Attention To Detail

A steamy, humid Sunday at Castle Craig, with thunderstorms forecast in the afternoon.

Visit #1142, Sunday 27 June 18, 8:15-11:10AM, 4.6 miles.

I received a phone call last week from a frequent Hubbard Park hiker telling me of a fallen tree across the Blue Trail near the north end of Merimere Reservoir. In order to better plan my weekend route around removing this tree, I took a bike ride through Hubbard Park on Tuesday to check the one other remaining trail for storm damage.

Finding none, my itinerary for this week was firmed up and I was ready to go.

I hiked up the road from the park and found some new graffiti on the brick building below the water treatment plant.

Readers of this blog were previously informed of Trumps eating habits, but the writer apparently felt we needed a reminder. Too small to bother with paint, I'll try ink remover on it this week or next weekend and see how effective it is.

Crossing the north end of Merimere Reservoir, I picked up the Blue Trail and reached the fallen tree shortly.

 

This should be a piece of cake. Except it wasn't.

Since I reasoned it "was only one measly tree" and wouldn't take long to dispense, I didn't install my more aggressive chain. That one measly tree was oak and I could only make dust instead of chips.

But that wasn't my biggest problem.

I wasn't paying attention and failed to survey the tree properly and determine where the weight and tension was on the tree. Consequently, my bar got stuck.

It wasn't going anywhere, and my only choice was to disconnect the bar from the powerhead and walk away. I'll have to return with another bar or another chainsaw to finish the job and get my bar back.

I performed an about-face and hiked up another trail to see if I could redeem myself and accomplish the other task on my list for the day.

While mountain biking on this particular trail recently, I noticed other mountain bikers had built a small ramp at a strategic location on the trail. The placement of this small ramp would enable them to get airborne if their speed was right. But this detail would only be noticed by the trained eye of an experienced cyclist, like myself for instance.

Tough to photograph the profile; it's the light colored patch of earth you see.

Lest they think they can turn the trails into their own little Six Flags, I disassembled the ramp.

So I was 1 for 2 on the trail today.

Moving on, the trails pointed me to the Halfway House, where I found this weird little shrine set up.

Included were shards of broken glass (is that redundant?) a marble, and a small snakeskin.

Onward down to the south end of Merimere Reservoir, I found this sign was removed from the guardrail and no longer serviceable. I'll let the parks department know in case they want to replace it.

I put it into my bag along with the rest of the litter I collected this week and deposited everything into the trash can at the playscape.