2019 National Trails Day

Saturday was National Trails Day. Did you partake? I did!

Visit #1195, Saturday 1 June 19, 9:00-11:30AM, 4.6 miles, 9.2 lbs. of litter.
Temps in the high 60's, sunny.

I decided to participate in National Trails Day by conducting my weekly Hubbard Park entertainment on the same day.

The trail foliage definitely saw a seasonal growth spurt as I found myself often cutting and trimming back the plants as I hiked.

I reached the spot where last week, I removed an oak tree which had fallen across the trail, only to find SOMEONE had moved a couple of the cut logs back into the trail. Of course I moved them a second time. Let's see if this turns into a game.

I hiked up the Blue Trail toward West Peak. Along the way I ran into some of that foliage growth.

Armed to the teeth, I took care of it. I was also carrying some more potent weed killer than last week's formula so I sprayed the area and will return to check its progress.

Up at West Peak, I picked up litter and took in the view.

I then turned my attention to the West Peak parking lot, where I found someone had stuffed some litter in a grocery bag and hung it from a tree.

I combined it with my bag and left everything to be collected by the Parks Department, hopefully on Monday.

It was while cleaning up the parking lot that I found this note:

It was nice to see they took the time and effort to leave the note. I hope the Good Samaritan found it. Crisis averted!

I followed the road and trail from West Peak to Castle Craig, and down to the Halfway House, where I checked on the progress of my defoliation which I began last week.

Give it another couple weeks and the work should be fully evident.

Onward to the Green Trail, which was the main reason I brought industrial strength Agent Orange. I sprayed only one side of the trail because I was running low on fluid (spoiler alert: I will return next week!). Almost to the thick of things there, I discovered a tree fallen across the trail. I'll return for that next week, too.

I returned to the park via the Soap Box Derby track and dropped off my second bag of trash for the day.

If you missed participation in this weekend's National Trails Day, you could always make up for it with a hike next week. I promise; it will still count!