trash I collected at the Halfway House. After that one beer, my chainsaw was in no condition to drive, so I drove us home.