I Got A Lock On This

Visit #1199, Friday 28 June 19, 6:25PM, mileage n/a.

Visit #1200, Sunday 30 June 19, 7:10-9:35AM, 2.8 miles, 1.4lbs. of litter.
Temps in the low 70's, sunny and pleasant.

I rode my mountain bike through the trails of Hubbard Park on Friday for some fun, and to give myself an idea of what I wanted to accomplish on Sunday. Good thing I did so.

Back in February, I removed this fallen tree from the trail with the help of a hiker named Chris. Well, Hubbard Park's resident vandal put it back in the trail.

I removed it.

Further on up the trail, I found more of his vandalism.

While I didn't mention it in last week's post (because I thought it would be hard to photograph the before/after), I had trimmed this section of trail as the summer foliage growth was encroaching on the trail. Of course, I tossed my trimmings aside, only to find them back in the trail on Friday. Someone has to be pretty sick to do something like this.

Anyway, now I had a reason and an agenda made for me this weekend, because I wasn't going to take the time to clean this up on Friday. I got a lock on this.

So I returned early Sunday morning to pick up litter and otherwise conduct business.

I promised last week I'd show you the progress of the weed killer I sprayed on the Green Trail as an alternative to trimming. Here you can see it's kept the trail open just fine.

I hiked up past the Halfway House. Further on up the trail, I found a letterbox which for some reason, was not closed and consequently the contents were wet.

Fortunately, the creator of this letterbox left instructions on how to contact them if they found the letterbox in need of maintenance. I have duly contacted them.

When I reached the walkbridge over I-691, I discovered both flags which are normally tied to the fencing, are gone. Knowing the habits of the mysterious person who has placed and maintained these flags for a few years, I expect new flags to appear for the July 4th holiday.

Further on, I found this padlock hitched to the fencing. This is new, and I'll remove it next week.

I returned to the park and dropped off my litter for the week, while Mirror Lake was just waking up with activity.

That padlock above got me to thinking. I ride my bike down Paddock Avenue frequently, and across the overpass above the Wilbur Cross Parkway. But this week I noticed a lot of padlocks cinched to the fencing, just like that walkbridge in Hubbard Park. This is something new.

So I get the bright idea to take a bike ride with my boltcutters, still warm from use in Hubbard Park, and clean this up. I imagine Maloney High School must be missing a few...

As I'm cutting these down with my boltcutters, I wonder if anyone will call the police, thinking I'm cutting the fencing so I could jump off the bridge, or some other nefarious activity.

Well, that didn't take long.

I wasn't at it for more than a couple minutes when a Meriden Police cruiser pulled up and pulled over right in front of me but never stopped to question me. They merely rolled by, must have figured out I wasn't jumping, and merely left. I didn't even make the Meriden Police Department's on-line police blotter! 😢

Finished with my civic duty for the day, I gathered up the locks, brought them home and tossed them in the trash.

Happy July 4th. Hope you've got a lock on your holiday plans!