End of 2019 Tally

Merimere Reservoir tucks in for the winter under a blanket of ice, albeit a thin one.

Visit #1227, Sunday 29 December 19, 10:45AM-1:20PM, 4.8 miles, 15.4lbs. of litter.

Free from two consecutive weeks of on-call duty, I was able to wander farther on the trails of Hubbard Park.

That upside-down trail map I reported on last week-thanks to Chris Bourdon and the Meriden Parks Department, it was corrected. Almost.

While it's now right-side up, that "u r here" at the now, top of the map (gotta love that texting-speak!), denotes the location of Castle Craig and not the location of the map kiosk! I'll see if I can't add some correct labeling next week.

 Here's the plaque crediting the Boy Scout who created the project.

I headed up the trails, over I-691, and up the Blue Trail to West Peak. Warm weather in the last week cleared the trails of any ice or snow that might hamper progress. This coming week forecasts warmer temps and a couple days of rain. I expect any traces of snow or ice, including on Merimere Reservoir, will be gone by next weekend.

These buzzards were doing a little sunbathing.

I walked the road down from West Peak, and enroute discovered one of the telephone poles I had asked be placed in 2014 at a particular trail head to deter vehicles, had been rolled away. I found it a good distance down the road. I am formulating a plan to return it to its original location, but it's going to take some successful physics and muscle.

I've got to roll it UPHILL about a hundred feet. That ought to be fun...

The road down from West Peak was quiet.

I had almost forgot but due to my schedule in December I wasn't able to report on this earlier: Yearly, some people decorate this tree at Echo Point. As you can see, they planted a wreath as well. But they seem to have a different timetable than I do for removing the decorations, whether they plan to remove them at all. I give them until the end of January to retrieve their decorations or I go all Grinch on them.

Nearing the gate across the road, I came upon Season of the Missing Glove 2019, Entry #13.

I returned to the park with my litter for the week.

And now for the tally: I don't usually do this but since I bought a scale early in 2019 to weigh my trash collection, I was curious to see how much I gathered in 2019.

Well, I hiked a total of 205.4 miles in Hubbard Park for the year. That's not much considering I know some people have met goals of hiking 1000 miles in a year.

What I was surprised of was how much trash I collected in 2019-600.5lbs.!

Update: I also counted the number of times I needed the use of a chainsaw to clear fallen trees or branches from the trails: 23. I used a bow saw a few times, but most trail trimming was done with my loppers or  hedge clippers.

Since this is the last post of the year, I'll put out may annual offer; if you don't want to receive advanced notices of my blog entries, please let me know and I'll remove you from my distribution list. Otherwise you'll have to suffer for 2020, or you'll take great pleasure in sending me to your spam folder!