Getting Schooled

Visit #1135, Saturday 5 May 18, 10:00AM-12:30PM, 3.2 miles.
Temps in the low 70's, sunny.

Saturday was Meriden's annual Clean Up Day. Volunteers throughout the city spiffed up areas that needed spiffing. A pal and myself engaged in a little renegade cleanup in Hubbard Park.

After reading in the Record-Journal last week about recent graffiti vandalism at Castle Craig, I decided I better check the rest of the known graffiti hotspots in Hubbard Park in case there were other areas to be sanitized.

So on Wednesday I rode my mountain bike up to West Peak and the trails below East/West Peak and I'm pleased to report I didn't find any more graffiti.

However, what I DID find was a large fallen branch across the Main Trail leading to the Halfway House.

I now had my work laid out for me this weekend.

I had the great fortune to be assisted this weekend by a Maloney High School classmate, Jeff. Not only was Jeff cheap labor (he bought lunch, too!), he schooled me as well.

We started at the Soap Box Derby track and walked toward Merimere Reservoir.

While I stooped down to pick up trash as is my routine, Jeff employed a sharpened nail on the end of a broom handle to do the stooping for him. I argued that my stooping burned more calories and thus was better for health and exercise. Jeff contended he was more efficient. In the end, I was schooled on the finer points (get it?!) of picking up trash. Don't be surprised if you see me with a Jeff-autographed Sharpened-Nail-On-The-End-Of-A-Broom-Handle, in the future.

 Enroute, we picked up enough litter, some left behind from last week's Daffodil Festival, that we left our first two bags of trash at the water treatment plant.

Shortly thereafter we picked up the trails at the south end of Merimere Reservoir and followed them to the fallen branch, where I was reminded I continue to need schooling on chainsaw sharpening or my choice of saw chain. I failed to remember my previous lesson, leaving the Stihl Rapid Super chain at home. Consequently, cutting up the branch was a slow, laborious process. That's why I let Jeff do it, while I supervised ;-) .

It should not have taken an entire tank of gas to do away with this branch, but it was gonna be close. Then Jeff showed me an alternative method of removing the remaining heavy wood.

You see, Jeff and Archimedes were drinking buddies in college, where "Archie", as he was known to his friends, once said to Jeff, "Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world.” At the time, Jeff just thought that was drunken talk, but on Saturday Jeff put Archie's beer wisdom to work and used a cut branch to lever the remaining piece off the trail. Again, I was schooled.

We followed the Main Trail toward the Halfway House where I had previously found graffiti which, while being less of an eyesore than that found at Castle Craig, still had to go. A little brown spray paint...

Further up the trail was more of the same.

It was smooth sailing down and over I-691 where we stopped to cut away another, smaller branch which I found on my bike ride earlier this week.

Again, I leaned on the shovel while Jeff did all the work.

Here, Jeff ponders how Archie's understanding of leverage applied to loppers.

On a trail several hundred feet from Mirror Lake, we found a brace of ducks protecting their newborn young.

The rule with ducks is, on ground, they're called a "brace" or "badling". On water they're called a "raft", "team", or "paddling". In the air they're called "turd dropping terrors of the sky". I made up
the last one.

Back at the parking lot, we dropped off our second set of trash bags. Jeff insisted his pointed stick be in the photo, noting that it wasn't invented by Archimedes.