Nothing to Do?

Raw winds rippled the waters of Merimere Reservoir on Sunday. 

Visit #1132, Sunday 15 April 18, 12:45-3:15PM, 4.2 miles.
Temps in the 40's; cloudy, windy, and downright chilly.

Sunday's weather was quite a change from Saturday. While Saturday saw sun and temps reaching the 70's, as Sunday approached the temperature dropped faster than Donald Trump's trousers for a spanking.

After spending many weeks recovering the trails from a month of back to back nor-easter's, I felt I didn't have any agenda.

Then, as I arrived at Hubbard Park on Sunday, I found one.

I ran into a daily Hubbard Park visitor who told me Saturday's dreamy weather brought out hordes of people walking the road around Merimere Reservoir. To a guy like me, unfortunately that meant I'd probably find a lot of litter, so that's where I'd head today.

Speaking of NOTHING, as I walked north on the road, I found evidence that someone at some time decided to wear NOTHING underneath...
 

Scrounging through the woods hunting litter, I found this remnant of a sign.

I found that sign roughly 1/2 mile from where it originated: At the bottom of the steep road climb to the peaks. Many years ago (I couldn't even find an internet reference to the crash), a cyclist died, failing to negotiate the sharp curve at the bottom of the road. Somebody nailed a cross to a tree near where the crash occurred.  I believe the "1988" on the sign references the deceased's birth year and not the year of death. As a cyclist, I remember the write-up in the newspaper and shortly thereafter noticed the cross on the tree. How this remnant wound up so far from its original location is a mystery.

My suspicions were correct, and I filled a large trash bag with "nothing" by the time I reached the north end of Merimere Reservoir.  I left it, and the sign, for later pickup by the parks department.

Those two Eversource vehicles in the background-they must have been following GPS as they pulled up to the gate like they were on a mission, paused as they performed some head scratching, then turned around and left.

Inspecting the spillway as I walked across, I spied some new graffiti.

In case you can't read it, it says, "My Blood Sweat And Tears", and "I Love America". The splatter was probably from a paintball, and the angle of the splatter tells me it was shot from the road.  Then they used the rock shards you see on the ground to scrawl. Weather, and the upcoming Daffodil Festival permitting, I hope to paint over it soon.

It was incredibly quiet and calm on the road up to Castle Craig.

Nearing Castle Craig, I noticed this fallen tree encroaching into the road. It's not impeding traffic but close, and will have to be dealt with sooner or later.

I reached Castle Craig then hiked trails back down to the parking lot, with a whole lot of "nothing" in my second trash bag.